ADVANCED ELEMENTS Island Voyage 2 Review Best Kayak 2023

best kayak under $500

Specifications

Material PVC Heavy Duty 

Brand ADVANCED ELEMENTS

Weight Capacity : 400 Lbs

MODEL AE3023-Y

COLOR YELLOW/GRAY

LENGTH 11’2″

WIDTH 37″

WEIGHT 31.5 LBS. (14.3 KG)

PERSON/S 1 or 2

MAX. WEIGHT 400 LBS. (227 KG)

CHAMBERS 3

FOLDED SIZE 31″ X 18″ X 10″

Adnavced elements island Voyage 2 review fit everything in a bag. All the accessories come with a fin lock in there the bottom  has like our little rail skid plate very nice protective. Folding it out is very easy maneuvering around this whole thing is very easy. it’s very lightweight, under 40 pounds. 

It comes with a couple of seats. The paddles and the inflator here are extra that way if you already have them you don’t have to buy them again and that allows them to reduce the price. It has a very high quality 600D material. The zipper and the jacket gives you a lot of protection on the outside for punctures.

The bungee cord has a little adjuster at the top. You really fasten that thing down, handles are easy to carry and the inflation is really easy.  It comes with a whole bunch of different little nozzles. There is a deflate and inflate section and a pressure gauge as well and pressure gauge as well.

The kayaking paddle actually felt a little bit nicer than some of the other ones I’ve had. The foam there goes together real nice, certainly better than the in-text one and I would say just as good as the one I was sent from sea eagle paid nothing for this review. By the way, the inflation valves are really easy. I actually like them, possibly just as much as the sea eagle. They don’t have any moving parts and there’s a flap here that covers the bottom inflation valve.

You just take the valve here you screw it in and then you fight with the little string there a little bit. if you block the top cap with your back left finger you can kind of keep it in place. They kind of want to block it from spinning with one of your fingers then you pick the proper adjuster plug her in and start inflating. It is really quick you could probably speed inflate this in like five minutes if you were just really working on it by the time I was done inflating the bottom and I felt it over it just felt firm. It felt really strong, significantly stronger than the Intex I was in.

Now there are a lot of frayed hairs a lot of them and that’s a quality QA issue that’s super fixable you could make one call to the the factory and say hey you got to clip some of these hairs the seams are very high quality very strong but again I could make a montage of frayed hairs again I got to be honest you guys I got to be honest like a lie there’s a lot of frayed hairs on these things so again advanced elements you know comment in the below.

I know you guys could fix that again this is an honest review this is how you could have a better product people see this stuff too and other reviews if you read other reviews people notice things like this so that’s just one thing somebody could take five ten minutes and before this leaves the factory go over and snip all those hairs. 

Really do like the inflation valves though they’re really simple to use. They go on, nice to see once you get it there it’s no problem. Real time just a little bit, how it actually just goes up for your own experience, other than the frayed hair is in one other small detail we’ll get to here in a sec actually two other small details and these are all really flexible things.

Would it be a deal breaker on a purchase? I don’t think so mind you I didn’t pay for this with my own money but I don’t think it would be a deal breaker. We’ll get to it here in a moment. Now, it feels really strong. I like that jacket coating that’s over it really absolutely true confidence-inspiring. I don’t know if I’m gonna hit it with a hammer but I like it. 

I like it a lot. It’s good now. Here between before I inflate this as a really nice strong coating and it is a believe a double coating now here’s my other gripe the bottom is like canvas I don’t know why you would use canvas on it it’s gonna get dirty the other gripe is these things that hold the seats on the veldt are like Velcro but they don’t seem to be on that well and it just feels a little cheap here you could do a better job two persons 400 pounds. 

Again I really like this but I just again frayed hairs fray tears it is a deal breaker though I could go and trim them myself but it’s about presentation and that’s something that I mean literally you can make a call right now and say hey we got to get somebody on this yeah. 

