Are folding kayaks delicate or damage-prone?
Not necessarily. You should treat the hull of a folding kayak in much the same way as you would treat a fiberglass kayak, i.e. you avoid dragging it on gravel beaches and the like. The frames can take a lot of punishment. Parts don’t readily break because both wooden and aluminum frames have enough flex in them to absorb shock and avoid cracking. If conditions are severe enough to crack a frame member of a foldable, they are also likely to crack or cause fissures in a fiberglass hull, or put some serious dents in a plastic one. Folding kayaks are tough enough to be used by the military of some 20 nations. These boats handle the punishment that special forces tend to dish out while keeping crews alive to complete their missions. Simply put, if the boats weren’t up to the rigors of special operations, the military would not entrust their highly trained personnel to them, period. Folding kayaks tend to be long-lived. It is not unusual to see 25 year old hulls still going strong. Frames ha
