Rating

Performance:

Size/Weight:

Durability:

Setup:

Value:

OVERALL:

A rough and tumble rock and roller.

We’ve got to say it - if you’re mostly paddling on flat, calm water, then the Montana is pretty rubbish. It makes our list because when we took it down whitewater, it was a heap of fun! It has a real sit-on-top of the water feel and rides waves beautifully with its upturned bow and stern, which is what it’s designed to do. But if you plan to take it on calm water, be warned - it handles more like a dinghy than a kayak.

Comparison

Rank: #

Open Size: Thick and wide

Packed Size: Small

Weight: Heavy

Capacity: High

Best For: Rough lakes and whitewater

Pros: Open cockpit to drain water away, easy setup, quick drying, good weight capacity.

Cons: Can’t track in a straight line to save itself, seat is uncomfortable for longer trips.

Verdict: A great little option for fast-moving water.

Skip ahead to First Impressions, Setup/Packdown, Paddling Experience, or the Final Verdict, or check out how the Airhead Montana compares to others in our list of the Top Ten Best Inflatable Kayaks.

Specs:

Open Size: 279cm x 89cm

Packed Size: 71cm x 48cm x 41cm

Weight: 14.5kg

Capacity: 136kg

Approx Price: $700

On sliding this kayak out, we were greeted with the smooth, shiny black underside of thick nylon that looks pleasingly durable and promises decent puncture resistance. We’re also fans of the bright orange colouring of the main body of the kayak, which makes it easy to spot on waterways.

There are a couple of other features included along the top of the kayak that show some thought’s been put into them - grab handles on not just the bow and stern but also on the centre sides, so it’s easy for one person to carry the inflated kayak, and neoprene elbow rests on the sides, which is a nice touch to increase comfort while paddling.

The Montana features a fairly standard setup of three valves. First you inflate the floor, then the two sides. We weren’t fans of the included foot pump - it wasn’t bad, but you can do the same work in a lot less time and energy with a triple-action pump.

The seat base is also inflatable, which for us is a downside - we prefer a firmer hard-foam seat to paddle against and found the fully-inflated seat quite bouncy (we ended up stopping halfway through our paddle to let some air out of the seat, which helped firm it up a bit).

The footrest is a simple velcro around D-ring situation, easy to slot in. It’s not the lightest kayak in this category, but with the handles we found it easy enough to carry down to the water once inflated.

Given that it’s full vinyl, it was relatively quick to dry before we packed it away, unlike fabric kayaks.

So here’s the major problem with this kayak.

Although it has four - yes, four - tiny little fins integrated on the bottom, they do almost nothing to get it to track in a straight line. It took about two paddle strokes to notice that getting this thing to go anywhere fast was going to be a battle every step of the way. Essentially, every time we paddled, the bow would swing in the direction we were pushing against, so energy that should have been pushing us forward was mainly used up in going side to side. My heavier testing buddy found it even worse than I did.

It can turn in a circle really easily though.

The design of the kayak is short and wide, so the clearly desired outcome here is stability over speed. The bow and stern curve up to rock over waves, so obviously this craft is designed with rougher water in mind. We therefore took it down some rapids.

We’re not particularly experienced at whitewater so just took it along a class II river. Other than getting stuck in some of the narrower points owing to its width, it handled rougher water really well, and on a river where there’s forward momentum, the lack of straight-line tracking wasn’t a problem. So with this kayak, you really need to think about how you’re planning to use it.

The only other note we have is that given its width, slightly shorter people like me (I’m 5’7”) will need to reach a little more when paddling to get the blades over the thick sides of the kayak and into the water properly. No real way to avoid this without sacrificing stability.

We like the thought around the handles and features of the Airhead Montana, and though the 840 denier nylon isn’t the most durable material we’ve seen on inflatable kayaks, still trusted it to be able to handle its fair share of brushing up against rocks. If you’re looking for something to take down whitewater, this is a great little option. For any other purpose, we’d recommend picking something else.

Want to see how the Montana compares to other kayaks? Check out our list of the Best Inflatable Kayak.

Water & Outdoors reviews are written by our staff writers, who combined have over fifty years of experience on the water and outdoors. We may earn commissions if you choose to buy through a link you’ve clicked on our website, however this does not influence our reviews. For more information, please see our Editorial Policies.