Cronin Inflatables – Manufacturer of the Ugly Ducky inflatable kayak

Cronin Inflatables is proud to be an industry partner with American Whitewater!

Welcome to Cronin Inflatables

Home of the Ugly Ducky inflatable kayak.

North Fork American, Generation Gap

Generation gap on the NF American is a 12 mile section paddled in conjunction with Giant Gap (14mi) down river. The start of this run is a hike to put in, 3 miles down hill. We loaded our dry bags onto backpack frames with kidney pad belts (this is key) and loaded our Ugly Ducky inflatable kayaks above them with the rest of our paddling gear. It’s important to make sure everything is tightly secured so things don’t shift. Day one we hiked in and arrived at camp, we paddled out day 2-3 deciding that the 4th day we had planned for was unnecessary. the starting flow was close to 450 and it dropped to about 350 while we were on river. See dreamflows.com for detailed river descriptions.

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Little Kern into Forks of the Kern

This was the 3rd descent of the Little Kern luckily we were able to skip the several mile hike with a fly in. We had Kayaks, pack rafts and Ugly Ducky Inflatable kayaks. All the boats had their advantages but only the Uglys were versatile enough to be used by everyone, they were bridges for portages, they were platforms for launching everyone else mid rapid and they were small enough they could be loaded in the plane with passengers and not require a special trip. The Little Kern was an adventure for sure.

Post season Selway

We launched at .85, it was low and we were loaded. This was a trip where we brought everything, pop up pit, star gazer chairs, large dog, 146 quart cooler? Ridiculous.