Stand Up Paddle Boarding

Think diminutive, 4-lb. pack-rafts aren’t suitable for multi-day wilderness Class V? Bill Hatcher, and Roman and Rome Dial beg to differ, recently returning from a five-day Class V self-support pack-raft trip down Tasmania’s Franklin River ( a trip us here at PL once bagged in our kayaks)...

It's permit season. So get your act together and send in your applications for your favorite river trip. Remember: if you don’t play the game--or aren't a cook or good looking--you won’t get invited along. Here's all the info you need...

Kayak surfers in Steamboat Springs, Colo., might have a little more time on their downtown play waves now. Bomber Gear founder Rick Franken and his 8-year-old son, Kai, won’t be surfing them at all hours anymore, as the paddlesports apparel company was recently sold to Confluence Watersports...

No, that's not a typo. You can finally play Taps for Paddler, the long-standing member benefit magazine for the American Canoe Association. At it November board meeting, the ACA announced that it will “officially” suspend publishing Paddler and will have Canada’s Rapid Media, spearheaded by Scott MacGregor, satisfy its member magazine benefits...

The Higgins & Langley Award for Swiftwater Rescue is seeking nominations for 2011 rescues. If you were involved in, witnessed, or even heard tell of a great save on the rivers this past season, consider nominating the rescuers for the premier award in swiftwater rescue.

Perfect for Inflatable Kayaks and Stand-Up Paddleboards, Metropolitan Vacuum Cleaner Company of Suffern, New York, has introduced a new generation of rapid-deployment Magic-Air Electric Inflator/Deflators.

Want stylish slip-on sandal comfort off the water as well as on? Slide into a pair of Chaco ToeCoops or PedSheds, slip-ons that will see you to your post-paddle PBR and nacho plate in style. Plus, the company honors a kayak instructor from Bainbridge Island, Wash...

So PL just got off the Grand Canyon, whose experimental September flows of 8,000 cfs made it ideal for everything from surfing and sucking suds to gobbling gourmet cuisine from PL partner Ceiba Adventures. To shine some light on the re-entry-to-civilization problems those emerging from the Big Ditch deal with, following are a couple of musical ditties thrown together by participant Dana Birke from Boulder -- just in time for an abrupt return to an early Colorado winter...

A mass start Class V downriver race followed by a beer slalom past the finish line...it can only mean one thing: the sixth annual BurnFest on the Trinity River’s Burnt Ranch Gorge in California...

Four days in October with global implications. No, it's not a political crisis, just the International Rafting Federation Pre-World competition in Costa Rica. Keep reading for the PL lowdown...

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. That's how a few river conservation organizations are feeling after the Conservation Alliance awarded grants totaling $500,000 to 17 conservation throughout North America, many of whom are working to protect our waterways. PL checks in...

Giant splats on Pillow Rock; striders, C-1ers and kayakers sharing eddies with rafts; and the biggest party in paddlesports. Yep...American Whitewater's biggest fundraising event -- and the largest boater festival in the world – went off without a hitch as paddlers of all walks converged on the Woodstock-like Gauley Fest at the Nicholas County Veteran's Memorial Park in Summersville, W.V., for a weekend of debauchery and sinus-douching. PL checks in...

The River Management Society has a good guide steering it to the future. Its Board of Directors recently hired Risa Shimoda as its new Executive Director beginning October 1, 2010...

Canoeists and sea kayakers planning flatwater fall trips on Labyrinth/Stillwater Canyons of the Green River in Canyonlands National Park might want to start making a change of plans. On Aug. 20, a huge flash flood caused severe damage to the switchbacks on the road leading to Mineral Bottom, making the road impassable as a put-in or take-out....

It’s got a capital G, Class V and the same season. But it’s not Gauley Fest. It’s Gore Fest in Colorado, drawing the Class V racing set to Gore Canyon of the Colorado River the last weekend in August every year. The event, put on by Timberline Rafting of Vail, promises debauchery, death ferries and dunkings, and once again delivered a few surprises...

Home-field advantage isn't everything. Californian native Danny Ching takes 1st place in the two most important races at Battle of the Paddle in Waikiki, HI.

Noa Ginella, a 16-year-old from the North Shore of Oahu, HI, surpassed all other stand-up paddlers including the two favorites to win the Surf Sprint event over Dan Gavere by more than 16 seconds.

The Teva Mountain Games are the nation’s largest celebration of mountain sport, lifestyle and music featuring top professional and amateur athletes from around the world. The environmentally-friendly adventure sporting event hosts approximately 2,000 adventure athletes, along with an estimated 40,000 spectators. Athletes converge on Vail’s mountains and rivers to compete in eight sports and 24 disciplines for over $100,000 in prize money. Events include kayaking, rafting, mountain biking, road cycling, World Cup Bouldering, amateur climbing, fly-fishing, trail and road running and stand up paddling.