

It’s a unique experience: Aside from the paddling itself, everything about using an Oru feels genuinely unique.

Convenience alone is a strong argument for this boat. I can toss two of these in the bed of my truck and still have plenty of room left over for a full weekend’s worth of camping gear, no roof rack required. This is essentially a hardshell kayak that you can easily throw into your trunk. It takes the hassle out of casual kayaking: I love a day out on the water as much as the next person, but I genuinely hate hauling around the weight and bulk of a standard rotomolded kayak. There’s enough space left over inside for a dry bag or two, whether that’s behind the seat or between your legs. When unfolded and locked into place using the Lake’s attached tension straps, this material transforms a foldable sheet of plastic into a rigid craft that’s still buoyant enough to support up to 250 pounds of paddler and gear (or in my case, paddler and pup). Oru claims this special plastic is tough enough to handle the rigors of regular use - sliding across rocky river bottoms, for example - yet pliable enough to be folded and unfolded tens of thousands of times without splitting. The Oru Lake’s secret sauce is that double-layer polypropylene material we mentioned above, which is essentially a beefed-up (5mm-thick) version of the same indestructible stuff the United States Postal Service uses for hauling around your mail.

How Does It Work? Oru Lake Foldable Kayak The entire craft consists of just two parts - the boat itself and the folding clamshell seat, which also doubles as a rigid plate supporting the Lake’s flat-bottom shape. For anyone who has ever had the pleasure of lugging a rigid kayak around solo, that’s roughly half the heft of comparable rotomolded boats. It’s also their lightest model to date, and at just 18 pounds, it also happens to be the lightest rigid kayak on the market. Like Oru’s other products, it converts from a full-sized boat into a trunk-friendly suitcase with a few simple folds, but this is the company’s most compact and user-friendly model to date. The Oru Lake is a 9-foot recreational kayak made almost entirely from double-layer extruded polypropylene. You’ve probably got a few questions of your own about the Oru Lake, so let me tell you what I know after spending the last two months with one. That’s how fast the Lake goes from “suitcase mode” to “ready to paddle” - and yes, anyone can do it just as quickly. Perhaps the most wondrous part about this whole experience was that the above exchange all took place in about a minute.

“Not this one,” I replied as I launched the boat into the river and started paddling away. “I heard those things are expensive,” they said. The Best Places to Explore the Great Outdoors of Lake Tahoe Why this year’s Backyard Ultra Team Championship might be the most extreme yet
