A couple of reviewers have mentioned this PU shell is easily holed when scraping. You may get by without the skeg on the AirFusion as the V-floor also includes shallow strakes (inch-high keel strips) which will aid tracking while not getting in the way when on land or in shallows. They must be out there of cough up 80 sovs for the AE one. I looked briefly on eBay but couldn’t see a similar but cheaper pivoting skeg direct from China. But I’ve often thought of adding something like this skeg to my own IKs to eliminate scraping in shallow water, or especially when beaching a loaded boat which needs to be rested on a rock your mate’s boat (above right) if the under-skeg is not be be stressed. I tried a similar MYO rudder set up but ended up a lot of unavoidable but annoying ancillary rigging. This is not your usual slot-in sharks-fin under the boat, but a rudder-like pivoting blade (below left) which can be lifted and dropped as needed on a loop cord.
The integrated rear plastic moulding can take a skeg which is optional (or ‘free’ from some outlets). (Dropping the pressure a bit can improve things at the cost of outright performance.) Certainly online reviews don’t mention the AirFusion’s tippiness as much as the X500 which runs 10psi. You’d think the AirFusion might be the same, but without an inflatable floor you sit a few inches lower (as in a hardshell kayak) which greatly aids stability. That means it should also be fast, but the X500 is known to be tippy (it’s worse for larger paddlers). But that is what most people want in an IK.Īt 24 inches wide this is also one of the narrowest IKs around, similar to Itiwit’s 25-inch X500. Because of the lack of an inflatable floor, the capacity is a modest 106kg (235lbs) and, as the air bag thwarts take up interior space, like the all-DS AirVolution, this ends more of a day boat than an overnight camping tourer. Numbers are a very light 14.5kg/32lbs 4m long x 61cm wide (13′ x 24″). They can be easily removed (or even just part-deflated inside and separated from the shell) for a deep dry and clean. As with the bow and stern ribs, the DS panels are fixed with velcro but are pre-positioned out of the box. That makes it a sort of ‘shell & bladder’ IK with the drying issues that entails made a little harder by the fixed deck. The AE1042 is all wrapped in a PU shell – yes, you read that right it’s not cheaper, stiffer and possibly heavier PVC. And the EVO’s seat’s backrest has been made taller for better support. The coaming (deck rim) is inflatable too, as is the seat base. As you can see, they’re as sharp as a hardshell sea kayak. There are additional small airbags at the bow and stern to firm up the wave-cutting plastic mouldings there.
#Advanced elements kayak skin#
The new EVO retains the low-pressure thwarts (air bags, below left) which help push the deck rod up so water runs off, push the sides and the floor rod out to make the skin taught, and up front, give something for your feet to push against (assuming the span is correct for you there’s some adjustment in the seat). Such boats, like the Gumotex Rush, or Aquaglide Chelan are rigid but, with round side tubes, end up wider and so, more stable. The AirFusion EVO is the opposite of most ‘hybrid (part dropstitch) IKs which combine DS floors with round tube sides. This rod gives the AirFusion a V-shaped hull (above) a bit like the inflatable AirBone keel on some FDS Kzone IKs, and also adds tension between the bow and stern which the dropstitch sides can’t do alone. On some older, low-psi AE’s these ‘backbones’ are optional, but on the AirFusion it’s part of the design. Both methods keep the boat slim, and bow and stern alloy ‘C’ ribs are tensioned by a long slot-in keel rod, like a thick tent pole.
The EVO version (above) looks similar, but replaced the four bladders with a pair of PVC dropstitch panels running a much higher 6psi (0.41bar), but the shell is now much more supple PU. Like a folding kayak there is no inflatable floor. It replaced AE’s AirFusion Elite (right) which used two low-pressure side bladders (four in total) stacked one over the other, and an alloy keel rod along a plain, single-skin PVC shell.
Advanced Elements’ hybrid AirFusion EVO (AE1042) is a good looking PU-skinned IK that slipped under my radar for a year or two.
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