4 articles
Canoeing, kayaking, paddleboarding and packrafting: choosing a boat, planning a trip and paddling safely.
Gliding across glassy water at sunrise, floating down a lazy river from one small town to the next, pulling a packraft out of your backpack to cross a lake: a paddle opens up a whole other way to travel. Here we help you choose your boat, from a canoe or a kayak to an inflatable paddleboard or a packraft, based on what you want to do, your budget, the space you have to store it and how you’ll get it to the water.
Planning a trip starts with a route that fits you: distance, time on the water, put-ins and takeouts, portages where you’ll carry the boat, and a shuttle back to your car. We explain how to read that information, load and balance your gear, keep the essentials dry and care for an inflatable. Our guides focus on flatwater, from lakes and ponds to slow, gentle rivers, and point you to clubs and paddling schools to learn the strokes with qualified instruction.
The water has its rules too: access points and launching, sharing the water with anglers and other boaters, seasonal closures for wildlife, local restrictions, and registration, launch permits or invasive species inspections that vary from state to state. We take them from regulations, local ordinances and agency websites, dating each check and keeping what’s prohibited, tolerated and allowed with conditions clearly separate. Before you head out, we point you to official sources for weather and river levels.
The guides are written for families renting a canoe from an outfitter for their first float as much as for regular paddlers who own a boat and want to outfit or haul it better. To compare boats, we start from their spec sheets and the standards that apply to them, with sources cited, and when someone on our team has actually paddled one of them, it’s their voice you’re reading. Common mistakes get their place, like forgetting the headwind when planning the trip back. As for who sits in the bow and who’s really steering, that debate is still open.
PaddlingHow-to guide
On a roof, a kayak stays put with two straps, two lines and simple math: crossbars, carriers and boat stay within what the manuals allow. Without a rack, on a trailer, in a van or deflated in the trunk, every option has limits. And once the boat sticks out, the rules change from place to place: 9.8 feet (3 m) in France, 4.9 feet (1.5 m) in Germany, a flag beyond 4 feet in Washington State.
Nolwenn Bastide··13 min
Length, width, thickness, volume, weight capacity, construction, PSI: what every number on an inflatable paddle board means, and what the spec sheet leaves out.
Nolwenn Bastide··13 min
Canoe or kayak for your first time out? Single vs. double paddle, position, cargo space, family trips, rentals, and the gear French law requires.
Nolwenn Bastide··10 min
How to canoe a French river over two days: pick a calm route, reserve a bivouac spot, pack the boat, and handle a capsize. With the Ardèche as an example.
Nolwenn Bastide··7 min
Français (France)
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English (US)
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