Nantahala Outdoor Center And The Wesser Foundation Launch Guide Scholarship

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October 3, 2022

Group going down a rapid in a yellow raft — Photo: Courtesy Nantahala Outdoor Center

Bryson City, N.C. (September 20, 2022)— Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) is proud to partner with The Wesser Foundation Inc. to launch the Founders Scholarship, for the purpose of creating opportunities for those with limited resources to begin a career in whitewater. The scholarship is open for applicants for the 2023 season and will cover the cost of Guide School training, equipment, housing, and meal plans.

NOC, the Leaders in Outdoor Adventure Since 1972, has taught more guides than anyone in the industry. Elite river guide instructors offer hands-on experience teaching river reading, guide paddle strokes and communication, river safety and rescue, boat features and rigging, and more. Students come away from the experience with self-confidence, leadership skills, teamwork, and environmental knowledge.

“NOC has been teaching and training river guides for over 50 years,” said Kristin Kastelic, NOC Marketing Director. “With this scholarship, we hope to open up the opportunity for more careers in whitewater and a connection to the outdoors, to even more people that might not have the resources to take the leap.”

The Wesser Foundation was established by Jess Austin, who met the same challenges early in his career. Austin had to forego becoming a river guide in his 20s as he pursued law school. Now retired, he finally made his dream come true and works at NOC as a river guide, taking families down the Nantahala River every spring through the fall.

“My wife and I established the Founders Scholarship as a way of removing systemic barriers for anyone attempting to access a career in the outdoors,” said Jess Austin, President of the Wesser Foundation, NOC Lead River Guide, and the visionary behind the scholarship. “As someone who had to put aside outdoor aspirations due to financial barriers, I’m inspired to remove limitations and help more folks gain access to careers and training in the outdoors.”

Chosen scholarship recipients will attend NOC’s renowned Guide School, where participants spend five days in the field training with experienced instructors. Along with learning guide skills, chosen recipients will also be outfitted with essential river gear and equipment, take first aid and CPR training and certifications, and receive complimentary staff housing and meals while employed at Nantahala Outdoor Center during the River Guide season.

Those interested in the Founders Scholarship are encouraged to apply at noc.com/about/founders-scholarship. The selection and interview process for the scholarships will begin in the winter of 2022-2023 and be announced in the spring.

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About Nantahala Outdoor Center

Nantahala Outdoor Center is the nation’s largest outdoor recreation company with operations spanning Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Over a million guests visit NOC annually to embark on a diverse collection of more than 120 different river and land-based itineraries, learn to kayak at NOC’s world-renowned Paddling School, travel abroad with NOC’s Adventure Travel program, test the latest outdoor gear and shop at its LEED-certified flagship retail stores or enjoy NOC’s resort amenities such as its three restaurants and multi-tiered lodging. NOC has been recognized by The New York Times as the “Nation’s Premiere Paddling School,” “The Best Place to Learn” by Outside, and as “One of the Best Outfitters on Earth” by National Geographic Adventure.

Feature photo: Courtesy Nantahala Outdoor Center

Follow The 650-Mile Paddle Race Across Alabama

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Paddling Magazine Staff

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September 30, 2022

Racers taking off from starting line at the Great Alabama 650 — Image: Alabama 650

See below for latest race update 2:00 p.m. CT, October 3.

On October 1, a group of 20 endurance-paddling athletes will take off from a boat dock on Weiss Lake, in the northeast corner of Alabama. They embark on a 650-mile race that nearly follows a source-to-sea route of the Alabama River. This is the Great Alabama 650, founded in 2019, the second longest paddling race in the world.

Enduring The Great Alabama 650

Compared to other long distance races, such as the Yukon 1000, the 650 has athletes descending a diverse range of waterways. The Alabama 650 begins in a chain of lakes in the Appalachian foothills. Then followed by a section of whitewater on the Coosa River before eventually joining the widening Alabama River. The Alabama River continues a serpentining path across the state toward the maze of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, often called the Amazon of North America.

