Choosing Your Paddling Partners

Paddling, like any other form of wilderness travel, involves certain safety risks. To ensure a safe trip, you must make sure that every paddler in your group can handle the challenges of the route you want to paddle.

To get an accurate assessment of a paddler's abilities, consider not only their paddling skills, but also how they handle themselves in the wilderness.

Paddling skills

General paddling experience
Basic paddle strokes and bracing skills
Rescue and recovery skills

Camping skills

General outdoor experience
Basic camping and survival skills
Navigation skills (map and compass)

Safety skills

Wilderness first aid skills
Familiarity with Hypothermia (how to prevent, recognize and treat it)
Familiarity with emergency signaling procedures and devices
Weather recognition/basic forecasting skills

Beginners
If you're trying a paddling trip for the first time, or your group includes novice paddlers, campers or young children, plan conservatively. Focus on short over-night journeys and weekend trips on calm, protected waters at first. This will allow less-experienced paddlers to practice basic trip skills without a lot of unnecessary hazards. You'll have plenty of time to get more adventurous after your skill levels grow.

More experienced paddlers
If your group is made up of more experienced paddlers, feel free to plan longer and more challenging routes. Just remember to stay well within the abilities of everyone in the group.

Goals and interests
Keep in mind as you assemble your group that there's more to paddling than simply making it to the take-out point alive. Give some thought to the goals and expectations of your paddling companions, and keep those goals in mind as you start searching for routes.

For your first several trips, try to organize groups with similar interests and skill levels. This will make route planning easier, and it will improve the chances that everyone enjoys the trip!

Deciding on Group Size

Small paddling groups typically travel faster than large ones, and they're easier to keep organized. Larger groups can carry more supplies and have more hands for portaging and carrying gear. But they can present their own organizational and safety challenges, especially in difficult paddling conditions.

Most paddling groups range in size from 2 to 4 boats (usually with 2 people in each boat, occasionally 3). Hold off on solo trips and trips with more than 4 boats until you have a number of successful voyages under your belt.