As you know we are social campers, not back country hard core campers. We love to gather with friends and family at a lake and hope for sun. This usually involves several women blowing up individual flotation bed and paddling several feet into the lake. I realize this sound terribly laborious and you must marvel at all the obstacles we have endured.

1. How can so many women chat while continuing to floating away from each other?
2. How can your drinks still be full by the time you reach your destination?
3. Doesn’t the lake keep pushing us back to shore, resulting in constant paddling.

You are correct, we needed to find a solution. Sure enough the solution arrived. On our way to a camping trip in Osoyoos we stopped at Costco to pick up some steaks. As we wondered through the aisle we saw the solution,  right there, hanging from their ceiling. Now if you are familiar with Costco you will know how big something has to be if it is hanging from a Costco ceiling. This flotation is huge, but we were heading to 40 degree weather and impulse shopping has never been our strong suite so $250 later we left Costco with 4 steaks and an over sized flotation the could house a small town.

Was it worth it? I think you can tell from the photos that is solved many of our serious flotation issues.

Pros and there are many

1. It seats 9 comfortably: we could finally visit without the stress of floating apart.
2. All the chairs have cup holders: necessary when social camping.
3. It has two cooler spots, we use one for drinks and one for empties: saving the constant trips in for refills.
4. The center netting is very helpful for climbing in and across: very helpful as our ages seem to advance quicker than our drinks empty.
5. The swim grid makes climbing on much easier: picture a seal approaching at Sea World to get a fish, that’s us trying to get back to our beverages after a swim.
6. It comes with an anchor bag: keeps us from floating back to shore unnecessarily
7. The huge size and bright colour makes you visible in the water: great for when you need to head back out after a bathroom break.

Cons

• It is very, very, very heavy: It takes a team of sober people to get it into and out of the lake
• It will never fit back in the box: I am not sure how they got it in in the first place, but trust me, it wont go back in.
• The size makes it hard to inflate and deflate: more than a foot pump is needed for this job.
• You will lose track of time: once on the island only trips in for more drinks and bathroom breaks will keep you connected to land.

We have used it on two trips this year and we love it. We have kept it tied to the dock during one trip giving an entire new meaning to lazy but it was easier for bathroom breaks and new arrivals to come aboard.

If you spend any time on the lake in the summer and have the room to store it, I would say get one. The fun times and endless laughs make all the over-sized efforts worth it.