All around half slice boat. Amazing for going down the river. Incredible for surfing. Playful if you want it.
Story
Playtypus Kayak – from kayakers for kayakers.
We have all seen a revolution of performance boats. However part of our team comes from a kayak club with a long tradition of expedition where performance never was the priority. It was utility, comfort, and accessibility. Our goal is a category of “All-Mountain” as we laugh.
We want to make boats that will not be the fastest, the most playful, or the most revolutionary. We want them to be easy, accessible and fun.
Playtypus – half slice
We are starting with a segment of boats that feel closest to our mission – boats that you can take down even challenging rivers but at the same time have fun in them whenever you like to enjoy your favorite easy home run. We think that bringing playfull to run of class II or III can often bring more joy than challenging yourself out for class IV or V. Now we want this boat to be able to do both, depending on how you feel and unlock your potential!
Playtypus – Medium
Length – 260 cm
Width – 65cm
Height – 46 cm
Volume – 256L
Recommended paddler weight on scale safe – playful – 55 – 95kg
Hybrid hull “Rocker Camber” of kayaking.
Our profile of the hull keeps the rocker of the front that will help you skip over features while our tail straightening down will help to keep sitting at the tail and secure easy control of turns.
As we simply love surfing – making it fun was one of our number ones. Thanks to the displacement hull in the back but flat hull in the middle you will be able to enjoy surfs and carving on your favorite places at easy!
Forgiving edges and easy direction tracking?
Friendly edges will allow smooth turns while front keel will help to maintain straight direction when wished. A middle-class length for that boat will provide enough speed for quick acceleration but not make it too long as it is not the race boat but something we want to be able to play with!
Well-known and tested outfitting
We choose utility and comfort but we remember about durability. These boats we hope to see on the rivers for many years to come and to keep it possible they will have simple but durable outfitting with solutions that will will require minimum parts. It will have the same outfitting we are using for Jackson Kayak boats made in Poland.
Club and Comfort
Boats will be available in club version with simple foam solutions for knee, seat and backband padding along with easy-to-adjust solid plate footrest. These are the ones we are offering as first boats. Later on we will develop it with comfort version where padding is branded have additional protection and a comfort layer covering it and footrest is on shock system.
Strong and Light version!
You paddle low-volume rivers or well, need a boat for your club? Need additional strength in it, as it may experience many things? No problem, we can make a stronger version on request. At the same time if you want to race or do a lot of portaging with our boats we can create a performance boat which will match what you like the most!
Seat regulation and hip pads
Seat will have 5 steps of regulation along with side screws to make sure it stays in place. Thanks to our original hip pads you will be able to make them as thick as you want and put them in your favourite spot.
Where is it even going to be made?
We produce our boats in Poland in Myślenice, just 30 km from Cracow. They will be available for testing there at Cracowcourse or on the trips with Love it Live it upon request. We will also attend multiple events and festivals so keep your eyes open!
Where we are with the project?
In fact, we have been working on it for over two years now! We spent over a year making a project figuring out what we like among other boats and what we would like our boat to actually do. At the same time, we have taken up making ofJackson Kayak Europe boat and after all the tests we are beginning production with high-quality models that you know from the USA. Thanks to that experience our molding experience has rocketed and once we get our mold we know we will be able to quickly push it out to final shape. Having said that we also have made our outfitting universal to fit both boats.
Here you can see few of development stages as we been working through along it leading up to glass version and 3d models.
First we have developed the cad model, then we made the cnc boat to prepare a glass boat
Then we used it for female mold and created the glass version of it!
and we took it paddling! It was amazing all around kayak with great first and second stability. Easy to turn and incredible for surfing. On top of that tailing it was pure fun!
We thought it is going to be middle way but we were super happy with test result. The only thing we have changed is the height of the top part of the boat which we seen as cosmetic for better looks and created a 3d print to make sure everything is in place
What’s next?
Obviously, that is just a first boat and only medium size! Size S and L people will have to wait a little bit for our next variations! To whichever size we get more requests – we will develop it next!
We hope to get them ready for the season of 2025. We plan our next boat to be a river runner and then… we will see what our paddlers seek the most!
Upon successful delivery of Playtypus, we plan to deliver small and large versions too.
For the small version, we are planning to decrease the volume of the tail for testing. If the tests go through the boat will be developed shortly after Playtypus
Risks and challenges
We recognise how big and complicated process it is. That’s why we have gained the knowledge and tools in the first place along with testing the boat. However the mold still needs to be made and we won’t have it until then start of 2025. There has been so much work done on this project already by people voluntarily that it is difficult even to mention. However, we hope that by raising the funds we will be able to actually pay for them to do it on extra evenings or weekends to get everything in time. Then the mold itself is huge cost and developing it once it arrives. We hope to get it adapted to our oven quickly and as soon as we have it – ship the first boats out! However by this time we will have all our shipping in place based on other boats we are producing. The difficult part may be if the project gets very popular in US and shipping become a challenge as shipping costs will be big but we have plans for that part as well!