Haydale paddles forward with Norse Kayaks

Kayak using graphene-enhanced material

Haydale partnered with Norse Kayaks, a small kayak manufacturing company in Norway, to create a lightweight and durable kayak using graphene-enhanced materials.

Norse Kayaks was looking to create a kayak that was lightweight, yet durable enough to withstand the harsh conditions sometimes encountered by sea kayaks. The company had already developed a unique design for the kayak but was struggling to find a material that was both strong and lightweight enough to meet their requirements.

Haydale was able to offer a solution to Norse Kayaks by incorporating graphene in the vacuum infusion composite layup process. By using the graphene, the kayak is now 30% lighter going from 23kg to 16kg, making it easier to handle due to its lightweight design.

Norse Kayaks are working with Haydale to develop lightweight graphene kayaks for the leisure industry.

The addition of graphene also increased both impact strength and stiffness, improving the resistance to breakage in critical areas of the kayak. Vibration dampening has also improved the user experience.

Commenting on the new graphene enhanced kayak, Norse founder Kjetil Sandvik said: “The use of graphene has exceeded our expectations and we are sure that this will set a new standard of what is possible to do with a sea kayak. We have never seen this kind of impact strength on light weight sea kayaks in our 20 years’ experience in the kayaking business.”