Kayak Sherpa Backpack System by NRS

Just recently I indulged a whim and bought myself the kayak backpack made by NRS.  I was hoping that this would turn out to be a nifty little bit of gear that I could keep rolled up in a dry bag in my boat, but now I'm not so sure.

I won't get into the mechanics of how it goes on the boat because you can see the whole video at the NRS page.

When I first tried this on in the backyard I was stoked.... but then on the river some issues developed.  First of all, it's heavy and doesn't pack down nearly as small as I had expected.  There is a surplus of heavy, reinforced padding making the back of the contraption.  This seems bulky and unnecessary because the hull of a boat is going to be smooth against your back, so the backpack really shouldn't need extra padding there.  The hip and shoulder harnesses are well padded though, and that's a good thing.  When I tried to pack it in the boat, I really had to work to fold and stuff it into a very reasonably sized dry bag.  It wasn't a very quick operation.

Once rigged, I knew getting a loaded creek boat up on my back was going to be tricky, but it's kind of ridiculous as to how much effort it takes to balance the thing on the nose, hunch down and get it all into position on your back.

After I passed that point without falling down, I was surprised as to how tippy and ungainly it was riding on my back.  Maybe this is because the Shiva has so much rocker, but I always felt like I was being pulled over backward.  I had to bend forward in this overly exaggerated way that really made my lower back hurt.  Also, as it's difficult to put it down and get it back on, there is really no way to rest on the trail. I was able to set the nose down and lean back on it in a rather precarious manner, but that did very little in the way of actual rest.  Tipping was also an issue.  Any little list to the side was cause for concern.

I tried to get the rig as synched down as tight to the boat as I could, but it didn't really seem to help much.
This afternoon I was experimenting with rigging it with the cockpit to my back, hoping that the curvature of the boat would work with me and not against me.  This was not an improvement.  While it was indeed more comfortable, as soon as I walked around it was clear that there was not enough support to stabilize the boat.

So yeah, I'm not hugely impressed.  Rather more work and weight than it is worth.  At least it will work well to walk my play boat across downtown to the river park.