Kokopelli Platte Inflatable Kayak Review

The Kokopelli Platte Inflatable Kayak Review: Speedy, Lightweight, and One Big Catch!

Hey, it’s Emily from Oz Inflatable Kayaks! In this video, we’re taking a look at the Kokopelli Platte inflatable kayak.

I have to say, I was really quite impressed with this kayak. For a sit-on-top inflatable, it zooms along fairly quickly—partly because it’s quite narrow across the beam (we'll talk a bit more about that). It is very well-made, it's very easy to set up, it's very lightweight, and quite comfortable.

However, there is a big limitation on this kayak—it's not for everybody and we're going to talk about what that is, and whether that's right for you.

Robust Build Quality That Doesn't Weigh You Down

When I say light, like when you make a quality inflatable kayak, the thickness of the materials matter and the quality of the joints, and so you do end up adding weight. So the fact that they built something really robust for 10.8 kg is very impressive!

They’ve got handle, handle, handle, handle too! They’ve made it really practical, really easy—I found this really easy to get to and from the water, it was delightful.

The Major Restriction: Measure Your Bum First!

Let’s get straight to the major restriction on this for some people, which is going to be the width.

Now they've made it narrow so that it paddles really well, but of course you have to fit in it! You have to be comfortable. The side chambers are, you know, 2 PSI, so they are going to push back on you a bit.

• The Hip Measurement: My bum, side to side—if I sit down and I get a tape measure, I measure across, like not around but across—it is 40 cm. So I fit beautifully in this kayak.
• The Upper Limit: You've got a few centimeters of give, like I reckon you could go up to 45 cm maybe? But that's about it.

I cannot sit cross-legged (which may sound like an odd thing to say but I do like to sit cross-legged sometimes in a kayak). I can't do that, but I can be very comfortable for a fair whack of time. A lot of people will not be able to. Do not buy this kayak unless you measure yourself first!

Huge Legroom and Sit-On-Top Versatility

While it’s narrow, it is very long inside. I am about 5'5" (about 165 cm) tall, and I had the seat straps shortened right up to the front and I only just reached the foot brace. So you really could get this back a good foot and a half, you know, more than me (taller than I am) and still have quite a bit of room inside. You can also take the foot brace out if you're taking kids or dogs or whatever, that's fine.

This is an open style, sit-on-top kayak. A lot of people love sit-on-tops—they're easy to flop in and out of, you feel really open. You can get wet in sit-on-top kayaks depending on the conditions, but for some people that doesn't really matter that much.

In terms of versatility, it's very good. Like I said, this is good for kids, it's good for dogs, and it's good for fishing. But the rod holder is just this little fabric thing at the back. It's not a robust sort of rod holder—it's not a Railblaza or something of really good quality. You wouldn't have a line out and have it in there, but if you just need to stow your rod, you certainly can in it.

Surprising Speed and Dual-Fin Tracking

Now sit-on-tops typically don't go as fast or as straight as sit-in kayaks, but this one is pretty good and there's a couple of reasons why:

1. The High-Pressure Drop-Stitch Floor

The thing that I loved is it's got a removable drop-stitch floor in the bottom. Drop stitch is a chamber that is stitched top to bottom all the way through, so when you inflate it to high pressure—I think it's around 6 PSI—this floor maintains its shape and gives you really good rigidity. The bottom is very smooth and therefore sort of cruises along in the water.

2. The Two-Fin System

The other reason this one goes pretty well in the water is it's got two fins—it's got a big fin just at the back there, and it's got a small fin at the front here. So, you know, for a short sit-on-top kayak, the tracking is pretty good. You can see it's waggling a little bit; pretty well all sit-on-tops like this are going to waggle to some degree, but look at the speed. I am going quite fast in this kayak, and I was impressed with the speed.

(Unfortunately, as you can see on the day we were testing this, and every day I’ve taken it out since then, there’s been zero wind—so I can’t tell you the wind effect yet!)

Self-Bailing Scupper Holes

It's also got bung holes. So if you want to take it out in sort of rougher conditions and you know you're going to be getting water in, or you're bringing your dog who's going to bring water in, you can open up the holes and it becomes a self-bailing kayak.

Just bear in mind that water also comes back up through the holes—it equalizes on the water, if that makes sense. So if it's a cold day and the conditions are good, you can just leave it closed.

The Included Accessories: Paddle & Pump

Now, this kayak comes with a paddle and a pump. Normally, I am sort of skeptical of paddles that come with a kayak because they're always just rubbish, right? They've made it as cheap as possible. But this is actually a nice paddle!

The Paddle

It's got a fiberglass shaft, it's very lightweight, and while the blades are smallish, they are still good. It's about 225 cm in length (I like a little longer, I have to admit).

The limitation of this paddle is that for whatever reason, they haven't given you any Feathering. Feathering is when instead of your kayak blades being flat, one of them is sort of tilted. That's really important for technique so you're able to generate a lot more power and really good efficiency of stroke. If you actually use your whole body to paddle—and that means rotating through your torso—you really need your blades offset. I cannot paddle with flat blades, I hate it! So for me, it was like, "Ah, what's going on here?"

It doesn't mean it's worthless, though. It comes brand new with the kayak and it's good quality. You could try to drill a hole in the fiberglass where you want the feathering to be, or you could sell it and then buy yourself one that's got feathering options in it.

The Pump

It also comes with a pump, and this is a good quality pump. It's got a good quality gauge on it, it's got inflate and deflate, and it's got single and double action. I've had experience with these pumps before, they're good quality.

However, it's a Nano Barrel—it's a very small barrel. You can't really tell by the picture here, but you can tell by the setup video that I am using an Ozito to get most of the air in (that's just an inflator). I wouldn't buy this kayak without also buying either an electric pump or some kind of inflator. If you try to set this up with the Nano Barrel pump only, you're going to be here for a lot longer than 7.5 minutes, just because every time you pump, there's just not that much air coming in since the chamber is not that big.

But 7 and a half minutes—with an inflator—that's a pretty quick setup, and it's very simple too. The only sort of thing you've got to be aware of is there are two fins to click in, so you want to keep sand and debris out of those fin boxes.

Super Fast Pack-Away (No Folding Drama!)

The seat was quite good. It doesn't have the sort of lift or the padding that I'm used to in the AdvancedFrame Advanced Elements kayaks, but the grid was nice, the shape was good, and it was very cool because it lets the breeze go through a bit. The back was quite supportive; I was happy with that. I went out for like a couple of hours one day and was okay after a couple of hours, which is a good sign.

But the packaway is an absolute breeze because, like I said, you can wipe it all down. The beauty of the removable drop-stitch floor element means that any water that's gotten in underneath, you can just pull out and wipe the whole thing down. There's very little fabric on this whole kayak—basically the seat and the seat straps is it—so it's really quick and easy to wipe down and put away.

And the beauty is that the mesh bag it comes with is huge. So you don't need to be amazing with your folding; you literally just fold it anyway and shove it in! It breathes because it's mesh, so if your seat's not completely dry, you can sort of put it on top and let it breathe. It has nice long straps and is pretty easy to pick up—I was really happy with the bag.

Final Verdict

So overall, I was really impressed with the Kokopelli Platte. I thought it paddled really nicely, it's quick and easy to set up, and it's really light. Like when I picked it up, I went, "Whoa, that is a light kayak!" It's robustly made... just make sure you measure your bum before you buy it. Seriously!

If you have any questions about the Kokopelli Platte inflatable kayak, please get in touch. This is Emily at Oz Inflatable Kayaks!