An Inflatable Fender/Roller

Aeré makes an inflatable beach roller that works wonderfully well on all kinds of beaches from sand to shingle, but at 5′ long they’re much larger than I need for my canoes and kayaks, the boats I normally pull ashore. The Florida-based company also makes a wide variety of inflatable fenders that are built in the same manner as the rollers. Their core of heavy polyester fabric is coated with a thick layer of PVC inside and out. The seams are welded and reinforced with strips of additional material, glued in place.

Photographs by the author

The Aeré fender's sturdy construction and tough material enables it to double as a roller for small boats.

The smallest Aeré fender measures 9″ in diameter and is 22″ long, a very good size for my canoes and kayaks. It has the same spring-equipped valve as the roller and a stainless-steel D-ring on each end. Aeré rates the roller’s capacity as 2,000 lbs but doesn’t offer a figure for the fender. I measured the thickness of the material of the fender and the roller by pinching a fold flat between the jaws of a caliper. The material is compressible, and the results varied, but the fender material seemed to be about 90% as thick as that used for the roller and presumably would have 90% of the strength. While the numbers for the fender work out to a capacity of 1,800 lbs, that’s far more than I’d ever subject it to. I put a load of 345 lbs on the fender and it was unaffected.