The Tootega Difference

At Tootega we've always strived to do things differently and we're proud of it! From concept sketch to CAD design, mould tool engineering to product manufacture we do everything in-house here in Norfolk, United Kingdom. We do this because we care passionately about our products.

Every kayak is carefully made and outfitted by hand, thoroughly checked at every stage of production, and extensively quality controlled by trusted staff prior to dispatch.

Custom Inserts

Moulded inserts offer many benefits over drilling through the hull, and most good quality kayaks now use these corrosion resistant brass inserts to attach key components to their kayaks.

For load bearing points such as handles or D-ring anchor points however, standard inserts can find their limitations in terms of strength.

To counter this issue, whilst making the most of the massive advantages of waterproof inserts we have developed our own custom insert shape. These custom inserts are designed to spread the load behind the fitting point, ensuring the fixing point is as strong as the anchor itself.

Quality Fittings

To make the most of our custom inserts, we match them with quality fittings – simple!

All of our metal components are stainless steel for maximum strength and corrosion resistance. Metal rings are also welded to ensure maximum strength

All of our load bearing plastic components are made of glass reinforced nylon, and are either from our own tooling or sourced from reliable manufacturers, we also undertake spot destruction tests to ensure their integrity

All of our graphics are UV stable and highly durable. Most are infused into the kayak plastic itself, ensuring they last as long as the boat itself.

All plastics are not equal

That’s why at Tootega we are constantly researching and trialling new plastic formulas and production technologies to ensure we are using only the best possible materials.

Our high density compounded polyethylene offers the best possible blend of stiffness, impact resistance, and UV stability we can find. Allowing us to make lighter boats, that perform better, and last longer.

Engineered strength

Using the best possible plastic is only the first part of the story, making the most of that plastic’s properties comes next.

Simple shapes can have a huge impact on the end product. Some can act to help ‘trap’ plastic in certain areas of the kayak, building up thickness where needed. Some can add corrugation to a shape, aiding stiffness in high load areas. Finally some can act to isolate movement which can be useful if you want to put a sensitive feature in a high load area.

A great example of all these benefits is the central hatch detailing on the Pulse series. The gully around the hatch was not only designed to drain away water, by optimising its shape and depth we have also used it to trap plastic and increase material thickness through the high wear seating area. In addition to increasing thickness it also maximises stiffness by creating corrugation. Finally the channel serves to minimise the transfer of flex within the seating area to the hatch lid itself, helping to minimise leakage through the hatch caused by twisting of the lid in it’s housing.

When finalising a design we carefully optimise these small details, adding stiffness and reducing weight wherever possible. As long as it doesn’t effect the boats paddling characteristics, our designers are free to explore changing it. We call this process, engineered strength.

Lifetime warranty

We are passionate about what we do. As devoted paddlers ourselves we take every opportunity to make the best designed products possible, and build them with only the best materials we can buy. We do this to ensure your product lasts, and so you can enjoy our fantastic sport to it’s maximum. This is why we back up our kayaks with a lifetime warranty and that’s the tootega difference...