KXOne Slider

This is a great kayak with some limitations in the accessories – The KXone Slider 350 is a full dropstitch inflatable kayak. “Dropstitch” is a method of construction in which sides of the inflatable chambers that make up the kayak are joined internally by thousands of threads that support the sides of the chamber when it is inflated. This means that instead of the chambers having a circular cross-section they have a rectangular cross-section. The support of the threads also means the chambers can be inflated to a higher pressure than a standard inflatable kayak.

The kayak is constructed in a similar manner to several other dropstitch kayak models, with a flat-bottom dropstitch deck, dropstitch sides attached to either side of the deck, and moulded plastic bow and stern pieces to give a good water entry and exit shape. The floor is narrower that the overall hull to create chines down the sides of the hull.

I bought an inflatable kayak primarily because I choose not to own a car, so a hard-shell kayak is impossible for me to get around. As I take the kayak on buses my essential criteria was that the kayak is a manageable weight. The bare hull of the Slider 350 weighs just over 14 kilograms (it was supposed to be just under 13 kilograms, but I’ve found that manufacturers commonly understate the weight of inflatable kayaks). With all the essentials packed up in the wheeled trolley bag/back pack that comes with the kayak it comes in at about 21 kilograms. With my PFD, towel, change of clothes, water bottle, and lunch it goes up to about 25 kilograms, which is about as much as I’d want to transport around on buses and by foot.

While paddling performance can’t be my primary criteria, I wanted my inflatable kayak to have as good a paddling performance as possible. This is why I chose a kayak with full-dropstitch construction, which allows a fairly narrow and streamlined form for better speed through the water. I find the kayak goes through the water quite well – I can hold a steady 6.5 to 7 kph long-term with a comfortable level of effort. This is a bit less that I achieve in the hard-shell sit-in kayaks that I’ve paddled, and better than the sit-on-top kayaks that I’ve paddled.

I’m very pleased with the construction of the kayak – it’s neatly put together and the materials seem strong.

An advantage of the dropstitch construction is that it reduces the quantity of air required to inflate the kayak compared to models with round air tubes, so it’s quicker to inflate. From dropping the closed bag on the ground to having the kayak unpacked and inflated takes me about five minutes. Setting it up with the seat and paddle and packing everything into it takes another ten minutes, so fifteen minutes until I’m underway. Deflation and packing up is fine. As with any inflatable kayak it’s critical to deflate it using the pump. Once the air is out it is easy to fold up, and it fits back in the bag with no trouble. The compression strap for the kayak is attached to the inside of the bag, which is not an effective idea. I’ve made up a separate compression strap so I can compress the kayak before putting it into the bag.

I bought this kayak without the opportunity to try it out on the water, which is how it is for nearly all kayak purchases. (At least I got to see it in the shop before buying it, unlike online purchases.) My concern with buying this kayak without trying it was that I couldn’t test its manoeuvrability and handling in windy conditions before committing to it. This concerned me because I have previously bought (and returned) a Baysports Airglide 410 online and unseen. The Airglide was awful to paddle in windy conditions, with the bow constantly turning away from the wind, requiring a lot of paddling on one side only in order to hold a course just off the wind. Returning it to Baysports was a huge hassle, so this made me wary of buying another kayak without trying it first. (The Baysports kayak was also MUCH heavier that it was propmoted to be; but that‘s another story.)

When I first paddled the Slider 350 I was greatly relieved to find the wind had little effect on its ability to hold a course, and it has excellent manoeuvrability, responding well to sweep strokes and J-strokes. I’ve only had it out in winds up to about twenty kph, and not in much chop yet, so I‘m still proving this ability, but so far so good.

The kayak comes with a fixed skeg/fin, which I don’t like and don’t use. The kayak manoeuvres well and paddles on a heading well without it – I never need to paddle consecutive strokes on the same side to hold a heading.

I’ve tried paddling the kayak with the skeg in place and it destroys the manoeuvrability of the kayak. The skeg makes the kayak track, but way too strongly, so it becomes difficult to even correct your course. There’s a blanking plate to go in the skeg slot when the skeg isn’t in use, so even the manufacturer doesn’t consider the skeg to be essential. I may try a cut-down version of the skeg later to see how it feels.

When I first got into the kayak it felt a little unstable; I‘m not stability obsessed, so this didn’t worry me. However, I soon found that while the primary stability was low, the secondary stability is strong. I don’t like too much primary stability anyway, as you can’t edge the kayak, and the secondary stability is so good that I can swing my legs over the side and sit on the side of the kayak. This also makes deep-water re-retry easy – I can easily clamber in over the side with very little water coming in.

While I’m generally very happy with my kayak, I’m disappointed with the accessories.

The seat is the biggest letdown, as it’s such an important part of the kayaking experience and is inadequate. I’ve seen the same seat on other kayaks as original equipment, and it is sold separately as a “luxury” or “deluxe” seat; but I find that it has great limitations, and is not very comfortable.

The seat’s most serious fault is the arrangement of the attachments, which don’t hold the seat in a precise location in the kayak so the squab of the seat moves towards the stern whenever it gets a chance. This usually happens while I’m climbing into the kayak and dropping into the seat. Once I’m sitting in the seat its location becomes fixed by having my weight on it, but by then it’s usually in the wrong place and twisted to one side.

The other serious fault is that there is no lateral hip bracing built into the seat. This means that if I edge the kayak, or even just roll in a cross swell, I tend to slide to one side, which throws the balance off even more. Due to the kayak’s good secondary stability this hasn’t caused me to capsize yet, but it’s not a good feeling.

The seat also lacks stiffness, and so gives me insufficient support to push against when paddling, which reduces my paddling efficiency.

The paddle is just okay – I can feel resistance as I pull it out of the water at the end of the stroke, which I believe is due to too much curve along the blades. The pins that hold the sections together started rusting after the first paddle even though I rinse them after each use.

The footrest is completely dysfunctional – it’s nothing more than a floppy strap with some padding, which is poorly positioned. I’m looking out for something effective to replace that with.

The carry bag is effective; it has wheels and works well as a trolley bag, and has backpack straps that would be okay for a short distance if there was nowhere to wheel it. There’s plenty of room for everything in it, and it has some nice external mesh pockets for damp things to go in after the paddle. The bag’s only downside is that one of the seams has opened up. The bag is being replaced on warranty, which is fine as long as the new one doesn’t do it too.

Overall, I’m very happy with the KXone Slider 350 kayak; I’ve had a great time paddling around in it, and it gets the most important things right. It looks like I’ve got a bit to spend on it yet before I’ve got it sorted out as I want it, but I think that’s a common situation.

Reasonably Happy but a Few Issues – I have had my 485 for about 18 months. We switched to an inflatable because I was finding a sea kayak uncomfortable to sit in for long periods and it was more difficult to lift the sea kayaks on top of our camper van. It's a very comfortable boat on rivers and coastal lakes although its a bit difficult to handle if the wind gets up. Plenty of room for gear on overnight paddles. A couple of faults I have noticed: The carry bag the boat comes is crap, its quite difficult to get the boat back in, the bottom section of the bag collapses when to push the boat in. If the designers / manufacturer had tried to put the boat back in the bag they would have come up with something better. I have noticed that the PVC fabric is deterioration at the fold points and I suspect thet durability of the craft may not be that great.