My friend Alan Studley recommended a Ryobi 18-Volt ONE+ Cordless Power Inflator. It only cost $25 at Home Depot, but I did have to buy a couple of Ryobi 18V batteries and a battery charger. These were expensive, so I just bought a kit that included a drill, circular saw, reciprocating saw, and a flashlight with two batteries and a charger for $99. Incredible deal. I use the power inflator to inflator my car tires and to inflate the Tower SUP along with the Electric Pump Valve Stem with torque tabs "Patent Pending" for FAST Inflation with Wakooda and Halkey Roberts H3 Inflation Valves that I describe below.
The Ryobi worked OK, but it was slow. I have lately been using a Bravo! 9 Double Chamber High Volume and High Pressure 14.5 PSI Foot Pump to inflate my SUPs and inflatable kayak (an NRS Outlaw II) so that they are semi-rigid. I'll then pull out the awesome K-100 pump to finish off the pumping task. The K-100 pump is just great. I bought this pump with the internal check valve so air won't go back into the pump. The internal check valve only cost $2.95 more, so it's a no-brainer to order it along with the pump. I use the K-100 to pump the SUP up to 10-15psi. It's far faster to use than the Ryobi and tire inflator.
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I bought a Tower inflatable Stand-Up Paddleboard (SUP) a couple of years ago. It's a great, fun thing to use in the water. I am not a master by any means, but I can stand up on it and paddle a while. It tracks fairly well and moves well through the water. I enjoy it more than my heavier West Marine Pompano 120 Sit-On-Top Angler Kayak -- which is a really nice kayak (more on this later) but weighs 60 pounds, and being so long and inflexible, is cumbersome.
Paddleboards, at least in warm weather, are just more fun than kayaks. I enjoy having contact with the water, and being able to jump off the paddleboard and climb back on. My chocolate Lab, Moose, loves sitting on the paddleboard -- it was incredibly easy to train him to sit on there. It's pretty easy to get him onboard when he swims up (he does require firm assist from me to get up); the worst part is when he scratches my tender areas when clawing his way up, or when he shakes the water off himself -- no one likes getting sprayed by water! It's hard to get him to leave.
I've found that paddling while standing is a bit hard, but do-able even with Moose onboard. I usually play around, however, by simply sitting on the SUP with my feet facing forward, as if I were in a kayak. For some reason, paddling this way does not kill my back -- whereas when I am in a kayak, my back quickly starts hurting unless I have a seat for support. I also paddle on the Tower SUP while kneeling.
One nice thing about the Tower SUP is that it is inflatable, and it is light. I can deflate it, and take it anywhere, even in a small car. It weighs 26 pounds, and even inflated it is relatively easy for me to carry the SUP under my arm, over my shoulder.
Here's what I recommend for inflating a Tower inflatable SUP. I've spent hours figuring out the best way to pump up my Tower SUP, and my recommendations below should work for any inflatable SUP that is rated for a pressure of 10 to 15 PSI.
Tower supplies a hand pump for its inflatable SUP (I bought the Adventurer 2 package). Forget using the hand pump. Trying to inflate your SUP with the hand pump will lead to exhaustion and back spasms. The only good thing about the hand pump is that it will inflate the SUP to the proper pressure -- which is a pretty high pressure. Tower states that you cannot possibly overinflate the SUP by using the hand pump, which is likely true. This is because pushing on the hand pump gets progressively more difficult as you approach the target of 10 to 15 PSI.
I tried the hand pump and gave up after pumping away for 20 minutes and barely seeing the SUP rise. I then bought an electric pump and a foot pump from my local Walmart. Neither of these worked, because all pumps are rated to different PSIs. The electric and foot pumps that you will find in retailers like Big 5 and Walmart are generally for pumping less than 1 PSI, and will work only to inflate swim toys. My Tower SUP (supposedly) needs to be pumped up to 10 to 15 PSI, so that it is absolutely rigid.
I started researching online, and there are electric pumps made to inflate inflatable SUPs, and have a rating of 15 PSI and higher. They are generally in the $100 to $150 range. My concern was both the price and the fact that these pumps generally require 110V AC current to work. I want to be able to drive to a river, and pump up my SUP in a wilderness area without any electricity around. I could use a pump that works off a 12V DC source like a car battery. Those pumps, too, cost over $100.
I started foraging around in my garage and discovered that I had an old foot pump from an inflatable Sea Eagle Kayak (it's for sale, unused BTW). I love foot pumps. I love them because they pump a high volume of air, can pump up to a high PSI, and you can use them anywhere -- they don't require a car battery or AC current as a power source. This foot pump is called a Bravo 7. It had the right connector on it (a Halkey-Roberts twist-lock valve). I am able to pump up my SUP with this Bravo 7 foot pump in about 10 minutes, maybe less. It is not hard at all.
