New kit we like: Kayaking straight out of the box

Origami meets kayaks, and we like what we see. A 12 foot long kayak that folds into its own box, measuring in at just 33″x29″x10″. Made by Californian-based start-up Oru, it has just been named product of the year at ISPO, a trade show in Munich.

Founder Anton Willis, an architect and product designer, describes the design as based in both necessity and unexpected inspiration. “When I moved into a tiny apartment in San Francisco and had to put my kayak in storage, it got me thinking….what if you could make a boat out of origami? What if you could take a boat with you everywhere you wanted to go?” Created and prototyped in a California garage, the Oru Kayak launched successfully on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter in November 2012.

It’s made from a single, seamless sheet of double-layered, recyclable plastic, and the patented pattern of folds transforms it into a sea-worthy vessel weighing in just shy of 12kg.

The question is, does it do the job? Well sadly team OAG haven’t been able to get their hands on one yet, but the early signs are good: it’s been winning awards and accolades both sides of the Atlantic, with testers saying it performs just as well as a normal kayak.

But it’s the options that it opens up that’s got us really excited: no storage worries, no transport worries – you can hike it to far flung bays or lakes you can’t get to by car. This could be the kayak of the future…

Available at Oru Kayak from $1075 USD

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