Shoalhaven River: A 5-day packraft trip from Welcome Reef to Bungonia 

Me either, but I am going to Barrington (if water level drops a bit) or Shoalhaven for the weekend. I only live an hour from Shoalhaven. Was excellent seeing this video.

Hi Tony!!! We miss you. In fact was reminiscing about trips with you this week (I am at Freycinet with Yr8s) as working with an ex-colleague and ex-student of yours. I’ll PM you on WhatsApp. .

Hi Brendan. Unfortunately I don't run tours like this but I do run 2 and 3-day beginner, intermediate and advanced packrafting courses through Canoe Tasmania/Paddle Tasmania. These are focused on teaching the skills needed to be able to undertake trips like this one.

We are all wearing Kokatat Meridian drysuits with thermal clothes underneath. Cheers

@@MarkOates, thank you! Looking forward to your next packrafting adventure!

It is a whitewater self-bailer. Such boats are designed so that you sit on an inflatable floor above the water and the vast majority of the water drains away through holes in the floor. Although you may get wetter (& colder in some environments) I wont be going back to a decked boat. Self-bailers (if built well) have so many advantages!

@@MarkOates i just purchased a kokopelli recon self Bailer. I was deciding between that and an aire outfitter 2.

3 of the 4 packrafts are Alpacka packrafts with DIY self-bailer conversions whilst the boat I am paddling in this video is a Kokopelli. The Alpacka boats are definitely more durable however I find the Kokopelli paddling performance to be better.

powskier none at all although it was late Autumn.

Scott Campbell The 3 Alpackas were all self-bailers - two with cruiser decks and the other a WW deck. They were all boats that I or friends had converted as this was before Alpacka made self-bailers. I converted about 15 Alpackas into self-bailers but then Alpacka and Kokopelli started producing self-bailers.

I'm looking to purchase a packraft to use for whitewater but I'm on the fence about self-bailers and spray decks. It looks like you definitely favor the self-bailing setups. But how dry do you stay while just paddling flat water? Meaning do you get wet from the water coming up from the drain holes and over the inflatable floor if say I just want to take a leisurely paddle and keep my but dry. I'm not going to invest money into a full drysuit and if I want to paddle in really cold conditions I'll just take one of my hard boats with a skirt and a drytop. Could you give me some insight and input, please. Thanks!

Yes Scott Campbell you do get a slightly wet butt at times on flat water in many self-bailers. This is most likely to occur if you end up paddling with wind chop. I do really like self-bailers but WW decked boats do have their place in certain river environments. Note that ‘cruiser decks’ don’t keep you that dry but do add warmth.

Do you prefer Alpacka or Kokopelli? Looking at them both..

I'm sure you were asking Mark this question but I have no experience with either Kopeli or Alpacka. I'm looking at a Chinese manufacturer called Audac Sports. I already own 3 pack rafts but they are standard floor and no spray decks. Audac Sports have self bailing conversion kits very cheap and I plan to convert one or two of my current boats which are the Dave Scadden packrat 330 tandems (discontinued) and a aqua-xtreme boat (Israeli manufacturer). I may go ahead a whitewater packraft with deck and skirt.

The majority of trips I use a Hyperlite Mountain Gear 5400 Porter pack. It’s awesome for carrying all our packrafting gear but packs up small and these days we carry them inside the tubes of our packrafts. They are also very durable considering how lightweight they are.

Gordon Banks near Goulburn in NSW, Australia. A few hours from Sydney.

Maxime Carette - I really like the paddling performance of the Kokopelli self-bailer on grade 3 & 4. It performs really well on drops, waves & holes due to its rigid floor and highly rockered bow. It depends on your weight though and what style of trips you are doing. If you are over 85kg perhaps consider another model. Alpacka series boats are very high quality, lighter and more compact however the Gnarwhal appears to be a similar weight/size when packed. I haven't paddled a Gnarwhal though (or latest version of Alpackalypse) but have preferred the self-bailing floor of the Kokopelli over the Alpacka floor as there is less water in the boat and my feet sit out of the water rather than partly submerged in it. I have added a couple of extra holes to the Kokopelli floor to increase speed of drainage which works very well however the Alpacka floor material is better quality and less likely to tear. Either way you cannot really go wrong. Hope this helps.

Mark Oates thanks a lot 🙂 We will make trip on lakes and class 3-4 rivers with teenagers Another question: for the lakes trip only we will have to put a 60l waterproof bag on the front part of the packraft. Is it ok without the spray deck ? (The bag doesn't fall on your knees?) Although Is there any place at the back ? Thanks a lot

Maxime Carette The model shown in this video is the 2016 self-bailey which did have room behind the seat for a 60lt pack (if you are not too tall) however the 2017 version has greater volume in the rear so unless you have quite short legs you probably cannot fit it behind you. To be honest I now only run gear inside cargo bags inside the boat with a small dry bag strapped on. I am sure you could secure a pack on the bow and as long as it was not too floppy it should be fine - just watch out for entrapment hazards like loose straps, etc when paddling whitewater.