After visiting a VW California meet couple of weekend ago, several people asked how I  load my kayak onto the roof of the California.
I’m not the tallest of people so and probably wouldn’t be able to reach a Kari-Tek system with our something to stand on and like to keep things simple, so i use a small work platform.

After putting on the roof rack and the straps on, I lift the kayak up and stand it on its nose or tail on the work platform, I then step up onto the platform and then lift the kayak onto the roof from there.

The work platform also often doubles up as a spare seat, Cobb BBQ cooking platform, table or drying rack.

Don’t forget you can raise the roof with up to 50kg of weight on the roof.