inflated inconvenience

The whole point in buying an inflatable kayak was convenience.

A watercraft of any size is not trivial, but an inflatable boat tends to be smaller.

More convenient to store.

More convenient to transport.

More convenient to keep out of sight and out of mind over the long winter while the river is frozen and the lakes are little more than sheets of snow-covered ice. 

The price of that convenience is in the inflation of the craft itself.

At the best of times, this includes unpacking a cumbersome object made of cloth and plastic and ropes and valves and zippers. This involves finding an open space and a block of free time to unroll the kayak in the grass, connect the bits and pieces that need to be connected and then dutifully working to fill it with air using a plastic pump. 

All this is incovenient enough when it works. 

When the pump stops working, begins to stall and jam up for no clear reason, while the half-inflated boat is sitting in the only patch of grass at the edge of the off leash dog park parking lot that doesn’t contain obvious dog shit, while dozens of curious dog owners walk up and by and past and all the while oggle the effort of struggle with a broken pump, the level of inconvenience skyrockets.  There is little to be done by the two impatient teenage girls standing to the side already wearing their life jackets and holding their paddles, as if an adventure down the river is on the cusp of happening and not actually half-derailed because of defective technology.

In the end, perserverence won the day, convenience be damned, and the trek down the river proceeded, but it did leave at least one of us wondering just how much easier it might be to just go buy a proper kayak after all.

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