My first pump, the one from Sea Eagle, broke after a year of light use (the side material separated from a clamp). I bought another one at West Marine for $30:
https://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-marine--bravo-7-foot-pump--10967644
I used the first pump with my SUP for the past year and had no complaints. I had been pumping air using the Bravo 7 until the foot pump would just not pump any longer. I was probably stressing the pump, finally causing the flexible material on the pump to separate from the clamp holding it to the pump. My SUP was nice and rigid, but not quite as rigid as it could be. I took a pressure reading, and using the foot pump, it was only inflated to 2.5 psi. Again, I was perfectly happy using my Tower SUP inflated to 2.5 psi.
After the pump broke, I had the time to do more research. I discovered that the Bravo 7 pump only inflates to 5.8 PSI. Amazon has a listing for a Bravo 9 pump, which pumps up to14.5 psi. West Marine has two other Bravo foot pumps. The Bravo 2 is only rated to 2.9 psi. Their Bravo 10 is rated to 11.6 psi and costs $70...I think. I am not sure which is the "heavy-duty foot pump" for $70, and why the "medium-duty foot pump" for $75. These pumps, from the photos on West Marine, don't seem to come with a Halkey-Roberts connector either. It would be easy to transfer my old connector from my ruptured pump to a new one (the hose diameter would have to be the same) but still...
I did not want to spend $70 on a pump that might fail. I did not want to spend $100 on a pump that required AC current. I eventually bought this $18 adapter:
Electric Pump Valve Stem with torque tabs "Patent Pending" for FAST Inflation with Wakooda and Halkey Roberts H3 Inflation Valves
https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Pending-Inflation-Wakooda-Roberts/dp/B071S7FZ75/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504026815&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=halkey+roberts&psc=1
This is simply a Halkey Roberts H3 valve that has a Schrader inflation valve on it. Schrader valves are the same kind of valves found on car tires and most bike tires. I already have a portable tire inflator that works off my car battery (BTW, I’ve found that these draw an incredibly high current, well over 10 amps, and won't work when connected to AC 12V power adapters, battery chargers; and will fry the fuses if connected through a cigarette lighter adapter inside the car).
I connected an inexpensive Campbell Hausfeld tire inflator unit to this Wakooda Valve and it worked great. It pumped my SUP up to 5 psi in about 5 mins (after the SUP was already at 2.5 psi using foot pump). I don't think I need my SUP to be 10 psi but might try that. Using a higher quality tire inflator would probably inflate the SUP to 5 or 10 psi even more quickly. Anyone using a power inflator like this should keep a very close eye on the pressure, as it will be possible to blow the SUP up past its pressure rating very quickly.
Here's what an Amazon reviewer wrote about another inflator valve:
The gauge is somewhat flimsy and I don't really use it, but the adapter is a perfect fit for my inflatable TOWER Paddle boards. I now use my air compressor to inflate the boards firm to the touch (< 10 minutes), and then only need about 20 more strokes with the high pressure hand pump to achieve 10+ psi. WARNING: be careful with an air compressor, it's easy to over-inflate once you reach the pressure zone.
Kayak choice:
I still like my kayak. It allows me to go much faster and farther than I can on my SUP (I am not very good at using either of these vessels). I did a lot of research and chose my present West Marine Pompano 120 kayak based on the following Amazon review (thanks, Amazon reviewer!). Here are some excerpts from that review:
Perception Sport Pescador 12 Angler Kayak review from Amazon:
"...This kayak is by far the best deal on a high end kayak out there today...it's one of the few kayaks out there that is at a price point that let's starter's (sic) and people on a budget get into the sport but at the same time is such a high quality and nice yak that you don't realy ever need to upgrade from it ..
"...The best thing about this kayak is that it is actualy (sic) a re-named 2008 Wilderness Systems Tarpon 120 with a different label and actually built by the same company as the Tarpon 120. ...
"...this is because Wilderness systems/Perception are owned by the same company which is confluence water sports...instead of throwing away the mold for the old Tarpon 120 they re used it with the Perception brand calling it the "Pescador" and are selling it for almost half the price as the Tarpon 120...
"...West Marine also sells this kayak occasianly (sic) and will match any competitor's price...west marine also sells another kayak that is made by confluence that is identical in design to the tarpon 120/pescador called a "pompano 120"....comes with nice accessories like anchor system,extra rod holders,scupper plugs etc but unfortunatly does not come with the nice pescador seat..."
