This is the Oru Bay ST Kayak, it’s a clever folding kayak that can be quickly packed down into a box measuring in at just 33″ x 14″ x 29″ weighing 26 lbs for easy transport and storage.
The design of Oru’s kayaks draws its inspiration from Greenland kayaks and Japanese origami. Each is made from 5mm double-layered, custom-extruded polypropylene with a 10-year UV treatment which is both puncture and abrasion resistant.
Above Video: This is the official production walkthrough of the Oru Bay ST Kayak. It shows the fold out and assembly phase as well as the fold down and pack away phase.
Oru first got its start back in 2012 thanks to a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign that saw the company’s first folding kayak design go viral and achieve well over their original funding goal. Portability has been an issue that has stopped many from getting into kayaking over the years, and Oru’s design completely solves it.
Oru started out based in San Francisco, they’re since moved to Emeryville across the bay where they now share a block with Pixar, a small batch coffee roaster, and a vintage race car shop.
The company has now shipped over 100,000 of their folding kayaks to customers across the United States and around the world, and they have 11 models in production to suit everyone from placid lake paddlers to open ocean endurance kayakers.
The Oru Bay ST Kayak
The Oru Bay ST Kayak is listed as the company’s most versatile design, able to handle everything from casual river and lake trips as well as venturing out into the surf. It has a fast, agile design that works well for both intermediate and expert level paddlers, and the closed cockpit keeps out waves and sea spray.
The origami-inspired design means the Bay ST Kayak can be quickly folded down into a box that will fit neatly in your trunk or backseat until you next need it. When unfolded and ready to the water the kayak measures in at 12’3″ long, 25″ wide, with a cockpit size of 16″ x 30″. The maximum paddler height is 6’3″ with a maximum weight capacity of 300 lbs.
These keyed designs from Oru make it possible for urban apartment dwellers to buy and store their own kayaks for the first time, opening up their city’s waterways for exploration and adventure.
The assembly and disassembly process takes about 10 minutes once you’ve done it a few times. Each kayak is backed by Oru’s 3 year warranty, and the MSRP is $1,499 USD, with free U.S. shipping.
Images courtesy of Oru Kayaks
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Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
