Best Kayak Flags for Safety & Fun (The Top 7 Picks)
Kayaking is such a fun bonding activity for all ages. It's great fun to get out on the water and paddle with friends and family.
It's important to note that it's essential to stay safe on the water no matter what age. Kayaks are pretty small boats in comparison to larger boats, which makes them easy to miss. This can lead to open water accidents.
This very reason is why a visibility flag is useful. It's bright in color and, like any flag, flies high above the water to enhance the visibility of the boat.
When you're looking for the best kayak flag, it should be easy to mount and visible enough to see in any weather condition.
In this buying guide, we'll go through the different kayak flags and help you find the best kayak flag for you!
Different Types of Flag
There are some different types of kayak flags for different uses such as diving, fishing, towing, travel, safety, and fun.
So let's have a look at the different types of flags.
Diving
What a perfect way to find the perfect diving spot; you can paddle up without scaring away any wildlife with motors or propellers. A kayak flag for diving is useful in order to let other vessels know to keep a distance, alerting them of your underwater presence.
In the US, a diving flag design is a red flag with a white diagonal line pointing downwards, this flag alerts and requires boats to adhere to a 100-foot safety zone around your boat legally.
Fishing
Kayak fishing often requires sitting in one spot on the water and waiting patiently for a nibble on the line. Lots of fishing kayaks come in camouflage colors too, which makes the stationary boat challenging to spot without a fishing kayak safety flag.
Towing
Some flags are used to enhance visibility outside of the water. Towing flags are used to notify other road users if you're towing your kayaks on a trailer that you are a long vehicle. The towing flags are a red diamond shape you can attach to the back of your trailer.
Travel
Travel flags are the same as towing kayaks where you can use them to enhance your visibility when transporting your kayak canoe or stand-up paddleboard.
Safety
A safety flag for a kayak is usually one that is bright in color and alerts other paddlers, boaters, kayakers, and road users to your presence in or out of the water.
Fun
Everything is fun and games until somebody gets hurt, so as cheesy as it sounds, safety is fun, and if you want to take the concept in a more fun direction, there are novelty fun kayak flags, which are still kayak safety flags but perhaps including a pirate flag logo or a patriotic flag.
How to Choose the Right Kayak Safety Flag?
So now we know the different types of flags for kayaks lets find the best kayak flag for you to mount on your boat.
The Purpose
The flag's purpose is to be a kayak visibility flag and attract attention to your high above your kayak. They should be bold, bright, and colorful to encourage the eye to notice. It's an important safety measure.
Some flag designs mean different things, so it's essential to consider the purpose of your flag before purchase.
Size and Visibility
The size and height of your flag matters when it comes to the safety of your flag. The best kayak safety flag is a flag big enough that you are able to see it on the top of the pole. The best average size of flag is somewhere in the range of 10 and 15 inches.
The flag pole, on the other hand, needs to be tall enough that it would be in the line of sight of any larger boat. Most kayak flag poles are between 4 and 6 feet tall, and in order to make a flag travel-sized, many of them come with a telescopic pole mechanism.
Ease of installation
The best kayak safety flag is easy to install on your boat and use. In fact, the best kayak safety flag could be one you can attach to gear tracks or mounted using a fishing pole mount. Alternatively, the kayak safety flag should come with a flag mount system that may require you drilling some holes in the deck to attach the mount base.
Versatility
A kayak safety flag can be useful in more ways than one. For example, if your boat is sitting in one place for a long time, like when you're fishing, a kayak flag can give you the visibility you may need without scaring away the fish.
Some kayak flags even come with a bright LED light to aid your visibility, further allowing you to be spotted in the dark of night too.
A kayak safety flag also comes in handy if you choose to go diving to alert other boats that you are under the water somewhere nearby. And finally, if you are towing a kayak either behind your vehicle or behind your boat, the kayak safety flag will significantly improve your visibility warning others to keep their distance as you may be a long moving vehicle.
The 7 Best Safety Flag for Kayak
Looking for the best kayak flag on the market? Ready to delve into the world of kayak flag designs and flag pole structures?
The most important thing to remember is the primary purpose of a flag is to attract attention, warn those around you and therefore be an added safety measure.
A safety measure should never be overlooked. So, let's look at our top picks for the best kayak flag.
1. YakAttack VISIPole II
This strong and well designed YakAttack flag pole has a 2 foot long bright orange flag and a 4 foot 6-inch fiberglass pole. The flag pole has a broad base that can fit into most kayak rod holders, and if your kayak doesn't have rod holders, YakAttack have designed this kayak safety flag to mount easily onto your kayak using their Geartrac or MightyMount mounting systems.
