Aruba 12 SS

GREAT BUDGET KAYAK

Picked up 2 of these for my wife and myself a little over a year ago. They arrived in a timely manner and securely wrapped up in a thick plastic. As others have said there are small plastic chips in the storage compartments from where they shaved things down, but between scooping most of them out and your kayaks first few cleanings those plastic shavings should be gone. The only defect was on one of the kayaks part of the paddle holder was broken off making it unusable. But that wasn't a big deal for me.

Taking these out on the water was a breeze. Weighing only 40 Lbs each they can easily be carried with the straps by 2 people, or if the walk from your car to the dock isn't too far they can easily be hooked over a shoulder using the knee pads on the side to soften the load on your shoulder. I will say these are flatwater kayaks for sure. The design of the hull, instead of having a rounded or v shaped bit going into the water its rounded up into the kayak making air pockets between the kayak and the water, while this does provide nice stability in flatwater it makes the tracking worse and makes taking on rougher waters more difficult and dangerous.

If you're looking to get into kayaking but don't want to spend a lot of money because you're nervous it will be a waste, I recommend this kayak. For $400 you get a 12ft kayak with a padded seat, knee pads, adjustable foot pegs, 2 storage areas, 1 of which is not 100% watertight but could be easily modded to be so, and the other can be removed and towed behind you to allow more storage onboard. But on top of all that you surprisingly get a lot of durability. The somewhat thin, bendable, polyurethane plastic used to make these had me nervous of the longevity of this product, and this time last year my worst fear came to fruition. My roof rack (which was super cheap) snapped off my car in a windstorm (which I shouldn't have taken the yaks through) I looked in my rearview to see both kayaks still strapped in their J racks bouncing and sliding on the highway onramp. 70 miles from the nearest town so I just strapped them directly to my roof and got to a uhaul to get them back safe. I thought for sure these kayaks were done for. But to my surprise not a single crack and only a few minor scratches. They have been back out on the water many times since and perform just as well as they used to.

Can't say it enough for $400 you get an easily mod-able simple and reliable kayak. If you want to get into kayaking on a budget look no further

Bought 1 so it would be easier to bring our 75lbs dog along. I added some rubber on the bow for better traction. It works very well and rides nicely in the water. The only bad thing is there are no seat drains, so you end up sitting in a puddle.

I was surprised how good it road in water and how stable it was, moves very easy threw water, the seat is not very supportive on my back but I am working on that, over all nice for the price,

Excellent ride! Lots and lots of storage space for long trips. Bigger, longer, and very stable. Seat not the most comfortible but I'm working with it. A bit heavier than smaller models but easy to load and unload, etc....
Great ride!