Just when paddlers have put nearly the entire watershed behind them and their energy has been sapped, they must embark on an open-water 30-mile crossing of Mobile Bay to reach this finish at Fort Morgan on the Gulf of Mexico.

[ Read: The Ultimate Guide To Paddling In Alabama ]

“You aren’t finished until you cross that open span of the Mobile Bay,” declares Paul Cox, who holds the current Alabama 650 record of 4 days, 17 hours and 2 minutes with race partner Joe Mann. “You go all that way, 600 miles, and then you have the worst part right at the end.” Cox and Mann nearly saw their 2021 run wrecked when they capsized in the bay. But the team recovered and still managed to finish in record fashion.

Cox will have a different perspective on the long distance event this year, chasing competitors through the state as a race volunteer. Supporting the athletes of the 650 is a perspective Cox has appreciated firsthand, and he looks forward to returning the favor. He says, the people of Alabama come out to remote stretches of river for a few moments of hoisting a sign and cheering them on. That gesture of support is a big part of what has made the long distance race stand out to him.

Follow The Action

The good news for paddling enthusiasts is that you don’t have to make a trip cross country to witness the race. Live tracking of the Alabama 650 will be available on their website AL650.com.

[ Find the fastest ships in the galaxy in the Paddling Buyer’s Guide ]

You can also learn more about the race itself by visiting AL650.com Stay tuned for further coverage of the Great Alabama 650.

Race Updates

October 3, 2022: Solo male paddler Bobby Johnson currently leads the race. As of 2:00 p.m. CT, Johnson has reached race mile 254, approaching the halfway point of the Alabama 650.

Salli O’Donnell holds second place, following closely behind Johnson. O’Donnell trails by just three miles. The pair closely contested the inaugural 2019 event, which Johnson eventually won.

Now it appears Johnson and O’Donnell are again in a race to win the 2022 Alabama 650, but not without company. Another solo female paddler, Frances Hiscox chases the two.

Eleven total boats are on the course. Five solo female paddlers, three solo male paddlers, and three tandem teams.

Continue to track the race live at: AL650.com.

BOTE Announces The Last Cowboy Limited Edition Collection

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PRESS RELEASE Bote

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September 29, 2022

BOTE, the longstanding innovation leader in the paddleboard, kayak and water lifestyle space, announces its limited edition Last Cowboy collection. Inspired by the locals—the ones working before the sun rises and those choosing to sleep under the stars.

Whether in the field, on the water or around the farm, this gear stands up to the elements and looks good doing it.

Last Cowboy Collection

FEATURES

Waxed canvas
Water resistant
Everlasting durability
Craftsman inspired material

PRODUCTS

Zeppelin Aero 10′ Last Cowboy Inflatable Kayak
Highwater Tote
Highwater Duffel
Highwater Slingpack
Highwater Backpack
KULA Soft 2.5
Zeppelin Aero 10′ Last Cowboy Inflatable Kayak Package

See website for more.

About BOTE

BOTE is driven by a singular yet broad-reaching mission: To stand apart through industry-shaping innovation, fresh ideas and simplicity to create a product that defines a lifestyle. It is this mission that keeps BOTE pushing the boundaries of both technology and style to bring customers a product that not only looks beautiful and performs flawlessly, but that stirs the soul and inspires adventure. Born from standup paddleboards and now pioneering inflatable kayaks, floating dock systems, and more—BOTE continues to strive for advancement and embrace individuality.

Liquidlogic Remasters A Classic Kayak For Modern River Running With The RMX (Video)

By

Paddling Magazine Staff

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September 29, 2022

Liquidlogic couldn’t have known when they released the Remix nearly 15 years ago it would become their longest running kayak in production to date, and a favorite not just for kayak instruction, but advanced paddlers pushing the limits on difficult rivers. With the progression of kayak design in recent years, the enduring Remix is due for, well remastering. It seems that kayak has arrived with Liquidlogic’s announcement of the RMX by designer Shane Benedict.

