Product Description
The Bay ST is portable, versatile, and light – an unbelievable combination for a performance kayak. It will captivate beginners and experts alike, with a stable hull, and enough length and contouring for fast, sporty tracking. Ideal for camping excursions, adventures, day trips, or paddles close to home.
The Bay ST folding kayak is the original Oru Kayak, seen and launched on Kickstarter. These days, it’s now sold world-wide and it’s even in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
The Oru Bay ST folding kayak is stable enough for beginners, while the length and contouring make it fast and sporty for experts. There’s plenty of room to stash gear for day trips and short camping excursions. Best of all, transforming the Bay from box to boat takes just a few minutes.
On the water, the 12 foot Bay ST is fast, sporty, and versatile. It can handle many different conditions and landscapes, from smooth lakes to ocean kayaking. It’s a closed cockpit, performance kayak that’s been tested on Class III rivers and played in 6 foot waves.
The Oru Kayak Bay ST is made from a single, seamless sheet of double-layered, custom polypropylene. It is factory-treated with a 10-year UV treatment and is rated to withstand 20,000 folds – making strength and durability not an issue! Each Oru Kayak model has been extensively tested in lakes, rivers, bays, and oceans, and they are quite stable and difficult to capsize!
Features and Details:
- Perfect for cruising around, exploring waters or coves, or taking on rougher conditions
- Fast moving kayak
- Built with simplicity in mind, it sets up quickly and folds up into the size of a large portfolio or suitcase
- Stash it pretty much anywhere: your trunk, closet, boat, garage, van, even under your bed
- 28lbs., making it less than half the weight of a traditional kayak
- 300 lb weight capacity, allowing room for 1 adult + plenty of gear
- Rollable in the event of a capsize
- Developed with modern technology and innovation
- Exceptional service and dependability
- Expertly made from sturdy materials
- Closed cockpit that allows you to put a spray skirt on for choppy waters, waves, or rain
- Adjustable footrest and backrest
- Seatpad – comfortable
- Fairing handles – easy grip to pull in and out of water or carry with a friend
- Deck lines – essential for stashing gear and self-rescues
- Zipper channels – watertight channels that quickly slide on and seal the deck
- Removable bulkheads – provides structure and organized storage compartments
- Lighter than a traditional kayak and extraordinarily strong, manufacturer-rated for 20,000 fold cycles
- Withstands sliding over rocks or bumping into obstacles under the water
- 10-year UV treatment
Warranty:
- 1-year manufacture warranty
Owner Guides:
T. Zhang –
I really love the Bay+ — it’s perfect for an apartment dwelling weekend warrior like me. Absolutely love how it packs down, and how light it is — you look like Hercules picking a kayak up one-handed. Not having a garage (and living on the third floor) makes it impossible for me to otherwise own a kayak. The origami is so cool – the entire kayak packs down, and the only thing that doesn’t transform into the kayak is the carrying strap.
In the water the kayak is pretty darn awesome – it tracks pretty well, and it’s easy for me to pick up speed and turn. Like a few other people have pointed out, the wobble of the kayak is off-putting at first, but the kayak is actually quite stable, and you learn to compensate for it really fast. I will also say that I’m more used to paddling in two-person sea kayaks and one person sit-on-tops, and this is the first time I’m using a one-person sit-in, so my experience have been all in slightly heavier boats.
The seat and footrest are spartan, but gets the job done. One thing I do miss is having knee braces, although one could probably hack something together.
I had to get warranty replacement parts, and customer service is really great too.
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kayak4me –
I’ve been looking for lightweight day touring kayak that also perform well. I needed a kayak I can haul by myself without a truck or trolley or a buddy.
This Bay ST is great, track pretty good, very lightweight, float well, cheaper than most similar weight kayaks, fast to assemble/disassemble (beats inflatable kayaks) and have less parts to worry about loosing.
May not be that roomy for legs and foot brace is a little funky, but the pros outweighs the cons, for me anyway.
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Trevor E –
The convenience of these kayaks is unparalleled to normal hard shell boats. Recently moving into an apartment and having a smaller car made the Bay ST+ the obvious choice. Oru has something special going on with these that will take over. The price is entirely worth it if you want to be on the water at a moments notice. Winter is coming.. 🙂 but I can pack it away in the closet to be used when it warms up. I may leave it out just as a conversation piece!
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Jason –
Cant beat convenience. Definitely a light boat, but that would be the appeal of those the enjoy paddling an ORU. It enables an accessibility to locations to kayak that others can’t match. Just walk it or pack it to your favorite spot.
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Hal –
Small car and apartment home made the Oru an obvious choice. I assembled it three times in my living room. It took about 25 minutes. At the lake I had it assembled and ready to go in about the same time it took my friend to get his traditional kayak off his car roof and return from parking his car. Even when the wind kicked up and made a chop, my kayak performed well. I am a believer. Putting it back in the box at days end took about 30 minutes because of the questions from bystanders.
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David –
Well done ORU! It is obvious that every inch of these kayaks has been meticulously planned and executed into an incredible adventure boat. We have two Bay series kayaks and LOVE them especially my 3 year old. Their packability is so convenient for storage and transportation with no roof racks or any special equipment needed. The light weight yet durable materials make them great if you need to portage or any time they are carried anywhere. One person can easily shoulder carry one of these kayaks or the comfortable kayak handles make it very easy with two people. The foot brace is easy to adjust while on the water. The storage space is minimal but that is to be expected with this design yet it still has room for the essentials. It tracks surprising well and cuts through the water and waves with ease. Easily maneuverable and the 12 ft design allows for small streams, inlets and coves to be explored. The shoulder strap is comfortable but the backpack carrying case is definitely the way to go if you need to carry it further than a short distance. First time assembly was 25 minutes and by the 3rd time I was down to 8 minutes. I am curious to see the longevity of the folds and materials but for now I have been nothing but impressed. It definitely opens SO many more doors with how convenient they are to transport, store, or throw on a plane train or automobile. I cant wait to take this along for many more adventures and I would definitely recommend these kayaks to everyone!
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Tom –
This Kayak is pretty easy to put together and once assembled it is smooth and stable in the water. It seems durable. I really like the foldup and put away feature and stores easily in the garage
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Joe –
This kayak is awesome! All of the features a solid boat has and it fits in a closet! Simple to assemble and disassemble. I’m very happy with this boat and I highly recommend it!
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