Last weekend on Lake Travis, I watched a game warden write three tickets in the span of an hour. The violations? Missing whistles, expired registration stickers, and one paddler who thought his swim trunks counted as a PFD. That's $600 in fines that could've bought a really nice paddle. After 15 years of paddling everywhere […]

Last Saturday morning on Lake Travis, I watched a couple struggle with their brand-new tandem kayak for 20 minutes. They were spinning in circles, splashing water everywhere, and getting more frustrated by the second. Their problem? Nobody had taught them the basic kayak paddle strokes. After showing them a few simple techniques, they were gliding […]

Last March, I watched a family of four struggle to load their brand-new kayaks at Lake Ivanhoe, clearly overwhelmed by Orlando's endless paddling options. "Where should we even start?" the dad asked, holding a crumpled tourist map. That moment stuck with me because I'd been there myself - Orlando has so many incredible kayaking spots […]

The first time I paddled through the morning mist on Windermere, watching the sun burn through the fog to reveal the Lakeland fells, I knew I was hooked. That was fifteen years ago, and since then I've explored waterways from the Scottish sea lochs to the Cornish coast, discovering that the UK offers some of […]

I'll never forget the afternoon my paddle froze mid-stroke off Monterey Bay. A dorsal fin, easily three feet tall, sliced through the water about 50 yards from my kayak. My heart hammered as I watched the massive shadow glide beneath the surface. After what felt like hours (but was probably 30 seconds), the great white […]

The magnet hit something solid. After 20 minutes of dragging it along the bottom of Lake Travis from my fishing kayak, the rope went taut. Heart pounding, I slowly pulled up what felt like a small anchor. Breaking the surface was an old tackle box, rusted shut but intact. Inside? Vintage lures from the 1960s, […]

Last weekend at Lake Travis, I watched a guy struggle for 15 minutes trying to load his fishing kayak onto his truck. His face was beet red, sweat dripping, and I could tell his back was screaming. When I helped him lift the beast, I understood why – that monster weighed at least 120 pounds […]

I'll never forget my first kayak shopping experience back in 2019. Standing in that warehouse surrounded by dozens of kayaks, I felt like Goldilocks - this one's too long, that one's too narrow, and wait, how the heck am I supposed to fit in this cockpit? After testing over 30 different models that summer (and […]

I learned the hard way that proper kayak storage isn't just about finding space - it's about protecting your investment. Last winter, my neighbor's $1,200 fishing kayak warped beyond repair because he stored it flat on his garage floor. Meanwhile, my 8-year-old Wilderness Systems is still going strong thanks to proper storage techniques I'm about […]

I'll never forget the day I completely soaked myself at the Lake Travis boat ramp. There I was, trying to impress my kayaking buddies with a "graceful" entry into my new touring kayak. Instead, I ended up doing an impromptu split between the dock and my kayak, landing face-first in the water. Everyone got a […]