Stand Up Paddle Boarding

Rivers across North America reaped in big rewards recently, as The Conservation Alliance has announced grants totaling $790,000 to 20 organizations working to protect wild places. The donations mark The Conservation Alliance’s first funding disbursal for 2016...

Boat, paddle and paddlesports apparel companies aren’t the only ones using the imagery and solace of rivers to promote their products. Sock manufacturer Smartwool has also hopped on the water wagon, using Utah’s Ruby-Horsethief Canyons as the setting for its second original short film, Life on the River... 

Let there be water! That's the tune at the $45 million Oklahoma Whitewater Center, where the spigots have been turned on in preparation for its grand opening May 7. And who should be first in line to catch its first eddy and surf the world’s highest-volume, fully adjustable pumped freestyle feature but five-time World Slalom Kayak Champion and park designer Scott Shipley of S2O Design...

Like two rivers joining at a confluence to become even stronger together, two leading paddlesport retailers—Summit Sports and Austin Canoe and Kayak—recently announced a nine-store merger enabling all-season offers, immediate expansion and future growth

A man-made whitewater park on the Trinity River in Dallas is making waves, but not the kind it’s supposed to. The city is in an uproar over a $4 million kayaking playground built in 2011 that has never functioned as intended. Now the Army Corps of Engineers is giving the city an ultimatum: either repair it, or remove it...

Attention Colorado (and other Rocky Mountain) suppers: This season you’ll see charismatic paddleboarder Ken “Hobie” Hoeve paddling the state’s rivers on a Surftech board. Hoeve, one of the biggest personalities in the paddlesports world who’s had stints with everyone from Dagger to Jackson, has signed on with the Surftech team. A local weatherman, kayaker, surfer, snowboarder and event announcer, execs says he’ll be a great fit with the Surftech global team...

Move over surfing world…you now have to share some space with paddlecraft. While that might not hold true on ocean waves, it does on the tradeshow floor. Emerald Exposition’s Surf Expo recently announced it will be adding kayaks, canoes and related gear and accessories to its Sept. 8-10, 2016, Orlando-based event.

Since the late 1980s, when McPhee Dam started diverting the water out of the Dolores River, it’s been a long haul to protect and restore this gem of the Southwest. Today a combination of new federal legislation and a state instream water right have conservation advocates and paddlers seeing the potential for permanent protections of the River canyon...

The Jersey Paddlesports Show, one of springtime's marquee consumer paddlesports tradeshows -- and barometer of what's likely to sell for the year -- announced that the show will be no more...

With Washington, D.C.’s Potomac River reaching the near-flood level of 60,000 cfs this month, prompting big water dogs to come out of the woodwork to tackle its whitewater, it brings back the memory from 20 years ago of former US Slalom Team member Davey Hearn getting arrested by the park service in 1996 at more than 100,000 cfs for surfing an epic wave…which begs the question: two decades later, can the park service legally ban these paddlers from the Potomac River when it approaches flood level?

Want to get your paddling juices flowing like a river? Head to the National Paddling Film Festival (NPFF), February 19-20, in Frankfort, Kentucky, for a celebration of the best in paddling footie and a chance to party with the world over. And you can help raise money for river conservation and access in the popcorn-eating process….

Watch "The Revenant" and you might recognize a few scenes shot on Montana’s Kootenai River. To get the shots, producers teamed up with staff at the Whitewater Rescue Institute (WRI) to help its stunt doubles (sorry, no Leonardo DiCaprio) shoot the river scenes. WRI director Cody Harris. We caught up with WRI director Cody Harris for his take on helping Hollywood…

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That’s the mantra of Ben Orkin, 25, who, after coming up a few hours short due to repairing his partner’s sea kayak last year, went back to the Grand Canyon drawing board this January to set a new speed record for paddling the Big Ditch at 34 hours, 2 minutes. And get this: his record came just a day after Matt Klema, who launched Wed., Jan. 20, in a party of four, bested the previous mark in 35 hours, 5 minutes.

Multimedia production company Rig to Flip produces new film dedicated to water education and awareness about Colorado's de-watered Dolores River. (By Audrey Dwyer/<a href="http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2016/jan/14/local-filmmakers-unique-opportunity-capture-story-/" target="_blank"www.steamboattoday.com)

Okay, all you free-loading dirtbags. No more free lunch. It's permit season. So get off your duff and send in your applications for your favorite river trip instead of waiting to get asked along. Plus, that way you can invite who you want (which hopefully will include us). Here's all the info you need...

Though it’s hard to compare any sound to the river’s gurgle, some songs can keep you stoked to stroke even when you’re stuck in the office. Following are a few of our all-time favorites that provide subtle—and not-so-subtle--reminders of river running. Warning: we're not responsible for off-key renditions in the shower.

With 2016 in full swing, river conservation organization American Whitewater tips its hats to its supporters and long list of accomplishments over the past year. Read on for a quick rundown on its successes…

Just a half year before the world’s best canoeists and kayakers battle for top bragging rights on its home turf at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Brazilian rafters showed that they’re the cream of the crop in the rafting world. Brazil won both the men’s and women’s U23 categories, as well as the Open Men’s division at the World Rafting Championships in Indonesia.

The close-knit paddlesports community lost one of its most passionate members when Innova founder Tim Rosenhan unexpectedly passed away Oct. 24 at age 68 in Twisp, Washington. “Tim was truly passionate about getting people on the water at an affordable price by importing a quality European-made inflatable,” says Larry Laba, owner of SOAR Inflatables...

Want to play Hollywood movie mogul and help save a river at the same time? Filmmaker Greg Hamilton, a former producer for Warren Miller Entertainment, has two weeks left in a Kickstarter campaign to help fund his new documentary film, Power of the River about a whitewater- and fly-fishing-filled trip down Bhutan’s remote Drangme river…

Let’s just say that’s a lot of river sandal tread to protect our nation’s waterways and other public lands. Putting its money where its mouth is, footwear maker KEEN recently wrapped up its Live Monumental Road Trip, traveling 7,500 miles and gathering more than 30,000 signatures to advocate for the protection of 3 million acres of public land…

Pardon the puns, but watershoe manufacturers – who used to simply target male rafters and kayakers – are getting a leg up, hands down, on other paddlesport accessory categories by going after the burgeoning women’s, kids’, SUP markets and more to increase sales. A PL sampler of a few you’ll see in store aisles this season…

Make room in your ammo can or drybag…there’s a new river rescue guide out to add to your library by Swiftwater Rescue Level 5 and Rescue 3 International Water Rescue Instructor Trainer Educator Nate Ostis: The NOLS River Rescue Guide…

You’re chances of actually being able to paddle Southwestern Colorado’s Dolores River just got better … even without the onslaught of El Nino. The Colorado Water Conservation Board recently voted to seek an in-stream flow water right on the stretch...