Firstly I'd like to express that I have purchased many NRS products through the years and I have always thought that whatever I bought was of the highest quality. With that said I'm writing to tell of my experience and concerns with the NRS Sea Kayak Paddle Float which I purchased through ACK.
I took the paddle float out last week to practice with it in calm waters and upon performing the evolution I noticed that a substantial amount of water had gotten into one of the air chambers , So much water as to weigh the float down considerably when trying to lift it from the water. This obviously defeats the purpose of a paddle float. Trying to get this water out was no easy or quick task in fact standing in my kitchen afterwards trying to get the last remaining ounces out was quite frustrating, there is a few ounces still in there that I cannot get out.
Fast forward - I contacted ACK about this and they arranged for a new one to be sent and for me to return the original. New one arrived and first thing i did was to bring it over to the sink to see if the new one would take on water, which unfortunately it did. Apparently this is the present design and to be quite honest not a very good one, in the instructions there is no mention of that, if one or both of the valves are in the open position that it is possible if not imminent that the float will take on water through the valves and that while stored and deployed valves should be in the closed position until ready to inflate. I think that at the very least this important piece of information should be added to the packaging/instructions. As for myself I will be returning the float to ACK as I find it a bit dangerous to use like this especially if I found myself capsized in a rough water scenario. In this day of our litigious society I would hope they look further into this issue and perhaps find a type of valve that works in a different manner.