Introducing The Liquidlogic RMX Whitewater Kayak

From the RMX video featuring Shane Benedict:

“The longest running boat that Liquidlogic has ever made is the Remix. The Remix came around at a funny time in kayak design. Everything was getting shorter. They were heading down to around eight feet.

Shane Benedict with the RMX kayak — Shane Benedict. Image: Liquidlogic Kayaks / Facebook

“That shortness made them easy to handle in tight, technical situations for sure, but you lost performance. You lost speed. You lost glide. That’s one thing we were excited about with going back up to nine feet when we developed the Remix nearly 15 years ago. That boat was developed to be a beginner boat and an all-river craft. But those same attributes, the intuitiveness, the speed, the skip, and the carvy feel. Those are attributes the most advanced paddlers in the world want as well. And that’s what we wanted to bring in the RMX.

“The same thing is sort of happening now. The boats are longer, so it’s not that. But all the boats are rockering up. There’s huge rocker on both ends. Yes, it does make it easier to paddle and easier to handle. But once again we are losing that performance feel.

[ Find your next river running kayak in the Paddling Buyer’s Guide ]

“What we’ve done with RMX is drop the stern rocker. It’s a little bit more than the original Remix, but less than a lot of what’s happening right now. Right now, boats are effectively getting shorter in their waterline. So they are getting that same thing, easy to spin and do all this stuff. But you start to lose that performance feel. We are trying to bring that back with a modernization. So the RMX is an attempt at that new, intuitive-feeling boat, that will take care of you and be an all-river craft. And beginners can use it, but also the best paddlers in the world are going to take it to the hardest rivers.

“The RMX is three different sections of boat to me. You’ve got the middle. That’s your foundation that takes care of you. That’s your stability, your spin. It’s got a nice flat hull so you can move it around real easily.

“But then on the front you’ve got a Mack Truck. You’ve got the Alpha bow rocker. And it just wants to run over everything.

[ Read: Everything You Need To Know About Buying A Creek Boat ]

“You’ve also got the tail, which is performance. That tucked down volume allows you to pivot quickly, or to do a really nice water boof by tucking that tail under water. But also, I’ve carried the chines out wide, all the way to the end, and the tail is a little extra wide as well. That does a couple of things: Speed through rapids especially, skipping out of the bottom of drops, and the chines being held out wider give you really nice carving arcs as you are working your way downstream.

“The simple way I’ve started to describe the RMX is it is the speed and DNA of the old Remix, but we’ve added in the big tank bow rocker, and flat chined hull.”

Stern of RMX — Image: Liquidlogic Kayaks / Facebook

Liquidlogic Kayaks RMX Specifications

Large

Length: 9’6”

Width: 27.25”

Volume: 96 gallons

Medium

Length: 9’4”

Width: 26.75”

Volume: 86 gallons

Learn more about the RMX at: liquidlogickayaks.com.

News: Cyril Derreumaux Completes Pacific Crossing To Hawaii

By

Joe Potoczak

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September 21, 2022

On September 20, 2022, Cyril Derreumaux paddled into the town of Hilo, on the island of Hawaii. After 91 days and nine hours at sea and paddling 2,544 nautical miles, Derreumaux completed his attempt to paddle the Pacific from California to Hawaii, becoming just the second solo kayaker to accomplish the feat.

Man holding torch out from kayak — Cyril Derreumaux reaches Hawaii. Photo: Tom Gomes

Cyril Derreumaux’s quest to paddle the Pacific from California to Hawaii

Derreumaux began the Pacific voyage on June 21 from Monterey, California. The 2022 expedition was his second attempt, following a 2021 expedition ending within a week due to deteriorating ocean conditions. This did not deter Derreumaux from making another go at the lonely and grueling endeavor.

The original goal for completing the paddle was around 70 days. However, Derreumaux once again faced adversities early on, including brutal winds and gear malfunctions.

Map of Cyril Derreumaux's Pacific crossing. — Map of Derreumaux’s Expedition. Image: TravelMap

“A west wind comes from the west and blows toward the east. When this happens I am blown back towards the land. This is what has been happening for last two days so I have been doing 10 hours each day to make progress towards south west (Hawaii),” Derreumaux wrote via his Garmin inReach on day 16.

