Published August 18, 2026 · 10:48 · Watch on YouTube

What’s in this video

The Ventral shows up in a bag, and the bag actually has room to pack it back in. The big deal is the hull: two stacked chambers. The bottom inflates separately, so if you gash it you still have a full-length top chamber holding you up. They told me they get upwards of 600 lb capacity with both chambers inflated. I’ve seen redundant hulls before, but none where you could still ride on it after one chamber went down.

The motor is tiny and sits flush in the drive well. It’s sealed (IPX8), pops out with a retention strap, and the battery just plugs in with no loose wires. On the water it’s very stable. There’s a slight catamaran shape on the bottom and you sit higher, so the deck stays drier. One tap on the remote straightens the motor, an orange arrow on the display shows direction, and the foot pedals let you drive hands-free. The app does routes, fishing tracks and GPS anchor, plus there’s a heading lock.

Being a prototype, I did see some GPS anchor accuracy issues. I co-own AutoBoat, a GPS trolling motor company, so I reported what I found and their engineers are working on it. We also ran straight into an oyster and it was fine. Early bird pricing at the time of the video was $2,499 on Kickstarter. We wrap up learning a simple blue crab trick: a chicken leg on a string and a net.

Key moments

• 0:00 Introducing the Ventral
• 2:32 Motor assembly and startup
• 4:22 On-water testing
• 5:52 Features and performance review
• 8:38 Crabbing technique and wrap-up

Quick takeaways

• Two stacked air chambers mean the board still floats you if the bottom chamber is punctured.
• The sealed motor pops out with a retention strap if you get too shallow, then locks back in.
• Foot pedals give hands-free driving, and one tap on the remote straightens the motor.
• It was a prototype with some GPS anchor accuracy issues during testing; early bird price at the time was $2,499.

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