Oru Kayak, makers of the first origami-inspired foldable kayak, have just released their second kayak, the Oru Bay+. Watch an exclusive video review and read our test-drive of the original Oru Kayak here. Oru’s latest kayak is designed for added comfort and ease of use and will be available to consumers starting this holiday season.
Oru Kayak’s founder and lead designer, Anton Willis, explained the motivation for the new design. “As a company, we’ve always felt that it’s vital to keep moving and innovating. For the new Bay+, we’ve incorporated a lot of customer feedback and come up with new features to make the user experience even better and more seamless. This will be our first new kayak product since we launched—but we’re already hard at work on other models as well.”
The foldable design and engineering of Oru Kayak are both ingenious and simple. Made from a single, seamless sheet of double-layered, recyclable plastic, a patented pattern of folds transforms the flat sheet into sleek, fast, high performance watercraft. Packed up, the Oru Kayak is the size of a large artist’s portfolio. It requires just five minutes of assembly to transform it into a strong, durable boat – ideal for exploring bays, lakes, or rivers.
The new Oru Bay+ upgraded features include:
- Adjustable molded-foam seat
- Ratchet-buckle deck fasteners (similar to snowboard bindings) for ease of assembly
- Waterproof day hatch for storing wallet, phone and other valuables
- Additional deck rigging for gear storage and rescues
- Custom print pattern
Utilizing the innovative design principals of the original Oru Kayak, the new Oru Bay+ delivers superb water performance, durability, ease of assembly, and stylish design.
- Performance: Unlike most other collapsible boats, the Oru Kayak features a rigid hull that enables smooth, stable handling in a wide range of water conditions.
- Durability: The Oru Kayak is made of a 5mm double-layered Coroplast that is both lightweight and extraordinarily strong. The material is manufacturer rated for 20,000 fold cycles.
- Easy Assembly: The ingenious folding pattern requires very few loose parts and makes assembly fast (5 minutes) and intuitive.
- Stylish Design: Oru Kayak has won widespread praise for its graceful, distinctive look, including a recent showing at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Oru Bay + Specifications:
- Kayak: 12’ long (370 cm), 25” wide (64 cm)
- Weight: 28 pounds (12.7 kg)
- Assembly time: 5 minutes
- Case dimensions:
- MSRP $1495
About Oru Kayak
Founded in 2012, Oru Kayak’s mission is to connect people to the outdoors – even those who live in cities. We combine high design with magical transformations to create products that live anywhere and go anywhere. Oru Kayak’s first product, a 12′ folding kayak, has won numerous industry and design awards. We’re appropriately based in San Francisco – a city of tiny apartments surrounded by lovely water. For more information visit http://www.orukayak.com. Follow all brand updates on Twitter (@orukayak) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/OruKayak).
—Press release from Oru Kayak, October 2014.
