Featured
New Surf Spot in Southeast
Georgia and Alabama’s Chattahoochee River is now on the must-visit paddling list alongside such other Southeast boating hotbeds as the Ocoee, Nantahala and Chattooga rivers.
All Start Paddling
Competing in Freestyle Kayaking While Pregnant
05.09.2013
As a professional kayaker I have always exceled in the arena of freestyle competitions. Just this past weekend I got to compete at the US Freestyle Team Trials. I have been a member of the U.S. team for 10 years, and I was excited at the prospect of competing to be a part of the team once again. This time was a touch different, and if you had asked me about it several months ago I wouldn’t have thought it would even be possible. The reasoning is that by the time I would be actually competing, I was seven months, one week pregnant.
Mother’s Day Paddles
05.09.2013
There isn’t a better way to spend time with your mother.” So dust off your old canoe, tandem sea kayak, inflatable or what have you and hit your local waterway with matriarch in tow. If you don’t have the skills to pull it off alone, you can also check with your local shop or paddling club; chances are they, too, have a special outing lined up to celebrate Mom. Following is a sampling of organized Mother’s Day tours you’ll find across the country, er Motherland…
The Legend Lives On
05.03.2013
A decade after whitewater canoeing visionary Frankie Hubbard passed away, Knoxville-based open boater Dooley Tombras cannot fathom what new ideas Hubbard would’ve come up with if he hadn’t succumbed to lung cancer in 2003, at the young age of 41. “Frankie completely modernized the sport,” says Tombras, an elite open boater who’s taken the sport to new heights with his role in The Canoe Movie series of OC-1 videos. “His designs made it possible to run steep creeks and evolved the whole rodeo thing.”
Kelly Gossett
05.01.2013
New Mexico is better known for its arid landscape than for canoeing and kayaking, but that hasn’t dented Kelly Gossett’s enthusiasm for the sport. For six years, Gossett has been the sole proprietor and teacher at Albuquerque’s lone paddling school, New Mexico Kayak Instruction.
STORM RIDERS
04.30.2013
This story featured in the 2013 Buyer’s Guide. The Team: Marty Perry, Rowan Gloag and the Hurricane Riders The Mission: Push the limits of sea-kayak performance By Mike McKay They call themselves the Hurricane Riders, and they delight in chasing the rough waters at the edge of sea kayak performance. They charge into frigid overhead [...]
Deepwater Hunter
04.30.2013
This story featured in the 2013 Buyer’s Guide issue. Man: Andy Cho Mission: Land the biggest fish ever caught from a kayak, and feed his family By Paul Lebowitz Andy Cho is the four-time defending champion of the grueling Aquahunters Makahiki Pro kayak fishing tournament. The goal of this eight-month-long Hawaiian marathon is to beat [...]
Tips for Sea Kayaking in Baja
04.30.2013
Ways to make the most of your next paddling adventure in Mexico
Essential Fish Kayaking Know-How
04.25.2013
Kayaks and fishing. A natural match, right? Still, a boat, a paddle and a rod can be a lot to juggle—and that’s before some pinstriped torpedo otherwise known as a fish starts tearing line off the reel. That heart-pounding moment will be easier to handle with these five essential kayak-fishing skills.
Whitewater ready
04.25.2013
This story featured in the 2013 Beginner’s Guide issue. By Jeff Kinney Learning to kayak whitewater is a long process. You can’t simply master a few skills and tackle a Class V monster. But according to Jerry McAward, a veteran instructor at Northeast PA Kayak School, these five essential skills form the backbone of any [...]
Unfiltered: Maligiaq Johnsen Padilla
04.22.2013
Padilla has always straddled two worlds. His father was an American serviceman, his mother Greenland Inuit. He learned Greenlandic at age 3 when his parents split and his mother brought him back to Greenland from the States, re-learning English in high school. Two years ago he moved to Alaska and married Elizabeth Saagulik Hensley, an Alaskan Inuit attorney. With the day off from his construction job (“It’s 20 below, not too cold for me but the air compressors don’t work”), Padilla held their 6-month-old daughter as we spoke. — Jeff Moag
Bugging out? Eddy’s Got Answers
04.17.2013
Eddy’s got answers regarding eating leather boots and bug repellants.
Going Deep
04.17.2013
For the last decade, the smoky joint Under-the-Hill Saloon has also served as the headquarters for the Phatwater Challenge, a 42-mile race that finishes at the boat ramp below this bar in Natchez, Mississippi.
Creek Racing is Back—And this time it’s serious
04.17.2013
30 of the world’s best paddlers charge a giant slalom course on Idaho’s signature Class V drop at the North Fork Championship.
Paddling Chernobyl? A case for exploring polluted waters
04.17.2013
Brooklyn-based author and canoeist Andrew Blackwell wanted to look deeper into the area devastated by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Destinations—The West Coast
04.16.2013
North America’s west coast has some of the sweetest sea kayaking venues in this dimension, and many of them are also blessed with small lodges with kayak-minded hosts and convenient water access.
Buyer's Guide
