Floatables Inflatable Water Hammock 3x2.5m

This is the difference between a floating mat and somewhere you actually stay for hours. On a solid dock you are either on it and hot, or off it and swimming. With the mesh you sit on the pontoon ring with your legs through, or lie back into the mesh so you're half in the water and half out. On a 38 degree day that's the difference between your twenty minutes and your whole afternoon. It's also the reason kids stay on it: they're in the water, inside the ring, and in sight.

Five hundred kilograms is five or six adults, or your whole family plus the esky and the gear. Most inflatable lounges of this size are rated for two or three people. The 200mm thickness and the double-layered side walls are what carry that: thicker means more buoyancy and more rigidity, so it sits high and doesn't fold when someone climbs on from the water, which is when cheaper platforms tip you in.

Straight-sided hexagons connect. With the four dock connectors included, you can join this to another Floatables dock and build a bigger platform, and nothing stops you adding more as your group grows. If your mates have one too, you get a genuinely large floating area for a day on the water rather than two things bobbing next to each other.

The quick inflation system and the included hand pump get it up without a compressor, though on something this size a hand pump is a decent workout. If you'll be inflating it every weekend, an electric high pressure pump is the accessory that makes it painless. It packs into the carry bag, and the repair kit is in there too, which is the sort of thing you only need once, but need badly.

Two habits and yours will last years. Rinse the salt off before it goes in the bag, because salt crystals grind at the fabric and the seams every time it's rolled. And don't leave it inflated in full sun on a hot day: air expands, the pressure climbs, and that's how seams get stressed. Let a bit out on a 40 degree afternoon and put it away dry.