Packraft Design: The Process of Creating High-Performance Inflatable Boats, with Design Engineer Dustin Partridge

At the end of 2024 we snagged an interview with Alpacka Raft Design Engineer Dustin Partridge before he left for three months of packrafting in Patagonia, Chile. We're super stoked on Episode #11, the first full episode of 2025. Dustin is Alpacka Raft founder/owner Sheri Tingey’s right hand man, and a long-time employee at Alpacka. He came on board as the 15th or 16th employee and worked his way from flooring boats to learning how to build every piece and part of a packraft. And when it became apparently that both his pattern making and computer-aided design skills would make the company operate more smoothly and make Sheri’s job easier, she “stole” him from production. In this episode, Dustin and I talk about Alpacka’s design process, his mentorship with Sheri, the design of the Valkyrie versus the Mage versus the other whitewater boats (and which boat suit which kind of boater), and the work he finds most difficult and is most proud of at his job. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did! PS. In addition to packrafting, Dustin also runs Tough Mudder races, and the mug shot we used for this episode is from one of those races.

Just a note to say we'll soon be rebranding this podcast as, The Packrafting Life, a new entity owned and operated by Lizzy Scully and Steve "Doom" Fassbinder that also includes all things related to The Bikeraft Guide and The Packrafting Survey.