Inflatable Raft Kickboat
The Water Strider

Inflatable Rafts for Fishing, Hunting and Whitewater Rafting. The best one man or one woman raft on any river or lake. Expedition river rafting equipment that's designed for real adventure.

The Water Strider™ one man or one woman raft system is a kickboat style self-bailing raft. The Water Strider raft is expertly designed to be the toughest whitewater fishing, hunting and fun raft on the planet. The Water Strider is the most dependable, most ruggedly made fishing raft or hunting raft available because it's made of the highest grade of raft making materials used by any manufacturer. This versatile one man or one woman raft really has no competition. There is no comparison, far superior to drift boats, pontoon boats and large rafts.. There simply isn't a better kickboat raft on any river or lake anywhere! You can watch a Water Strider in action video here. See for yourself!

What the heck is a Kickboat?

Water Strider's open floor design let's you sit on the air ride seat to propel and steer the Water Strider raft with fins on your feet while you keep both hands free for casting and landing fish.

In shallow water you can stand up and wade while the Water strider floats around you. There's no better way to fish! Makes a good hunting boat, too.

Water Strider™ has the flotation capacity to carry all of the equipment to enjoy river and lake kickboat rafting adventures. Dave's rafting equipment, camping and camp kitchen gear are designed to work together as an integral part of the entire Water Strider one man or woman rafting system. Check out Dave's complete line of personal kickboat rafting gear and discover a great new way to enjoy floating, fishing and hunting on your favorite rivers and lakes! Water Strider is rafting fun at its best.

Safety and Reliability

Water Strider™ designs and manufactures the highest quality expedition grade one man or woman rafts available on the planet. If you like to run rivers, if you like to float and fly fish, if you want to pack in to your secret lake, if you like to duck hunt, you don't have to use heavy, cumbersome, difficult to maneuver rafts or drift boats when you want to go float fishing, hunting or rafting for fun. You can do it yourself whenever you want to enjoy floating your favorite river or lake. When you're ready to fly fish, hunt or just enjoy a fun river float, a Water Strider raft is ready to go whenever you are.

Raft Package

Every Water Strider Kickboat Raft Package includes:

Your raft, choice of red or grey
Two heavy duty two piece oars
An adjustable inflatable backrest
A heavy duty two way Bravo 1 foot pump
Waterproof dry bag with back pack straps to pack your boat
A stripping apron for snag free fly casting
An adjustable foot strap that works with the adjustable backrest for maximum comfort and secure seating in rough water
A patch kit, which we hope you never need

Buy Now - Choose between Red or Grey

Construction

The fabric used in making the Water Strider™ raft is the very best available and the strongest and lightest in the industry. The raft material is made from PU (polyurethane) and PVC with a standard polyester woven base cloth. PU is a premium grade material that is four times more expensive than the material used in ordinary pontoon raft construction. By using this unique, premium grade material we have reduced the weight of the Water Strider raft by 25%. This produces the lightest, strongest kickboat made.

All seams on a Water Strider raft are hot air welded using a one-inch seam that is sealed on the inside edge, thus preventing porosity. All component parts on the outside of the Water Strider kickboat are RF (electronic radio frequency) welded into place. This process, along with the hot-air welding, makes the Water Strider raft the most durable one man or one woman raft there is. Glued seams have a shelf life and will rot with age. Other fabrics like Hypolon rot with age due to the destructive UV effects of the sun. Unlike other products, the Water Strider raft will literally last for generations.

All of the Water Strider's metal parts are made of stainless steel including all 12 D-rings, oar lock screws and the springs in the air valves.
Oar Shafts are made of high-grade aluminum for lightness and completely anodized for corrosion prevention.
Oars and the Oar Locks are designed to handle rough use and Class III rivers with ease. An experienced white water rafter can handle more difficult water depending on his or her ability.
The two-inch wide Foot Strap is made out of seat belt material and is designed to hold your feet up out of the water when rowing. It's strong enough to sit on when floating and you want to have a lower profile to stay out of view of rising fish that are up close by.
The coated mesh Stripping Apron with integral two-inch lip is primarily designed to keep fly line from dropping in to the water around your legs. When not in use it is easily rolled up to the side and is locked onto the raft by the oar shaft and the cord that holds the oar nut in place. The stripping apron also has four large Velcro tabs on each corner to hold it in place while fishing or eating lunch. It is designed to break away instantly when you have to stand up quickly.
The mesh oar bag attaches to the outside of the Water Strider Waterproof Dry Bag Backpack or will fit inside of the pack for shipping and air travel.