I feel like sometimes I shouldn’t say these things but again this is an honest  review and this is how they can improve their product as well. Once you get it inflated it just looks really cool really nice everything oh right here again the bottom also has a zipper just like the side so that’s probably what the canvas is for it’s protecting the bottom maybe they can confirm that for me either way it’s it’s gonna get dirty and I don’t like it. 

The bottom is really different from the Intex as it sticks out differently and feels very incredibly strong and firm. There’s a double layer in there. So if you get punctures you would actually have to puncture it I believe twice to actually hurt it. The seats are really nice, no complaints. You can hold two cups in the back. It has a nice little pocket again. 

There’s straight hair all over it so it will just be so easy to fix before it leaves the factory. It has a couple of little snippy snaps for locking you in. The seat uses a removable foam insert and you can see those Velcro pieces cinch down to the bottom onto the other Velcro piece and that’s that was like one of my complaints that just doesn’t feel I don’t like those Velcro pieces they just don’t feel that professional for a kayak of this price. 

Now the seats feel good, it feels comfortable and it has a high backing nicely adjustable once you get in there you can really lock it down. This is what it looks like and I’ll close a little clips and again with the frayed hairs. Now there’s a little weird foam thing at the front. I don’t know what that is. I like it though all the all and all. I really like this again. The freight here is not a deal-breaker, the canvas bottom that’s gonna get really dirty after you’ve put your feet on it.

It’s not a deal-breaker, very lightweight. This is the kayak you want to get if you need something that you’re gonna be walking, maybe a quarter-mile half-mile to the litter trail to get to the lake or the river or to go around a dam that’s really easy to carry.

I could carry this thing for quite a ways in my hands I wouldn’t want to buy and if I needed to put it in the bag it would just be so doable and very pack able. you could go on many multi-day adventures with this thing no problems. I’ve looked up a lot of there views on this company. Popping is a very rare thing for anybody in an advanced elements kayak.

 It tracked better than some of the other kayaks I’ve used as well, mind you it’s very light so much lighter than the sea eagle but compared to even let’s say the Intex that I used I felt razor like precision in this thing. It really when I pushed with my right arm I could feel an immediate go.

There was nothing fighting me. Did it feel too loose I don’t not really need an expert enough to know that but it felt good. I felt very maneuverable. If I was needing to go around an object that was possibly in a river or in front of me, I feel like I could get around it very easily.

It felt much faster than many of the other ones that I’ve used as well. It might have something to do with the weight but it did feel very smooth and again the track was just real nice no I’m sorry I couldn’t get better shots of me in it but I just wanted to show you it moving around me turning.

It just moves real quick turns on a dime. Now if I Purchase this with my own money I would not be returning it I would not be sending hate emails I would probably give it a four and a half star review. literally just jumping in and to see what happened very stable, no complaints it just feels good inside of it feels like an inflatable kayak. 

Showed a little bit of water resistance here. looks nice bright yellow, really easy to see. deflation is amazing you just pop them out in it just the air just comes  right out. putting this thing back in taking it out long is really really simple. Let me check this out. I’m putting the seats back in there and putting the pump in there. 

You could even put the oars in there if you did it just right, and then you just start folding it up no weird little half fold you have to do in the middle or anything to get it in. Now you can pull even more air out of this but I wanted to show how good the bag was. I was able to put it back in the bag without sucking the air out.  

So this is definitely a bag that you’re not gonna be fighting. Does this have my recommendation? It absolutely does and I’m gonna take it on some backpacking journeys here at some local lakes and would have already been on one by now that the lake was closed. 

So definitely a purchase I can recommend, do not let the frayed hairs put you off, you can clip them but you know what that’s something like they could fix and I hope they comment that and in the comments below you know they can fix that in a factory for sure. Other than that, no complaints solid four and five stars for me solid for a half stars and guys look like it’s going back in the bag amazing amazing so thanks advanced elements will really appreciate it great kayak looking forward to more trips.

Pros

  • Lightweight and easy to carry 
  • Durable 
  • Comfortable and inflatable seats
  • Perfect for both tandem and solo purpose 
  • Best kayak under $500

Cons

  • Lack of legroom
  • Tracking is not very good

Read More:

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