“But most frustrating is the loss that occurs at night. As soon as I stop paddling the wind blows me off course. If I lose 15 miles during the night I have to make them back up the next day.”

On day 18, Derreumaux had to create a port to drain a flooded compartment within his kayak. He did so by glueing the screw top of an apple sauce packet to the side of the boat, then drilling a hole through it.

Then on day 46, Derreumaux lost his electric water desalination system, which meant he would have to produce drinking water manually.

“It had been making weird noises for a couple of weeks now, and I could hear some of these were not sounding ‘right.’ On the day it started to make new noises that were a bit alarming to me, until the power went off from one second to another.”

[ Read: 6 Epic Expeditions To Follow This Year ]

Derreumaux understood the timeline, and eventually, the destination, would need to be adjusted because of the challenges he had been facing. On day 66, Derreumaux and his support team made the call to change his destination from Waikiki to Hilo. This effectively cut six days from a trip that would already be stretching his body and rations thin due to an unscheduled extra month at sea.

Entering Hilo and joining a daring few

At midday on September 20, 2022, Cyril Derreumaux paddled up the mouth of the Wailoa River in Hilo. When he reached shore, his hands were taken by family and supporters on the dock, who helped the paddler out of his craft and onto land—his first time on solid ground in three months.

Cyril Derreumaux with family in Hawaii — Image: Tom Gomes

Derreumaux is just the third solo paddler to complete the Pacific voyage from California to Hawaii. His inspiration for the trip largely came from the historic 1987 journey of Ed Gillet, who impressively reached Maui in 63 days, using an off-the-shelf touring kayak and without the communication devices available today. Gillet’s trip was a tale shared among paddlers for years and was eventually chronicled in depth in the 2018 book, The Pacific Alone.

Gillet stood alone as the only paddler to have completed the endeavor for over 30 years until the Spanish standup paddleboarder Antonio de la Rosa did so in 2019. Now, 46-year-old Derreumaux joins the short list of solo expedition paddlers to have successfully reached Hawaii.

It’s Time To Change How We Pay For Paddling

By

Neil Schulman

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September 21, 2022

I beach my kayak at a paddle-in campground. A fee box wants $12 to camp on a not-quite-flat spot with no access to drinking water. Next to the box is a garbage can overflowing with trash. The vault toilet, equally overflowing with aroma, has no toilet paper or hand sanitizer. I walk back to my kayak for my wallet and TP, muttering that we kayakers should have listened to Arthur Cecil Pigou. How we pay for paddling—and yes, we pay—is broken. Let’s fix it.

It’s time to change how we pay for paddling

Pigou was a climber, not a kayaker, about a hundred years ago. And he was an economist. If we want to keep kayaking, we need to get to know the guy.

Kayakers think of paddling expenses as kayaks, drysuits, carbon fiber paddles and plane fares to tropical getaways. But my glove compartment holds five passes for different park districts, boat ramps and national forests. We also shell out for access, permits and camping, not to mention programs to keep water clean and restore habitat. And we’ve been paying more for less for a long time. Oregon just jacked up its camping fees at state parks to a whopping $42.

Best Drysuits For Paddling In 2026

Costs rise, but management funding has failed to roll up, down 16 percent in real terms in the past two decades. The deluge of outdoor recreation during the pandemic magnified the crisis. My home state grew from 2.8 million people when I first slid into a Perception Dancer to 4.2 million today. During those decades, we’ve opened just two new state parks.

User fees are based on the principle of “user benefits, so user pays.” That makes sense on paper but fails in reality. User fees account for just 11 percent of site management budgets, with maintenance backlogs as long as a thousand surfskis laid end to end, as of 2019. And the more you raise user fees, the bigger barrier you create to participation—price folks out, and they’ll stop coming.

“User fees cannot fund agencies struggling to keep up with operations, let alone add additional recreation infrastructure to meet growing populations and increased demand for outdoor recreation,” the Outdoor Industry Association noted in 2017.

