If you’ve ever been kayaking at night you’ll know how dark it can get. Not only does this make it really hard to see what you’re doing, it’s also a huge safety hazard as other vessels won’t can’t see you. This is why it’s absolutely essential to have some sort of light on board when kayaking at night or in low light levels.
If you don’t have much time you can spend a bit of money and purchase one of the best kayak lights on the market. But, if you’re on a tight budget and fancy a project, in this post we’re going to be covering some of our favorite DIY kayak light plans that you can make at home.
1. DIY 360 Kayak Fishing Light
The first kayak light we’ll look at that you can make at home is this one here from MDLR Fishing. It’s one of the quickest and cheapest do it yourself kayak lights we found.
It’s also one of the cheapest options that we found needing very few items. All you need is:
- 1/2″ thick PVC pipe
- A ping pong ball
- Maglite Solitaire (like this one)
- A rubber band
- A drill
While it’s not the brightest option you can make, you’ll get a 360 degree light that will help you to be seen out on the water. As you’ll see in the video below, it is very quick to put together and incredibly easy to turn on and off. Check it out below for detailed instructions
2. DIY LED Kayak Lighting
For those of you wanting to add a bit of color to your kayak then you might want to look at fitting it out with some LED light strips like in the next video from Blue Water LED. This option is again very easy to set up up requiring only a few tools. To make this option you’ll need:
- A tape measure
- Pen
- Drill
- Rag
- Alcohol
- LED light strips (they use these ones)
You will need to purchase a some strips of LED lights to get it exactly like the video which can get a bit pricey. But, you could also look for a cheaper version. This company have a number of different colors (amber, orange, blue, green, red and white) so you can completely customize it. Check out the instructions below.
3. DIY Kayak Nav Lights
If you’re looking for something a bit more fancy then take a look at this next set up from Fishin N Stuff. It’s definitely a lot more work than the other plans in our list but if you can spare it then we think it’ll definitely be worth your time. It does also require quite a few more items to get it made which are:
- LED break light
- PVC glue
- PVC pipes (1/2″ and 3/4″)
- 1/2″ PVC pipe connector
- 18 gauge wire
- 2 x pipe reducers
- Toggle switch (like this)
- LED strip light (like this)
- Wire strippers
- Drill
- Battery
He really has thought of everything with this light including how to attach it to your kayak box and its even waterproof should it get wet. Not only that, but the top nav light doesn’t attract bugs which is another cool thing about this one. Check it out below.
4. Homemade $5 Kayak Pole Light
And lastly we have this very cheap and easy to make 360 kayak light from KayakDIY that’ll cost less than $5 to put together. Like all the plans we’ve covered in this list it uses items you’ve probably go lieing around the garage or can pick up very easily at a hardware store. To put it together you’ll need:
- 1/2″ PVC pipe
- Flashlight or solar light (he uses these ones)
- Male threaded 1/2″ PVC adapter
- Female threaded 1/2″ PVC adapter
- PVC plug
- Toilet bolt & nut
Very easy to put together and will even attach to a track mount on your kayak so is ideal for most fishing kayaks.
That’s it for Making Your Own Kayak Lights
That’s it for our post on how to make your own kayak lights, we hope you found it helpful. It’s worth having more than one light on board when out kayaking at night as a backup so you could try more than one of these tutorials.
Whether you end up buying a new kayak light or making your own, we can’t stress how important it is to have some sort of light when kayaking at night. It’s vital for your safety and the safety of others so please, please, please use one. Happy paddling!