Profile

I've owned the AdvancedFrame Expedition going on three years now and it has proven to be a good fit for what I bought it for. I use it primarily on calm to slightly choppy lakes and often on vacation trips outside of my immediate area. When traveling within driving distance the inflatable provides me with the flexibility of being able to toss it in the back of my vehicle as opposed to having to transport a unit on my vehicle's roof. Where in the past I had to decide between renting a kayak for a week or picking a day or two and hoping for the best in terms of availability, weather and scheduling I now have the luxury of anytime availability at my convenience. With three years of use in the unit has paid for itself at this point and despite going over rocks in shallow conditions on more than one occasion the unit more or less still looks like new.

I've found the AdvancedFrame to be among the most stable of kayak's that I've used. When purchasing the unit I opted for the drop-stitch floor add-on as a part of a packaged upgrade deal and the unit arrived with both the standard floor and the upgrade. I've never used the standard floor and so my experience is based upon drop-stich floor use. With the drop-stich floor I've found the Expedition's tracking to be very good.

I went with the Expedition over the AE1012 primarily due to my being a bigger guy and I find the unit to be quite comfortable. The build quality of the Expedition is more similar to what you would expect in a whitewater rafting unit than what you may typically think of when you hear "inflatable" – the unit is capable of standing up to abuse. Quite often when I get up closer to others out on a paddle I'll get a double take and I'm asked if the Expedition is an inflatable and compliments soon follow. In many cases I've been very close to folks and they still have asked if it was inflatable and they are a bit surprised when I confirm that it is.

The unit is a bit short on storage due to the chambers taking up quite a bit of the interior space not allocated for your person. If I were going to use it for more than a long day I'd pick up a deck bag. Assembly goes pretty quickly and like anything else the more frequently you do it the better you get at it and the quicker it goes. When it comes to storing it do yourself a favor and allow it to dry out prior to socking it away. More often than not for me this means taking it out of its duffle upon returning home, laying it put open out in the sun or in my basement prior to folding it up for longer term storage.

All things considered (function, flexibility, durability and price) I'm quite happy with the unit. I recommend that anyone who finds themselves looking for a "portable" kayak to put the AdvancedFrame at their top of the list for consideration.

I bought the AdvancedFrame DS for my wife three years back and it has proven to be a good fit for what we wanted it for. It is used primarily on calm to slightly choppy lakes and often on vacation trips outside of our immediate area. When traveling within driving distance the inflatable provides us with the flexibility of being able to toss it in the back of our vehicle as opposed to having to transport a unit on our vehicle's roof. Where in the past we had to decide between renting a kayak for a week or picking a day or two and hoping for the best in terms of availability, weather and scheduling we now have the luxury of anytime availability at our convenience. With three years of use in the unit has paid for itself at this point and despite going over rocks in shallow conditions on more than one occasion the unit more or less still looks like new.

My wife has found the AdvancedFrame DS to be among the most stable of kayak's that she has used. When purchasing the unit I opted for an AdvancedFrame DS which included a drop-stitch floor add-on as a part of a packaged upgrade deal. In addition to the drop-stitch floor the option included a fabric upgrade to a very attractive blue color which she liked. With the drop-stich floor she has found the AdvancedFrame's tracking to be very good. The build quality of the AdvancedFrame is more similar to what you would expect in a whitewater rafting unit than what you may typically think of when you hear "inflatable" – the unit is capable of standing up to abuse. Quite often when we get up closer to others out on a paddle we will get a double take and be asked if the unit is an inflatable and compliments soon follow. In many cases we've been very close to folks and they still have asked if it is an inflatable and they are a bit surprised when it is confirmed that it is.

The unit is a bit short on storage due to the chambers taking up quite a bit of the interior space not allocated for your person. If it were to be used for more than a long day trip I'd pick up a deck bag. Assembly goes pretty quickly and like anything else the more frequently you do it the better you get at it and the quicker it goes. When it comes to storing it do yourself a favor and allow it to dry out prior to socking it away. More often than not this means taking it out of its duffle upon returning home, laying it put open out in the sun or in my basement prior to folding it up for longer term storage.

All things considered (function, flexibility, durability and price) we are quite happy with the unit. I recommend that anyone who finds themselves looking for a "portable" kayak to put the AdvancedFrame at their top of the list for consideration.