The right disincentives can promote more positive behavior

Back when Pigou was climbing in the Lake District and teaching economics at Cambridge after World War I, he devised tax structures to tax things we don’t want, like smoking, burning carbon, water pollution, instead of things that are good for society, like income, employment, property and outdoor recreation. Pigouvian taxes put the money into offsetting those negative impacts, like health care or environmental restoration. As the higher cost of cigarettes leads folks to ditch the habit, less money for smoking cessation won’t be a big deal.

What we’re doing with paddling right now is the opposite. Paddling is a human-powered, low-carbon activity and builds an environmental stewardship ethic. Instead of jacking up the price on camping and still not having the bucks for toilet paper, we should tax what we want less of and use those funds to repair our outdoor recreation sites.

[ Browse the widest selection of boats and gear in the Paddling Buyer’s Guide ]

What would a Pigouvian setup to support kayaking look like? How about a hefty tax on two-stroke motors, which dump half their fuel into the water unburnt? And another on disposable plastic bottles turning the sea into an endocrine disrupter goo? I bet Arthur Cecil would be into that.

Neil Schulman writes, kayaks, photographs and does conservation work in Oregon, where outdoor recreation is (under)funded by the state lottery.

This article was first published in the Early Summer 2022 issue of Paddling Magazine. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.

The only constants in life are death and taxes—and kayaking. | Feature photo: Nicholas Spooner

Watch The 2022 Extreme Kayak Championships (Video)

Videos

By

Paddling Magazine Staff

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September 20, 2022

On September 23, a collection of the best whitewater racers in the world will make their way to a starting ramp above a steep, chaotic section of river known as the Wellerbrücke. The fastest will win the 2022 Oetz Trophy – Extreme Kayaking Championships.

The 2022 Extreme Kayak Championships begin

The second annual Oetz Trophy continues its reign as the successor to the former Adidas Sickline. The race provides an intense, one-minute time-trial course on the technical class V of the Wellerbrücke section on the Ötztaler Ache in Austria.

[ Read: Oetz Trophy — A New Spin On A Classic Race ]

The 2021 event saw plenty of excitement, with unforeseen high-water and the crowning of champions Laura Hofberger and Dane Jackson.

Racing kicks off Friday, September 23 at 9:30 a.m. CET (3:30 a.m. ET) with the finals scheduled to start Saturday at 3:15 p.m. CET (9:15 a.m. ET).

You can watch the finals by live stream on the Oetz Trophy page or by using the embedded video above.

[ For top picks and expert reviews, check out Paddling Magazine’s guide to the best whitewater kayaks here. ]

2022 Oetz Trophy Schedule (Central European Time)

Friday, September 23, 2022
9:30 am – 12:30 p.m. Qualifying heats men’s/women’s – 1st run
01:30 – 04:30 p.m. Qualifying heats men’s/women’s – 2nd run

Saturday, September 24, 2022
10:00 am – 12:00 p.m. Quarterfinals
01:00 – 02:15 p.m. Semifinals
03:15 – 04:00 p.m. Finals

2021 Highlight Video

5 Most Commonly Asked Questions About Kayaking, According To Google

By

Brian Day

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September 19, 2022

The internet is a miraculous place. The sum knowledge of the human experience is at our fingertips and with a few clicks we can find answers to all of life’s most common questions about kayaking and just about any other topic.

How many ounces are there in a cup? Eight. Is it safe to feed your dog onions? Nope. What’s the best way to get wine stains out of the carpet? Add a tablespoon of dishwashing soap and a tablespoon of white vinegar to two cups of warm water, blot gently.

Fortunately for us, Google compiled the most popular kayaking queries. Here are my serious answers to what seem like stupid questions.

The Delta 10 and 12AR recreational kayaks utilize a unique design with a stable pontoon hull in the stern transitioning to a V-hull from under the paddler to the bow

Kayak Hulls—And Why They Matter

5 most commonly asked questions about kayaking, according to Google

1 Can kayaks sink?

All boats can sink. Heck, ships sink. If Lake Superior can sink the 730-foot-long Edmund Fitzgerald capable of carrying a load of iron ore 26,000 tons more than it weighed empty, it certainly can sink a 15-foot kayak.

