How Popular is Kayaking in Extreme Sports Rankings? Sorry, Not Very

How popular is kayaking amongst today’s top extreme sports?

We hate to break it to you proud-of-your-followers Instagram posters, but in the whole skateboarding and snowboarding scheme of things, not very…

According to a recent analysis of the interest in adrenaline-seeking sports, which tabulated its results based on Google searches, whether it’s winter, spring, summer or fall, at least one, two or more extreme sports are getting the time and attention of the American sporting public.Kayaking comes in as the 26^th most popular extreme sport among the 45 analyzed. The top 10 states which generated kayaking-related searches are:

California; North Carolina; Colorado; Georgia; New York; Pennsylvania; Ohio; Tennessee; Texas; and Florida.

The good news is that paddling in general is still popular—especially rec kayaking.

According to Outdoor Industry Association participation data from 2022, recreational kayaking leads the paddlesports category in popularity:

• Recreational kayak – 13.6 million participants
• Sea/touring kayak – 2.6 million
• Whitewater kayak – 2.7 million
• Canoe – 9.5 million
• SUP – 3.8 million

And there is good news for thrillseekers: According to the study’s Google search data, the number of people craving adrenaline has increased by 11% since before the pandemic. The biggest increase in online searches was recorded by sports rooted in nature and exploration, like rock climbing and scuba diving. At the other end of the spectrum, the market may be starting to see a shift in popularity as some of the most well-known extreme sports, like skateboarding, inline skating and bungee jumping, start losing steam.

People’s constant reassessing of their lives after the pandemic and the mundanity of work-from-home regimes has led to a surge of adrenaline seekers. Nationwide online interest in extreme sports increased by 11% since 2019.

To get a sense of how people are rediscovering themselves and the world around them, the study turned to Google to gauge interest in extreme sports, analyzing online searches for the past year and comparing them to past trends to see how people’s interest in sports deemed “extreme” has evolved over time.

Some of the Study’s Findings:

• The most attention-grabbing adventure sports across the country are skateboarding, mountain biking and rock climbing.
• The biggest search growth: rock climbing was the biggest standout with a huge 83% increase in interest, while scuba diving takes second place with a 50% increase in average monthly searches year-over-year. These trends may reflect people’s longing to reconnect with the outside world.
• Other interesting trends: skydiving is still attracting growing interest, especially in states like MT with 84% and HI with 81%; searches for parkour are up by 124% in CA but national interest is generally stagnating across the country; searches for snowboarding in HI have increased by 83%, just one percentage point behind the District of Columbia, where interest grew by 84%, along with longboarding, which grew by 123% in HI, greatly outpacing the runner up, D.C., with 84%.

More details here: https://www.storagecafe.com/blog/extreme-sports-popularity/