Last Saturday morning on Lake Travis, I watched a guy in a $3,000 carbon fiber kayak struggle to load his boat onto his SUV while I stuffed my inflatable into a backpack. He looked at me like I was crazy - until I beat him to the water by 20 minutes. After testing over 30 […]

I'll never forget the first time I stuffed an inflatable kayak into my backpack and hiked 8 miles to a hidden alpine lake in the Rockies. My buddies thought I was crazy hauling the extra weight, but their jaws dropped when I pulled out what looked like a rolled-up sleeping bag and transformed it into […]

Last Saturday on Lake Travis, I watched a guy lose his brand-new fish finder - and the monster bass that just hit his line. The culprit? A poorly mounted accessory that couldn't handle the sudden movement when he set the hook. That expensive electronics package went straight to the bottom, followed by some choice words […]

Last weekend at Lake Travis, I watched a brand-new Hobie disappear in my rearview mirror. Not mine, thankfully – but the guy behind me learned a $2,000 lesson about proper roof rack installation. His J-cradles weren't tightened correctly, and 70 mph on Highway 183 was all it took to send his kayak cartwheeling across three […]

Last weekend at Lake Travis, I watched a fellow paddler struggle to load his brand new Wilderness Systems Tempest onto his roof rack. After 10 minutes of awkward positioning, he finally asked, "Should this thing go upside down or what?" That simple question sparked a 30-minute impromptu lesson in the parking lot about proper kayak […]

The sun was just breaking over Lake Murray when I landed my first keeper bass of the day. As I held that beautiful 3-pounder, dripping and gleaming in the morning light, I faced the same challenge every kayak angler knows too well: now what? That morning taught me a valuable lesson about storing fish on […]

Last Saturday, I stood in my garage staring at three kayaks leaning precariously against the wall, taking up half the floor space. My fishing rod collection was buried somewhere behind them, and I'd already knocked over my 14-foot touring kayak twice that week. Sound familiar? After pricing out commercial kayak racks (seriously, $300+ for some […]

I'll never forget the day I launched my kayak into what I thought was a public creek, only to have an angry landowner threaten to call the police. Turns out, I'd stumbled into one of the murkiest areas of water law - and learned firsthand that no, you can't just put a kayak in any […]

Last summer on Lake Travis, I learned a valuable lesson about inflatable kayak maintenance the hard way. Twenty minutes into what should've been a perfect sunset paddle, my trusty Sea Eagle started listing to the right. That sinking feeling in my stomach matched the slow deflation of my starboard chamber. If you've ever experienced that […]

I'll never forget watching my buddy Mike's face when his brand-new inflatable kayak bounced off a rock in the Guadalupe River like a rubber ball. While my hardshell scraped and groaned, his inflatable just shrugged it off and kept floating. That was 15 years ago, and it completely changed how I thought about blow-up boats. […]