Kayaks are great, as they can give you hundreds of hours of fun in the water. Problem is, they’re not easy to transport, they’re a pain to store at home, and they require quite a fair bit of maintenance. That’s why, for a lot of people, an inflatable raft just makes a lot more sense. The Kokopelli XPD Packraft offers one of the better ones we’ve seen.
Designed as an extremely portable watercraft, the boat can pack down to a small bundle (22 x 18 x 8 inches) that can literally fit inside a backpack, tuck into a corner of your car boot, or carried by hand, making it even more convenient than those packable kayaks to bring along any time you’re hitting the water. At that size, it becomes convenient to store, too, as you can keep it permanently in the car (so you can have a boat any time you want), place it on a shelf in the garage, or just stack it on a table somewhere.
The Kokopelli XPD Packraft is a single-passenger packraft that can inflate in under three minutes using the included pump, making it incredibly easy to set up, allowing you to hit the water shortly after you arrive. Designed for durable function, the sidewalls and floors are made with 1000-denier reinforced PVC, the same material traditionally used on large commercial rafts, ensuring there’s minimal chance of taking damage even when you brush into rocks, hit reefs, or end up fighting sea monsters because your life is full of adventure.
At 13 pounds, taking it in and out of the water is incredibly easy, allowing you to even drag it behind you while swimming, in case it encounters any trouble in the water (such as when you accidentally slice it with the tip of your fishing spear). Six D-rings all around the edges give you multiple tie-down points, whether you want to secure cargo or keep the boat in place while you look for your iPhone that you accidentally dropped in the lake. Yeah, you’re clumsy that way.
The Kokopelli XPD Packraft has a floor sized to fit a single adult passenger, although it does make enough room to accommodate gear, which you can use to ride with your kid or a pet, if you prefer that to going in the water all by yourself. Don’t even try fitting two adults in, though, the room is just too limited for it, although it does have a maximum capacity of 300 pounds, so you can load a good amount of gear onboard. An optional Tizip Zipper gives you a water-tight zippered pocket in one end of the packraft, which you can use to store gear you don’t want to get wet. Truth be told, we’d rather keep gear where it can be easily retrieved (on the floor or tied to the D-rings), but those who prefer this do have that option.
A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for the Kokopelli XPD Packraft. You can reserve a unit for pledges starting at $649.