Sea Kayaking

Row, Row, Row Your Boat. That's what Americans Paul Ridley, Collin West, Neal Mueller and Scott Mortensen will be saying this month when they embark on a rowing voyage they're calling one of the world's last great firsts: a non-stop, unsupported row across the Arctic Ocean. Sponsored through Eddie Bauer's Be First program, the four will travel 1,300 miles from Inuvik, Canada, to Provideniya, Russia, arriving around Aug. 15.

They’re at it again, this time exploring new realms of verticality. First Ascent expedition kayakers Ben Stookesberry and Chris Korbulic recently returned from a first descent of the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River in Sierra National Park, testing ropes as much as their adrenaline glands on a five-hour descent into a never-before-run, 2,000-foot-deep canyon....

If only the gold rushers had stand-up paddleboards and Ben Friberg’s stand-up stamina. On June 27, Ben Friberg set a new SUP Distance World Record on Canada’s Yukon River by paddling a whopping 238 miles in a single 24-hour period. All we can say is that’s a lot of standing and paddling. PL checks in with the record-setter...

With the Lyons Outdoor Games and FIBArk wrapping up in Colorado, and river fest followers now flocking to Gunnison, Festival season is in full swing in Colorado, with familiar names on the podium. A quick wrap PL-style on who’s done what where...

While creek racers in the Rockies and elsewhere are busy chalking up results domestically, a crew of kayakers overseas recently battled for top bragging rights in Italy at the unofficial Teva Extreme Kayaking World Championships...

This is a must-hit event for whitewater paddlers and river lovers of all persuasions, featuring new events this year in an action-packed one-day format. And according to American Whitewater, for whom the annual event is a major fundraiser, the Deerfield Fest is the largest whitewater event in the northeast. It’s also one of the longest running, coming together back in 1994 to commemorate and celebrate the successful dam relicensing process that took place on the Deerfield in 1993.

Talk about a race down a badge of courage. Last weekend, Idaho’s North Fork of the Payette drew some of the best kayakers in the world to Idaho for the first-ever, large-scale kayak race down the notorious stretch of Class V. In the end, local Ryan Casey took top honors, followed by Tyler Bradt and Mikkel St. John-Duncan.

While Great Britain’s David Florence made history at this weekend’s Cardiff World Cup in Switzerland, winning his second gold medal of the weekend in C2, for the U.S. all eyes were on who would make the final cut for the five-spot Olympic team heading to London. In the end, it was Scott Parsons (K1), Caroline Queen (WK1), Eric Hurd/Jeff Larimer (C2) and Casey Eichfeld (C1)...

You've heard of the Bermuda Triangle, the demise of countless ships. Hopefully, the same fate won't befall stand-up paddlers Bill Whiddon and Thaddeus Foote who are planning the first-ever attempt to stand-up paddle (SUP) over 48 miles across the Gulf Stream, from Bimini, Bahamas to Miami, Florida.

Next stop Lyons. That's the sentiment for those following the $5,000 REP Whitewater Challenge, a series of events held at river parks designed by Boulder, Colo.’s Recreation Engineering & Planning, now nearing its halfway point with three of its seven events completed. In the lead? No surprise...Dane Jackson.

Bam Margera, star and founder of the hit MTV show “Jackass”, “Jackass, The Movie” and MTV’s “Viva La Bam” series, has been on the front of such magazines as Rolling Stone, People, Sports Illustrated, and ESPN. Now he’s also been in the front of a tandem kayak piloted by none other than Steve Fisher...

The first weekend of May 2012 witnessed some of the best river action east of the Mississippi at the 15th annual French Broad River...

Chalk two up for the foreigners. An Olympian from Down Under got up and over the competition at this year’s Homestake Creek Race at the Teva Mountain Games, as well as a gal from The Netherlands. Mike Dawson from New Zealand claimed a repeat victory in the Bud Light Lime Steep Creek Championships in Vail. On the women's side, Martina Wegman of The Netherlands beat out the women’s field for top honors...

Shaka-brah. That's what SUP paddlers will be saying in Colorado June 9-10 when the 2012 Rocky Mountain Surf Festival comes to Glenwood Springs. The Polynesian-themed extravaganza will feature surfing contests, music, food and product vendors, costumes, limbo competitions, hula hooping, goof boarding and more...

The 2012 Trans-Territorial Canoe Expedition is a bold, 2,600-mile canoe journey through the remote wilderness of Canada's territories. Keeping these river systems and expedition routes navigable and pristine is important to all paddlers, outdoor professionals and conservation and adventure enthusiasts.

Paddlers might be partying a little harder than usual at this year's Teva Games. Mother Nature has thrown every curve ball possible to the organizers of the Teva Mountain Games — from sinkholes and snowstorms to floods. This year it's drought. While organizers remain hopeful all whitewater and SUP events will take place as planned May 31-June 3, they'll make a final race status decision May 29....

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act this year, American Rivers named the Coal River as topping America’s Most Endangered Rivers, shining a spotlight on the threat mountaintop removal mining poses to clean water and public health. Read on for full list...

No one got cheated out of any fun at this year’s 17th annual Cheat River Festival, highlighted by the “Massacre-ence” kayak race on West Virginia’s Cheat River May 4. Marking the largest, mass start kayak race in the country with more than 155 boaters, this year above average (3.9 feet) water levels provided plenty of pandemonium...

Boaters in the Northwest got a backyard run back as, for the first time since Condit Dam was breached in October 2011, a public access is once again available downstream of Husum Falls on the lower White Salmon. Bonus: A new play wave upstream of the bridge...

Talk about a fundraiser. While river festivals around the country try to raise funds for their respective waterways this spring, this year’s annual First Descents Ball, which raises money for the non-profit helping kids with cancer, raised a whopping $450,000....

A key round in the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trails for whitewater slalom took place at the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., April 12-14. Among the results, women’s world freestyle champion Emily Jackson earned a seat on the USA Canoe/Kayak Team, with an opportunity to win a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team competing in London this summer.

Borrowing a line from Field of Dreams, the Nantahala Outdoor Center gears up this week for the 2012 NOC Freestyle Shootout April 20-22, the first official freestyle event to be held at the newly built Nantahala Wave, designed for the upcoming 2013 ICF Canoe Freestyle World Championships...

Fearless: One Woman, One Kayak, One Continent is the story of Freya Hoffmeister, a 46-year-old former sky diver, gymnast, marksman and Miss Germany contestant, who paddled alone and unsupported 9,420 miles around Australia in an adventure that virtually every expert guaranteed would get her killed. She was determined not only to survive the trip through huge, shark- and croc-infested seas, but to do it faster than Paul Caffyn, the only other paddler to have completed the circuit, 27 years earlier. PL catches up with author Joe Glickman...

Existing whitewater festivals throughout the country will get a new dose of SUP added to their line-ups this year. Boardworks recently announced a new 2012 Show Up and Blow Up SUP Demo Tour, featuring a fully stocked caravan of pros and boards touring the country offering free SUP demos, races, clinics and more...