Boating & Water

Evolution leads to some odd places. The dodo. The blind cave-dwelling shrimp. The Bellyak.. Manufactured in the North Carolina, these oddities are basically kayaks that you paddle like a surfer heading to the line up. Bellyak offers a cruising boat, the Frequency ($749), and a freestyle-type boat, the Play ($699).. Who knows? Could be the next...

Last month, we posted about surfers riding a 5-mile tidal bore up Alaska’s Turnagain Arm. Pretty cool. But this wave that Rip Curl team surfers, including Tom Curren, found in Indonesia is something else.. The spot, called Seven Ghosts, breaks in rows of giant chocolate milk barrels. It’s pretty mind blowing..

Don Starkell, a legendary adventurer who held the record for the longest canoe trip in history, died of cancer January 28 at his home in East Kildonan, Winnipeg. He was 79, according to the Winnipeg Free Press.. Starkell’s story is one of redemption through energetic communion with nature. Neglected by his parents as a child and...

Fluid Kayaks, the South Africa-based kayak manufacturer, plans to start producing a sit-on-top whitewater kayak for beginning boaters next year. Dubbed the “Do It Now,” the boat will be made of the same pastic used in Fluid’s skirt-enclosed boats. The founder of Fluid, Celliers Kruger, says the boat will be in production in the United...

A video of Greg McNamara surfing a huge wave in Portugal is circulating the web along with claims that it was 90-feet tall and the largest wave ever surfed. What do you think? .

New sunscreen labeling guidelines released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration yesterday will help people headed outdoors better protect their skin from the sun, according to federal health officials.. The new guidelines will require sunscreen labels to disclose whether a. sunscreen protects against a broad spectrum of sunlight and how long it. remains effective...

The more the merrier when kayaking 80-foot waterfalls. In this video, Todd Wells and Sam Freihofer paddle a Topo Duo tandem kayak over Metlako Falls on Eagle Creek in Oregon. Well claims it is the tallest waterfall every run in a two-person whitewater kayak.. Here’s his account from his blog:. One final time we discussed our game plan,...

If you kayak or canoe regularly you’re probably familiar with dry bags, waterproof vinyl sacks used to store electronics, food, clothes and other items that you don’t want to get wet while paddling.. Recently, though, I’ve been looking for a general use backpack that I could use in both dry and wet places.. I bought an expensive digital...

This may be the perfect use for a standup paddleboard: Surfing a tidal bore.. In its winter issue, SUP Magazine published this video of Eric Newberry, Dave Calkins and Mike McCune catching a 5-mile ride on a tidal bore up Turnagain Arm, an branch of Cook Inlet near Girdwood, Alaska.. It’s difficult to catch the wave on...

On Wednesday night at 2 a.m. Hawaiian time, Australian big-wave surfer Mark Visser caught a 30-foot wave at Jaws, the big wave break off Maui. Cringe inspiring video below.. Visser had LED lights embedded in his life jacket and submarine lights in his surfboard. A helicopter followed him with a spotlight.. “It wasn’t until I saw the pictures...

Whitewater kayaker Tyler Bradt may hold the record for running the highest waterfall in a kayak, but Anton Immler is leading the charge in the rubber dinghy category.. In the video below, Anton attempts to run a huge Chilean waterfall in little rubber raft. Dingy indeed..

Eric Brooks and Simon portaging kayaks on the Seven Sisters of the Rouge River, a series of Class V waterfalls in Quebec, Canada. .

Anson Fogel, Jason Dewey and Tony Prikyl plan to release a film called Wildwater: A Love Story this fall. Based on this segment filmed in June on the North Fork of the Payette in Idaho at record flood stage, the movie promises to live up to its title.. The trio of filmmakers, which comprise Forge Motion Pictures, capture the tremendous...

Sometimes it is obvious how a sport will progress overtime and other times it may be hard to tell the ultimate outcome. A clear progression in a sport like running is “faster times,” for example. But in other sports, the path the future is far more crooked. In kayaking, progression has been interesting to...