Wattsup COD 2P Kayak
Summary
Price At Time Of Writing | £499.00
Our Overall Rating | 80 out of 100
Pros - Great stability and tracking
Cons - Awful seats, bad bag
Overall - Good kayak ruined by poor accessories
Technical Specifications
Open Size - 410x85cm
Weight - 22kg
Load Capacity - 220kg
Packed Size - N/A
Our Analysis & Ratings
The Wattsup COD 2P is an inflatable tandem kayak that aims to deliver a serious on-water experience for two paddlers, particularly in marine environments. It's built around a high-pressure drop-stitch floor, a feature typically found in more expensive kayaks, which promises better rigidity and performance. From our time with it, the COD 2P is a kayak of clear contradictions: it offers impressive stability and solid core construction that paddles well, but it is let down by perplexingly poor accessory design and quality control issues that significantly undermine the overall experience.
Performance - The high-pressure drop-stitch floor provides exceptional rigidity, removing the flexy, ‘banana boat’ feel of cheaper inflatables. This creates a stable platform that feels secure in calm waters and handles mild waves competently. The two fins aid significantly with tracking, helping the kayak move in a straight line with less effort than many flat-bottomed competitors. We achieved decent speeds of around 5km/h, even against light current and wind. One gripe? The included paddles are a bit short for the kayak's width, which can lead to splashing and water dripping into the cockpit.
Construction - The main hull is made from fabric-reinforced PVC that feels tough and resistant to abrasion. The removable drop-stitch floor is great to see, making cleaning and thorough drying much easier, but quality control appears inconsistent. Not on ours, but we’ve seen reports of people receiving kayaks with discoloured graphics, misaligned patterns, or visible glue marks on the black underside, suggesting storage or manufacturing issues. The most critical flaw is the fin attachment system, as it’s unreliable, sometimes detaching despite careful installation.
Setup/Pack Down - The included double-action hand pump is effective and features a pressure gauge, though its colour-coded scale (yellow/green/red) does not align with the manufacturer's recommended PSI, requiring you to ignore the colours and focus on the numerical reading. Inflation takes about 10–15 minutes. Deflation is also simple, but the process highlights a major hassle: drying. The seats and their complex attachment system must be completely removed and dried separately to prevent mildew, adding significant time and effort to the pack-down routine.
Portability - Weighing 22 kg, the COD 2P is manageable but on the heavier side for an inflatable tandem. Its true portability strength is its packed size, allowing it to fit in a car trunk. The provided backpack, however, is a major point of frustration. It is poorly designed; despite the kayak's weight, the bag's seams and straps are so weak that we worry about them breaking. The bag is also too small to hold anything other than the kayak itself. The pump, paddles and seats must be carried separately, meaning you need a second bag, so it’s really not an all-in-one package.
Comfort - Comfort is the COD 2P's greatest weakness. The seats are universally panned as a catastrophic design failure. Their attachment points are too low, causing the entire backrest to collapse backward under the slightest pressure, offering zero lumbar support and leading to severe back pain within 15 minutes of paddling. This means you’ll likely replace them altogether. The footrests are also flimsy and difficult to secure properly. Once these critical ergonomic flaws are addressed with third-party solutions, the spacious cockpit is comfortable for two adults, but really, that shouldn’t be needed…
Overall - The Wattsup COD 2P’s core performance is great, with the rigid floor and good tracking making it a capable and fun kayak to paddle. It’s just utterly let down by its accessories. The terrible seats, unreliable fin locks and inadequate carry bag feel like they belong to a much cheaper product. It’s of good value only if found on a significant sale and if you are willing to immediately budget for and source replacement seats and potentially better fins. As a standalone package, it fails to deliver a complete, comfortable experience, making it difficult to recommend at its full price despite its solid foundational design.