However, kayak designers go to great lengths to keep kayaks afloat. At a minimum, a kayak should have some foam in the bow and stern to prevent it from sinking completely. However, sinking isn’t usually the problem to worry about. Instead, you need a kayak to float high enough in the water when swamped so you can paddle to a safe spot and empty out. Bulkheads with properly sealed hatches allow for this but aren’t features found in the cheaper kayaks on the market.

man performs a headstand on a kayak in calm waters with mountains in background, and his head is sticking inside the cockpit — “Yep, there’s definitely a bulkhead in here.” | Feature photo: Brendan Kowtecky

2 Do inflatable kayaks work?

Perhaps it’s not surprising this is one of the most commonly asked kayaking questions when Amazon’s top result for the search term ‘kayak’ is the inflatable Intex Explorer K2.

Do inflatable kayaks work? Sure. So long as we’re not talking about the glorified pool toys at the SuperSaverMart. Many are as durable as an inflatable unicorn and move through the water like a limp iguana. Quality inflatable kayaks perform well and pack away conveniently for transport and storage. You’ll find them in your local paddle shop, not where you get your groceries.

3 Can you paddle a pedal kayak? How far?

Pedal drive kayaks are great for scooting across the water hands-free, using the stronger muscles of your legs to propel your craft. They’re especially popular as fishing kayaks because anglers don’t have to fuss around with the paddle when casting or landing a fish.

Of course, if you want to fuss around with the paddle you can, but pedal kayaks get pretty big. Some pedal kayaks are up to 44 inches wide and weigh more than 100 pounds—they’ve gone to pedals to move this big stable platform for a reason. You can paddle them as far as you’d like, I suppose. For those who want to make miles solely by paddle power, consider a longer, sleeker and more efficient touring kayak, capable of circumnavigating continents.

4 Are kayaks dangerous?

Of the estimated 37 million Americans who went paddling in 2020, 202 paddlers died according to the U.S. Coast Guard. Where cause of death was known, 75 percent of fatal boating accident victims drowned. Of those drowning victims, 86 percent were not wearing a life jacket.

The majority of paddling accidents and fatalities involve beginners—nearly three-quarters of victims had less than 100 hours experience. Reduce your risk by always wearing a life jacket, dressing for cold-water immersion, checking the weather forecast before leaving shore, and always paddle sober and with a partner.

As Record Numbers Of Paddlers Take To The Water, Accidents Surge

5 Why are kayaks so expensive?

Not all kayaks are expensive. I saw one just the other day at a big feed store that sells farm equipment, and it wasn’t much more than $100. It was made out of lightweight plastic that reminded me of a kiddie pool and it had a cup holder.

However, real kayaks range anywhere from $400 to $4,000 dollars. Quality kayaks cost this much because a lot goes into building them. Plastic kayaks are made in molds costing tens of thousands of dollars and cooked in ovens that cost even more. Fiberglass kayaks take a week or more to build—by hand. Want a comfortable seat? Hatches and bulkheads for safety? A rudder or skeg? A lot goes into making a quality kayak and all those details add up. They’re definitely worth the price, especially since kayaks don’t become obsolete and can last a lifetime with proper care.

This article was first published in the Early Summer 2022 issue of Paddling Magazine. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.

“Yep, there’s definitely a bulkhead in here.” | Feature photo: Brendan Kowtecky

Why You’re Never Too Old To Be Whitewater World Champion

By

Marissa Tiel

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September 14, 2022

Last summer, four-time freestyle world champion and whitewater paddling legend Eric Jackson took up training for a new discipline. He was eyeing a spot on the U.S. extreme slalom team.

Jackson trained with his 28-year-old son, Dane, ahead of trials. Part of their training was head-to-head paddling on flatwater. In most cases, Jackson was as fast or faster than his son.