Load Capacity

Load Capacity - The Water Strider raft has approximately 17 cubic feet of flotation. This puts it in a class by itself. Most pontoon type rafts have very little actual floatation. Safety is our first concern and function is our second most important consideration. The submerged buoyancy of a Water Strider raft is more than 1000 pounds but that is just at water level and with that much weight on it would be submerged. We recommend that the maximum load is 515 pounds. This much weight would have you float at the 50% level or at the strake on the side. This is called submerged buoyancy factor. You see that you can easily carry a person and all the gear you would want to have with you. We often go on world wide trips and carry everything needed for an extended expedition length trips of more than 30 days and be in total comfort.

Dry Bag Carrying Backpack

Everything you need for a float fits in the Water Strider Expedition Dry Bag BackpackThe Water Strider Waterproof Dry Bag Backpack (one included with every new boat) is actually a waterproof PVC dry bag that is large enough to carry the Water Strider kickboat and all of your gear. The backpack has padded straps for easy carrying and compression straps to help compact the internal load when carrying on your back. The bag attaches to the back of the Kickboat with clips when floating and thereby does double duty in carrying your other gear, lunch and any other gear you want to bring along. The dry bag pack is large enough to hold a four-piece rod tube large enough for two or more rods.

Traveling

The Water Strider is the most compact oar and fin driven portable one man or one woman raft there is. The high tech design allows river and lake floating safely. It is easy to carry and has virtually no installation except to add air and put the oars in place. Water Strider raft needs no frame and is rock solid when properly inflated. It takes about 3 to 5 minutes to have it ready for floating. You can also repack it into the dry bag just as easily in 3 to 5 minutes. The compact design allows you to take the Water Strider raft every place you go. You can check it as baggage on any airline without problem. You can put it in a jet boat and be transported up a remote river or float out to a pick up point. Float planes can carry you and all your gear into the wilderness to the drop zone and then pick you up at the bottom. Horse packers can carry you and your Water Strider raft into the back country for great wilderness lake fishing trips. You can even ride a bicycle to a river and float with your bike lashed onto the back. When you're done floating you can ride back to your put-in on your bike by carrying your Water Strider raft on your back in the backpack dry bag.

The Water Strider raft will easily fit into the trunk of a small economy car. We travel world wide floating great rivers at very little expense. Air fare and a food is all you need and you can stay as long as you want. When you arrive home the complete Dry Bag Backpack will just hang in the garage or fit in a closet out of the way. Young people and women can handle the Water Strider raft with ease after just a few minutes of training. My wife and I enjoy floating and cooking dinner on the river in the lovely summer evenings on the Montana rivers around our home.

Using Your Kickboat

The inflatable self-bailing floor and Air Ride inflatable seat and inflatable Back Rest are incredibly comfortable and fully adjustable to fit anyone. The back rest is adjustable for any leg length to fit the foot strap distance with comfort.

The front section of the raft is open to the water and allows you to let your legs hang in the water and steer with your feet when you have Kickboat Fins on. When the water gets shallow (less than knee deep) just put your feet up on the foot strap and row into shore. Once there you can then just stand up and lift the Water Strider raft up and walk ashore with virtually no effort. The two heavy duty handles allow you to lift the Water Strider raft with you when you want to stand up and walk out of the water. With no floor in the raft the hydraulics that are caused when a regular raft or boat fill with water and is pulled under is eliminated. The Water Strider raft design prevents this from happening.

There are two Equipment Straps on the sides to attach the oars
to when you want to pick the raft up shoulder it and walk with it fully inflated. You can put in and take out your one-man raft almost any place you want. You don't have to depend on boat launches or docks. Just stop at the shoreline anyplace you want, deflate your Water Strider raft, put it into the backpack and walk away. You can slide down steep banks and place it over fences and go almost anywhere you want.