I had this idea for a kayak that anybody can own.
The main challenges facing a kayak buyer are mobility and storage. So these were the issues to resolve.
Watch this clip of the Tequila! paddled in the Solo and Tandem configuration.
The design specs for the Tequila! were:
- Have equal or better performance than a standard kayak (unlike inflatables & folding kayaks).
- Produced in rotomolded polyethelen.
- It should fit in a station wagon.
Another clip.
- It should fit in a small elevator.
- It should fit in a small apartment.
- Be light weight enough for a child to carry (e.g. weigh a maximum of 14 kg / 30lbs).
- Take less than 10 seconds to assemble (unlike inflatables and folding kayaks).
- Be modular so it can be used as a solo, tandem, triple and more.
- Hold up for abuse, play, surfing on waves etc
- Each section should be possible to emergency paddle.
The Tequila! Tandem easily fits in the back of a station wagon.
Rigid take-a-part kayaks have been around for years. It's just that the designs have been flawed. Those kayaks have either taken much to long to assemble and/or not been strong enough in the joints so they have flexed to much and/or come apart to easily.
Like Lego on the beach.
Also, all those designs have focused on large sea kayaks. Whereas the demand for this kind of innovation actually is in the recreational segment where the hurdles to enter paddle-sports are the greatest.
It fits on a small boat!
Once you are dedicated enough to buy a sea kayak, most paddlers are willing to make sacrifices like getting a roof rack, finding storage etc.
It fits on a big boat!
However, the design specifications seemed impossible. Polyethylene is a rather soft and slippery material. In all our trials, testing different ideas the kayak was to weak, to heavy or to difficult to assemble. That is until we met design genius Magnus de Brito.
Accustomed by impossible demands from manufacturers such as Porsche, Scania Trucks and Pirelli Boats he succeeded in resolving the issues with an ingenues concept - The Tequila! SNAP TAP SYSTEM (PATENT PENDING). And there you have it!!
I also wanted the kayak to work for one ore several paddlers.
Here as a Solo
So Magnus created a modular system where a mid piece is added between the solos bow and aft section thereby creating a tandem.
Here the three pieces floating around. Just pop in the mid section et voila, it's a Tandem.
Ad another mid section and it becomes a triple etc. etc. Who will make the longest Tequila!? Send me your picture proof and the winner gets a bottle of, you guessed it, Tequila!
Assembled it's a great Sit On Top -performance kayak.
Each part is small enough to be accepted as a suitcase by most airlines.
I have already flown all over the world with a Point 65 Tequila! Tandem. The customs officer at Seattle Tacoma was perplexed and after I explained what it was he asked me where he could buy one...