At 58, he’s now the oldest member of the U.S. national team after qualifying for the newly-added extreme slalom event. People keep asking him if he’ll retire.

“Why would you want to retire if you’re having fun doing it,” Jackson says.

The questions kept coming. Wasn’t he finding it harder to recover? Not really. He started paying more attention to who was asking the questions. “They weren’t working out,” he says. “They weren’t athletes anymore.”

Why you’re never too old to be whitewater world champion

From running whitewater to honing their skills on the slalom course, kayakers flock to the sport for many reasons. But what keeps them on the river is a never-ending supply of fun, challenge and life-long learning. And as long as your skills remain sharp, you can compete at a high-performance level for decades.

a male athlete dives underwater in a pool — Gymnasts, divers and BMX cyclists—all sports requiring flexibility and acrobatics—peak in their early 20s. | Photo: Artem Verbo/Unsplash

At what age are high-performance whitewater paddlers typically peaking? There isn’t much scientific data about whitewater kayaking, but we can look to the sport’s Olympic discipline for some clues. In a 2016 paper, researchers analyzed the ages of top performers in 40 sports at the 2012 London Olympics. The top 10 athletes in canoeing, which didn’t separate flatwater and whitewater events, had an average age of 27.5 for women and 27.8 for men. The youngest solo athlete was Australia’s Jessica Fox, 18, who took home silver in women’s K-1, while the oldest athlete on the podium was 34-year-old Tony Estanguet of France, who won gold in men’s C-1 slalom.

Swimmers, in contrast, peak in their early 20s. Gymnasts, divers and BMX cyclists—all sports requiring flexibility and acrobatics, like freestyle kayaking—also peak in their early 20s, according to the same research.

The enduring allure of kayaking

You don’t want to do most sports forever, according to Jackson, who grew up as a competitive swimmer. “Do you want to swim back and forth in a chlorinated pool looking at a black line and then when you get to the T on the other side, you turn around and return and just do it over and over for 50 years, 40 years, 30 years,” he says. “You want to do it to prove you can be the best, then you get there and it’s like, man, wouldn’t I love to go kayaking or skiing and do something fun.”

There are many reasons why athletes choose to leave high-performance sport: career, marriage, kids and injury are the most common. Why they stay is clear, especially if they’re able to organize their lives around paddling. Jackson traveled between rivers with his young family in a giant RV, while two-time extreme kayaking world champion Mariann Saether follows the paddling season south with her family. They split their time between the road, their home in Norway and their riverside home in Chile.

“I never get bored in my kayak,” says Saether, who learned to paddle more than 25 years ago. Now 41, Saether won her world titles at age 35 and 39. While she participated in a whirlwind of activities growing up in Norway, kayaking has her heart.

“I got pretty good on a snowboard, [at] handball, I even did synchronized swimming and baton-twirling,” she adds. “It all got boring. But out on the river, I am never bored.”

eric jackson performs a freestyle whitewater kayaking move — Shine on you crazy diamond. | Feature photo: Peter Holcombe

Older athletes must adapt to compete

David Ford made the Canadian whitewater slalom team for the first time in 1984. Thirty-three years later, he qualified for his final national team in 2017 at age 50.

Ford is a five-time Olympian and in 1999, at age 32, became the first non-European paddler to win a men’s K1 title at a slalom world championship.

He loved being on the water, training and the puzzle of high performance: what pieces can you add and subtract to give you an edge? As he got older, those pieces changed, and he gained access to great minds in sports medicine. They recommended more rest and recovery, and phasing his training to peak precisely when he needed to.

Ford has always been quick to adapt to the shifting sport of whitewater slalom, and he credits the ability to change for allowing him to remain competitive for so long. Even as boats got shorter and courses tightened, he remained one of the top male slalom kayakers in the country, in its deepest field. “The key has been to just not stop moving,” he told one reporter ahead of his final world championship in 2017.

[ Browse the widest selection of boats and gear in the Kayak Angler Buyer’s Guide ]

But toward the end of Ford’s competitive slalom career, the kids who grew up in the shorter slalom boats were catching up. “They were able to do things I could do, but they were doing it just with instinct,” Ford says. “I had to think about it, and the slight amount of thinking about it just made it tougher.”

