I'm fat, I max out a Trib 1. With my weight, I have paddled them safely on class III to III+ with no issue. I didn't have a low floor or unwanted flexing. They are pretty solid boats. No experience with the Sea Eagle.

 

I have a few friends who paddle SeaEagle Explorers for touring on class I rivers and on lakes. They like them and they seem to paddle nice with the skeg. I've never seen a Sea Eagle on whitewater.

 

no experience with the sea eagle, but I like drop stitch floors over ibeam floors, just because they are stiffer and you don't get any bend in big water. plus it's fun to stand up and do back flips off of them and stuff.

 

https://youtu.be/CU29rK8rAdg

heres a short vid of a broach onto a rock in my dropstitch floor kayak . I was able to work it off the rock because the floor stayed stiff. With a regular air floor I would have had to swim out as it would have definitely wrapped around and flipped me out.

 

Don't know this model, but in general drop stitched floors can be run at higher pressures. The downside is that they weigh more.

 

the floor on this IK weighs much less than an air floor.

 

maybe a little more than an ibeam floor, but yes, probably weighs less than a floor in an Aire IK. just because of all that a floor in an Aire IK consists of.. lots more material in those floors. I do love my dropstitch floors though. whole boat weighs like 29lbs. not a lot to complain about there. especially with a capacity of 400lbs.

 

I weigh around 205-208 lbs with gear and have zero issues with floatation but I think the advertised 400 lbs load is a bit of a stretch, especially considering the tubes are only around 10"s at max inflation. What do you think?

 

it might be just a bit of a stretch. just screwing around I've had my teenage daughter sitting behind me. we do ride quite low. I wouldn't want to run anything slightly technical with that much weight. but it does float.

on the salmon river this last summer, I had a small soft cooler up front, and one of aire's kayak cargo bags in the back that carried my clothes, sleeping bag and personal belongings in it, so I had a good amount of cargo for a solo IK. it handled very well. but throwing an additional 200lbs in there would be horrible.

 

Do you have any pics or vid clips of the Salmon trip in the IK? Would love to see them.

 

Can somebody explain what a drop stitch floor is as opposed to another type?

I have 2 NRS MaverIKs and frankly don't know what type they are other than self-baling.

 

Drop stitch has a whole lot of strands connecting the top to the bottom of the floor. This allows it to have more of a flat surface.

Your MaverIK has a I-Beam floor. This is where sections of the main floor material are bound together to create beams for the air. This creats a wavy floor surface.

 

I have a SE 380 explorer. The drop stitch makes for a very stable boat...as in I often stand and flycast in moving water (the same with NRS Pikes- the only two IK's I've paddled w/dropstitch). The flat bottom also means they don't track the greatest without a skeg.

It also makes for an awesome gear hauler (for the SE anyway)...I can pack me, my girlfriend and campgear for a few days in one.

I often run class 3 in it...the drop stitch makes it handle much like a raft, still very stable, but the flat floor can make them a little sticky in holes (which can be fun to surf with!) or you will occaissionally get typewritered. It's not the best whitewater craft but I have total confidence in the boat and can make it do what I need it to do and I'll usually run whitewater without the skeg on. It is a great fishing or camping IK.

The "regular" floor you are speaking of (basically the one big bladder in the shape of a cat tube kinda) makes for a more nimble boat, easier to "carve" and use your hips to shift weight and get on edge...but this also means less stability. I won't be flyfishing standing on one. They do track better than a dropstitch IK does. But because of this they are also pushier in a way when perpendicular to stream flow as the tube "bulge" along the bottom creates a skeg of sorts and catches current.

Sometimes you'll find the current just kind of slips on under the IK with a dropstitch floor (which helps seeting up drifts for fishing). If you find the right currents you can even kind of surf in place with no real discernable/surfable features that one would normally recognize as such.

Bottom line the dropstich is great for gear and stability (therefore fishing and camping) and I find it more comfortable. The bladder floors provide a sportier, straighter tracking ride. I keep telling myself I'll get a more "sportier" for just purely whitewater/fun runs, but I have more use for fishing/camping IKs....even when I do buy one for myself, I'll never give up the SE.

 

re dropstitch and regular floor

Wouldn't know about the tracking issues but wrt performance I feel the dropstitch floor is much better in rapids and probably also for surfing. I have not paddled a reg floor IK since 2012, but thats my impression with the dropstitched boat I have now.