Larry Cable wrote:

The two inflatable canoes that I tried are pretty stiff also. The increased
width will make you adjust the old J-stroke, but it wasn't a big deal.
They both actually have reasonable speed tandem and track pretty well too.
The Aire is faster IMO than the Soar, but both lost speed quickly when
you stop paddling. Interesting boats...

A friend of mine has a Soar 16' and it looks and feels very durable. It can
easily hold three people, or two plus gear. The downside is that it bails
relatively slowly (compared to an Aire Lynx) so I wouldn't use it in class 4
or continuous class 3 whitewater.

Larry, have you investigated using kayak floatbags as an IK foot brace?
My friends who have footpegs have either lost them (the plastic ones break)
or cut their legs on them (metal ones are sharp). My friends who installed
foam footrests have had better luck, although the foam is hard to backpack
and takes up lots of space in transit.

NRS sells three float bags that might work: 28" long tapering from 13" to 3",
37" long tapering from 19" to 9", and 20" +storage tapering from 17" to 5".