While Ford is now retired from slalom paddling, he’s still out on the water at least four times a week.

Veteran squirt boaters stay on top

One discipline that hasn’t seen much growth is squirt boating. The low-volume boat remains a favorite for Canadian freestyle team member Matt Hamilton. He’s currently qualified to represent the country at the next world championships in 2022 and was also part of the squirt boat contingent Canada sent to Spain in 2019, who were all over 30.

There are younger paddlers participating in squirt, says Hamilton, 46. They just aren’t performing as well in competitions. So veteran paddlers like Hamilton, who have more than three decades of experience on the water, continue to compete at world championship levels.

[ Watch: The Mystery Of Squirt Boating ]

Hamilton, who lives a few minutes from the take-out on the Ottawa River, says he’s putting time in on the water. In 2021, he logged more than 100 days in his boat.

The idea of just putting the time in has served fellow freestyle kayaker Jackson well throughout his career. “If you are an athlete focused on that part of it, the physical side of it,” he says, “and you don’t let it go, you maintain it, it doesn’t just go away.”

This article was first published in the Early Summer 2022 issue of Paddling Magazine. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.

Shine on you crazy diamond. | Feature photo: Peter Holcombe

The Physics Of Gunwale Bobbing (Video)

By

Paddling Magazine Staff

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September 13, 2022

If you find yourself across the lake without a paddle, it turns out science may be the best way to get your canoe moving forward. Canoeists who’ve spent their fair share of days at summer camp may remember the not-so-subtle art of gunwale bobbing. The act of standing atop the canoe, near the stern, and squatting up and down to create momentum, propelling the canoe without the assistance of the paddle.

The Scientific Need For Gunwale Bobbing

While some have worried gunwale bobbing may be going the way of Royalex, a recent, and we argue, much needed, scientific paper in the journal, Physical Review Fluids, investigates the act and reignites interest in the skill.

[ Read: Act Now To Save Gunwale Bobbing Before It’s Gone ]

The goal of the gunwale bobbing study? To gain a better understanding of what these scientists define aa a phenomenon, and how a better understanding of it may find the optimum parameters of canoe velocity in sport.

But why stop there? Who knows what other mysteries of the universe we can answer through a deeper dive into what we used to call goofing around in our canoes?

Gunwale bobbing demonstration — Feature Image: Trinity College, Cambridge / YouTube

A Lesson In Fluid Dynamics

If you’re looking for a digestible explanation of the paper look no further than one of the authors, Dr. Jerome Neufeld who presents the fluid dynamics of gunwale bobbing in this video shared by Trinity College of Cambridge University.

Here is a summary provided by Neufeld in the video:

“If you jump on the back of a paddleboard, or you jump on the back of a canoe, you generate your own wave field. And if you jump at the right frequency you can drive your own forward velocity up to meter per second.

So, how does this work? Well if you take a duck or a boat, that’s swimming or moving through the water, you’ll notice that the duck or boat generates its own wave field. That wave field carries energy from the swimming duck or the motorized boat, or the canoe, off into the distance. Some of that energy you can use to drive your own forward velocity.

Let’s think for a second about how a wave field works. if we just took a boat and we bobbed it up and down, so a heaving motion, we would generate a symmetric wave field that would spread off in either direction in an identical fashion. That wave field would radiate energy but it wouldn’t drive your forward velocity. Similarly, if you did a see-sawing motion you would also generate a symmetric wave field, and it’s also not going to drive your forward velocity.

[ Find your next canoe trip in the Paddling Trip Guide ]

What you really need is both a heaving and a pitching motion. By combining a heaving motion and a pitching motion you can arrange to push down on the slope of your last wave. Just like a surfer, you’re pushing down on the slope of the wave and you’re surfing it forwards. As you jump on the back of a canoe, you send a wave field predominantly laterally, and by jumping on top of your old wave you’re able to surf it forwards at a meter-per-second velocity.”