Hey this is Emily at Oz Inflatable Kayaks
and in this video I'm going to show you how to deflate and clean your kayak.
The tools you need to do this is a
bucket with some fresh water and a washcloth if you've been paddling in
salt water and an old towel. That's it.
So the first thing we do basically is undo
the valves so we set all of the valves to the deflate position and then we just
wait for a bit.
Most of the pumps we sell have a
deflate option if you want to speed it up but I never have used the deflate on the pump
I find that it deflates very quickly under its own weight.
Now the next step is to pull the floor out.
If you've been kayaking and you
haven't got any water inside the kayak at all, you probably don't need to pull
the floor out but I go kayaking with my kids and they're young and they go
swimming and they bring it all back in along with a ton of sand and whatnot so
I usually just pull the floor out straight away.
Now if I need to clean the
floor because this is PVC tarpaulin on the top, you can just hose it off.
It doesn't absorb water.
It's a waterproof material.
So you can give it a hose.
If you need to get it dry quickly, you just towel the water.
It comes straight off.
Next thing I do is have a look at my inner tubes.
So, I've got a washcloth here.
If I've been paddling in salt water, I'd like to try and just get some of that
salt out of the inner tube covers.
The inner tube covers are fabric.
So we don't really want salt in there if we can help it.
So you just push and it will absorb
most of that salt out.
I used to use a hose many years ago but it doesn't work too well.
It gets a lot of water into the kayak and the kayak gets very wet.
It takes longer to dry.
So I found now that a washcloth with some fresh water
is the quickest way to get that salt out and then let the kayak dry.
Now in terms of the deck.
The deck is also a fabric.
It's a rip-stop polyester.
So same thing,
if you've gotten salt water on there,
you can use a washcloth to get some of that salt out.
If you've got fresh water you just leave it to dry unless
you have to mud or something on it, I would just be leaving it as is.
So inside the kayak you really just have the hull to deal with.
The hull is PVC tarpaulin
which basically means you just use a towel.
It absorbs water and it cleans really well.
You can lift up the inner tubes to get under there
If it's quite dry inside you can even use a dustpan if you just want to get some sand out.
So the first thing you want to do is fold the kayak lengthwise in half and the
weight of the hull actually helps get that last bit of air out.
Now the hull is made of PVC tarpaulin and water comes straight off that.
You know there's no soaking in.
It's not fabric so you can just wipe down to get any sort of water or sand off
and then I usually fold from the bow because that helps push all the
air out of the stern if that makes sense any remaining air and then for each fold
I wiped down the other side of the hull that's been on the ground.
And this is just a really quick way I found with that old towel of getting a kayak all cleaned up.
You can push down if you need to to get any of the last bits of air
out but usually it just deflates fairly easily under its own weight.
So this fold you bring a cross on top and then as you can see when you push it
just comes out really nicely and easily that air.
Grab your bag and you start to wedge it into your bag.
I like to just get it as as deflated as possible cause it's an easier fit.
They've given you a fair bit of room in the bag this isn't
like getting toothpaste back in the tube.
So we just pop the corners in first.
Don't put it in all the way because we're actually going to wipe down the
other side of the hull.
The side that hasn't left the grass yet.
That side there.
So here is where you can wipe down that last remaining bit of
hull so that it's nice and clean and dry going into the bag.
The kayak doesn't need
to be 100% perfectly dry but if you're storing it for a long period it is a
really good idea to make sure it's totally dry.
And then you gently shuffle
the bag up.
Okay so then I tend to fold the floor up separately and slot that into the bag.
You can slot in the rear foot brace into the same side as the floor and then I
put the seats in usually together on the same side, side by side.
Slot the seats in.
Nice and deep.
And then zip it up.
Simple as that.
So if you have any questions
about how to clean and pack away your Advanced Elements kayak.
Please don't hesitate to get in touch.
This is Emily at Oz Inflatable Kayaks.