Kayaking to Packrafting, why Transition?

As a whitewater kayaker of 25+ years I bought my first packraft 5 years ago and it has slowly grown as part of my life until the point now where it has become my work.  A lot of kayakers look down on packrafting, probably because the performance of the boats is not quite as good and the ease of which they allow people to get down easier grades of whitewater means that packrafters are able to dodge that steep learning curve experienced when getting introduced to moving water in a kayak.  So why then, as an experienced whitewater kayaker, buy a packraft?

Where we live on the West Coast of New Zealand is renowned for its challenging wilderness kayaking most of which was historically accessed via helicopter, or some pretty brutal hiking.  The problem is, flights into rivers that used to cost $80-90 per person are now quoted at $300-400+ per person.  Once you are paying this sort of money to access the rivers you start to want conditions to be more ‘perfect’; great weather and great flows become desirable to justify spending the cash, and that just doesn’t happen all that often on the West Coast.  So, buy a packraft!  It only took about 5 trips on some classic rivers such as the Hokitika, Taipo, Whataroa, Landsborough, Waiatoto, Karamea , Arahura and Mōkihinui for me to have ‘paid off’ the value of my packraft in money saved not spent on helicopters.  I will admit that some of the harder Class V rivers I’m not yet confident enough in my packrafting ability and would still save for kayaking, but for the high quality, scenic Class III-IV rivers the packraft brings a lot of enjoyment.

From Helicopters to Hiking...both are awesome! First photo by Orion Junkins

Whilst considering air travel another boon of packrafts is the ease with which you can travel internationally, particularly as airlines get more and more picky (and pricey) about flying kayaks.  If you’re taking a trip where paddling is just one facet of the experience a packraft can save you a lot of logistical hassle and open you up to being able to indulge in other activities without having to worry about what to do with a 9ft lump of plastic!  I thought this was wonderfully demonstrated by some friends Tim Kelley and Amy Christensen on a recent trip to Peru where they chose to take packrafts rather than kayaks and had a wonderful trip.

Different boats, same classic NZ locations. The packrafts paying themselves off on the Whataroa and Hokitika.

There’s a phrase in backcountry skiing ‘earn your turns’ and I think this is also transferable to packrafting.  There is something to be said about the satisfaction gained by accessing a river through a good hard hike that isn’t quite achieved by hopping in a helicopter or driving your shuttle.  Suddenly paddling really becomes a full-body activity and it is a reward to sit down in the boat and rest the legs whilst you enjoy the treat of wilderness whitewater that you worked hard to get to.  For shorter hike-ins I’d still favour my kayak purely for the extra enjoyment and performance I have when paddling it, but once we’re talking days rather than hours of walking and heading over mountain passes and bush-bashing rather than just grovelling up the river valley 4kg of rolled up boat becomes far more appealing than ~20kg of hard plastic.

Would you carry a kayak all the way up here? Tim Riddell and crew did, but I'm not that tough! Photo by Tom Waters

Can you ever have too many boats? I don’t think so, which is why I’ve added packrafts to my extensive collection of watercraft including creek boats, playboats, half-slices, canoes, racing kayaks and sea kayaks.  However, if you are unfortunate enough to be limited on space (maybe you live in the city…ugh) then a boat that rolls/folds up and fits in the closet might persuade your life partner that this new boat is a great idea as it doesn’t take up much space!  Then again if you start a business and buy heaps of them maybe you need that pole-shed after all.

How many is too many?