I've spent the evening reading consumer reviews about the ORU kayak on Amazon and other items about
ORU and
damage. Most reviews that I found date from a few years ago and most of them are positive to very positive.
But some things stand out, and the negative reviews are revealing.
The ORU kayak is not suitable at sea for a newbie kayaker.
It is recommended to take a course in flipping over, and other kayaking techniques like how to get in and out, and in again in open water.
It is difficult to get in to, and out, if you are / have a bigger size.
It is uncomfortable for some to sit in for a longer period of time. A softer seat will solve the problem.
It is not always stable according to newbies ~ experienced kayakers know how to handle that.
The zippers are not always watertight. You can store luggage in the ORU but the since compartments are not watertight, you need special bags for your luggage. A floating bag for small items like phones does not come standard with the ORU.
There was one Norwegian guy, an experienced kayaker, who wrote on his blog that beginner might use the ORU on the Norwegian lakes. Now I do not know if in Norway a fjord counts as a lake, but IMHO it does not.
So what was Arjen Kamphuis doing with a kayak in Bodø? It is not the most obvious place if you want to go kayaking on lakes.
Damage to polymere kayaks can easily be repaired if you know how, the youtube videos are instructive. If you have the same type of polymer, apply some heat and the two pieces with stick together like one. The process is a little more complicated than that but it does not differ very much from melting chocolate.
Here's an example:
What I noticed is that most kayaks have cracks or scratches as damage on the hull, especially near the keel. Holes or indents are far less common. These holes and indents usually happened on land, for instance when unloading the kayak from the back of the pick-up. Another person hit a wall with the trailer with the kayak on it, if I understood that well.
One exception is the bow. The bow, being the front end of the hull, seems to get damaged easiest in comparison to the rest of the kayak, with scratches, cracks and even holes, but I haven't seen a hole in a bow that wasn't otherwise damaged too.
The hole in the bottom of Arjen's new kayak should be investigated to determine how it happened.