The LED light is said to last 10,000 + hours and 100 hours on AA batteries. To switch the light on, you simply need to twist the top. Should you be unfortunate enough to knock the flag into the water, do not fret; the VISIPole flag pole base floats so it won't sink to the bottom of the sea.
The Uelfbaby Heavy Duty Kayak Safety Flag measures 6 feet tall with a bright, colorful tear-resistant, waterproof, polyester, orange flag that will be more than visible to anybody else on the water and measures 10x7 inches in size. When purchasing this kayak safety flag, you will be getting not one but two to choose from. One with an American flag design and another with a cartoon eagle.
The fiberglass pole breaks down into four separate pieces for easy transport and storage and is wind and impact resistant.
The VISICarbon Pro by YakAttack brings another kayak safety flag and LED light combination that proves super visible on the water. There is a bright orange day-glow flag, which will help with visibility, and a 100 hours plus LED light to further exaggerate your visibility.
The carbon fiber material used in the VISICarbon Pro flag pole is lightweight yet strong and durable enough to resist harsh weather conditions. The flag and pole weigh only 14 ounces, including the AA batteries that power the LED light. Much like the YakAttack VISIPole II, this safety flag pole is GearTrac and MightyMount ready, so you can easily mount this flag pole onto your boat.
The Lixada Kayak Safety Flag is an easy to install flag pole accessory kit which will easily mount onto any kayak, boat, or dinghy.
This kayak visibility flag is red in color, which will help with its observability.
The flag pole is made using aluminum alloy and is constructed together using three self-joining sections of the pole and, therefore, collapsible to make it easy when you need to transport your flag.
If you're looking for a dive flag, the Railblaza kayak flag may be the best kayak flag for you.
If you're looking for a diving flag, you need to consider the visibility and appearance of the flag.
With this kayak flag, you can DIY two types of flag in one. This flag can easily be repurposed as a dive flag by rolling up the existing flag and sliding the dive flag sock over the top.
If you need a flag that doesn't require complicated installation, then the Railblaza kayak flag could be the perfect candidate. The kayak flag comes with a quick-mount system that will fit both Railblaza StarPort and SidePort, so you only need to plug the flag into the socket.
In terms of visibility, this flag is a bright orange flag, which is perhaps the best kayak flag color to attract the attention of other boats and to double up on visibility, the 47-inch long pole is orange too!
The Shoreline Marine Propel Kayak flag has a very adjustable telescoping kayak flag pole system. You can set the flag pole to whatever length you may need, depending on what the weather conditions dictate. The Shoreline Marine pole can be adjusted anywhere between 28 to 48 inches, and it is easy to attach to your boat using the included universal base mount.
The Shoreline Marine kayak flag comes in a high contrast orange color to attract as much attention from other paddlers and boaters.
The SeaGator Dive Flag is a premium quality diving flag, which is a way to alert those around you that you could be somewhere underwater.
In the United States, a 'diver down' flag is a red flag with a white line pointing diagonally downwards, which is the exact design on this flag.
When you fly this flag, boats should legally be staying 100 ft away from your flag.
This flag measures 20x24 inches and includes a removable stiffening pole.
You will need to provide your own kayak pole if you intend to fly it from your kayak.
How to Put a Flag on a Kayak?
As you can see above, many kayak flags can come with their own universal mounting systems, so you already have a way to attach a flag to your kayak effortlessly.
However, some poles require your kayak to have gear tracks to install into. Other poles require being bolted to your kayak.
Some poles fit into your kayaks rod holders should you have a fishing kayak.
It's challenging to determine what the best kayak flag mounting system is, but as long as your flag is strong and able to deal with harsh weather conditions, that's all you need.
Accessories
The necessary basic accessories to make up a kayak flag is a sturdy pole. The best kayak poles are made using carbon fiber to take on any windy weather without snapping of falling down as well as being able to fold up into a transportable size.
You also require a bright flag that is visible, and that encourages attention and, finally, a mounting system to attach the flag to the boat.
Our Favorite Safety Flag!
Are you ready for our top pick? After multiple mounting systems, going through the different kayak flags, several flag designs, and an array of collapsing poles. We think the best kayak flag on the market is the YakAttack VISICarbon Pro Safety Flag!
The VISICarbon Pro is not only a flag for the day but for the night time making use of its LED light, which is easily turned on with a twist of the top.
We think it's an excellent accessory for any kayak paddlers boat, whether you're fishing, paddling, or just splashing around.
The pole is sturdy and durable and conveniently collapses into itself to transport easily.
If you're after a convenient, durable, and visible safety flag, the YakAttack VISICarbon Pro Safety flag is the best flag for you.
Remember, be safe on the water and happy paddling.