Staying upright during a storm in fully loaded inflatable kayaks

Trudy from Alma, CO sent us this story about how stable a couple of our 1-person inflatable kayaks were during an intense storm. Have a Vanguard story you want to share? Let us know

Just had to write and tell you how much we like your inflatable kayaks. My husband and I purchased two 1-person boats this past April. We were looking for singles that were capable of carrying some weight as we like to river camp and don't always have a friend with a support raft available. Many trips done in rented Tomcat inflatable kayaks convinced us we needed something better. So, when the time came to buy, we did our homework and consulted Matti @ Ten Mile Creek in Frisco. For the price range, these Vanguards came highly recommended.

Well, what a stable boat! Even when loaded! Got a chance to find that out when we decided to float the Colorado River thru Ruby/Horse Thief Canyon when the river was running at 26,000 cfs (May 24th & 25th of this year). We were only about 1/8 mile up river from Black Rock, approaching the bend when a storm caught us. We were both on river right when the first gust of wind hit us broadside. It was extremely intense and pushed us sideways across the river into the bank on river left. It held us there for 20 minutes until the wind/rain subsided. We were both loaded with gear bags, coolers, dry bags, water containers, trash bucket, etc. These boats resisted wind gust triggered capsizing better than any inflatable I've ever been in. In fact, we were extremely glad we weren't in Tomcats.

After the storm we made our way down to Black Rock and were very relieved to see several rafts and people already camped there. We weren't the only crazy people on the river! The river rose another two feet overnight. We hit the river next morning and cruised on down to Westwater take out without incident. That trip could have had a whole different outcome if not for the remarkable stability of the Vanguard Inflatable kayaks. I'm a fan for life!!!