Have you seen our paddling posts? I think at this point I’ve blogged about paddling down the Wacissa River, the Chipola River, the Rainbow River, as well as tubing the Ichetucknee River and so you’ve probably seen most of this stuff in the pictures. In lieu of boring everyone with these descriptions in each post, I figured we’d just make one post going over the paddling gear we use. What we use at this point is pretty basic and elementary, but hopefully, we’ll be updating and upgrading in the coming years. With all the research we’re doing to determine how to update, we’ll make sure to pass along the research to you guys in a recommendations post!

So here goes – here is the gear we use when going canoeing and kayaking . . .

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Kiddo Kayaks

We have two of these Lifetime Youth Wave Kayaks. They’re light (they weigh less than 20 pounds) so they’re easy to transport (and even fit inside the minivan between the seats), they fit up to 130 pounds, and the kids seem to feel comfortable in them. I don’t think they steer or track as well as the larger adult kayaks, but they seem to work great for the little guys – but the real benefit is the size and price – can’t be beat there!

Paddles

I’m not sure what happened to the paddles that came with the kayaks (I know we lost at least one in Pensacola Bay, but that’s another story), but for whatever reason, we’ve purchased new ones. We have this paddle for the kiddie kayaks. It’s kid-sized and adjustable so all the kids can use it even with the variation in age.

Kiddo Life Jackets

My PSA of the day – please, oh, please no matter how well your child can swim, please always keep them in a life vest on a boat! It’s smart and most of the time it’s the law. In Florida, children under 6 years old must have a USCG (United States Coast Guard)-approved personal flotation device (PFD) any time a boat (under 26 feet) is “underway”. And NO, those inflatable swimmies that blow up and go over a kid’s arms are NOT USCG-approved life jackets. You just never know what is under the water that you can’t see into or what can happen if a boat tips over. Just be safe, please, and keep those littles in life jackets.

Babes (up to 30 lbs.)

For the little babes, or just small kiddos under 30lbs, this is the life jacket we loved. For better or worse, we don’t have anyone under 30lbs. at this point, but we’ve had several versions of this jacket for all the kiddos and we loved it. With a smaller kiddo the headrest in the back is a must – it will allow the kiddo to float in the water and keep his/her head above the water.

As always (I guess this is my second PSA of the day), you MUST still watch the kiddos in the water – even with a life jacket! Even in this super awesome life jacket, if the kiddo lands face down and can’t flip himself/herself, there can be trouble. Yes, it’s designed to get them to flip on their own, but I’m just saying that you can’t rely on a jacket to keep the kiddos 100% safe – you have to watch them in the water ALL THE TIME! Okay, rant over. But this is a great jacket for young babes.

Smaller Kids (30-50 lbs)/Younger Kiddos and/or Non-Swimmers

For the smaller two kids (ages 3 and 5), we use Puddle Jumpers. These don’t seem to bug the kiddos, fasten securely (in the back), keeping them floating at the top of the water, and fit 30-50 pounds. If your kid is already a confident swimmer and accustomed to swimming without a PDF, these may be annoying when they try to swim. In that case, I’d suggest the typical life jackets listed below.

Smaller Kids (30-50 lbs.)/Older Kids and/or Swimmers

Once the kiddos learned to swim well, the Puddle Jumpers got annoying so we moved them to “regular” life jackets. Ian is in this vest which fits kiddos 30-50 pounds and has the crotch strap to keep the jacket from coming off over the kiddo’s head/shoulder. I love that I can get it tight on even my little kiddo’s chest. To test for tightness, try to lift the kiddo by the shoulders of the jacket – if the jacket slides up over the kiddo’s head, time to tighten those straps!

Older/Bigger Kids (50-90 lbs.)

Colton has this vest that fits kiddos 50-90 pounds. At this age/size they no longer have the crotch strap, but I do appreciate that this vest tightens well enough for my scrawny kiddo. We’ve used and abused this vest and it’s held up to everything we’ve thrown at it.

Adult Life Jackets

For us adults, I, regrettably, don’t necessarily practice what I preach. Florida law does require that you have a USCG-approved PFD for every passenger aboard your vessel, but they don’t require you wear it (they do urge you to, however) – it only has to be “within easy access.” Cody and I have these jackets for the canoe. They are unworldly uncomfortable so I tend to use mine as a seat cushion and Cody keeps his under his seat – but they are crazy cheap. We should wear them, at least to be an example for the kids. But they are on the boat in case of emergency.

Waterproof Phone Pouches

We used to never bring a phone when we were out canoeing – both to “disconnect” and because we didn’t want to get it wet. Well, after being stuck too many times on a river not knowing how much farther we had to go, we found a way to solve the second problem. Waterproof phone pouches. I swear by them. I’ve used them dozens of times – even underwater – and never had a drop of water on my phone. We have this one (and a few more that aren’t from Amazon) and I’ve never had a problem with it. I can then take pictures without fear of killing the phone with water (but the photos do come out a bit blurry and “off” through the pouch – a small price to pay) and we can use GPS to see where we are (though we usually still won’t have service on a river).

We have several of these, so we also use one to store our keys while on the water (the last thing you want is a destroyed battery on your key fob out in the woods, or worse yet, your keys at the bottom of a river), but you can also use something like this or this.

Water Bottles

We always have snacks on hand because . . . well, kids eat more than a heard of horses . . . but if there’s one thing you just cannot forget, it’s water bottles. No matter the season or the weather, paddling is work and you need to stay hydrated. For whatever reason, we love CamelBaks. We got hooked on them years ago and once you fall in love with a water bottle brand, you want all your accessories to match, so we just stuck with Camelbak. We use these for the kiddos and these for the adults. So far we have found them pretty indestructible, which says a lot in our family. They are easy to clean and I like that the kids’ cups come all apart for easy washing in the dishwasher. 🙂

Canoe Carrier

When we’re carrying the canoe on top of the vehicles, we’ve found it easiest just to use these foam blocks. They simply snap/slide onto the sides of the canoe, you throw the canoe on top of the vehicle (the blocks prevent the canoe from scraping the roof), and then we use tie downs to secure the canoe on the vehicle. We actually use some heavier duty tie downs than the ones included with this set because I like ratchet tie downs. The best part – they are easy to store in the garage when not in use since they don’t take up a bunch of space.

Kayak Carrier

For the kayaks, we use these j-hook style carriers. They install on our roof rack reasonably easy (you do have to have the roof rack with crossbars to install them), and then the kayaks just pop into the hooks and strap down. When loading the kiddo kayaks on top of the car, these are easy enough that I can load and unload the kayaks by myself – win for me!

Canoe

Our canoe is older than I am and has been passed down through friends and family as long as I can remember. It doesn’t make it the most beautiful or newest or fanciest canoe on the river, but it makes it the cheapest and it floats and we love it. I’d love to refurbish it and paint it cool colors at some point but that’s a whole host of new YouTube videos I would have to watch on “how to refurbish a canoe.”

Thanks for checking out our paddling gear! Do you have any favorite paddling gear that we missed?