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Nathalie Long: Creator of Canada's First Expedition Race
Luc Mehl Tells Us About His New Book!
Luc, you are a bit of a legend in the packrafting community! Can you tell us what motivated you to write your book? The Packraft Handbook started as a short safety manual. I had been teaching swiftwater safety courses for the Swiftwater Safety Institute for a few years and wanted to figure out how to get safety techniques out to more people. I was only reaching 30-40 people a summer with the in-person courses. But after writing the safety and rescue content, I realized that it would be even more valuable to write about how not to need rescue! (Duh!) So,...
PACKRAFTING REMOTE MYANMAR
Guest blog by Byron Hartzler “Man, I don’t want to be anywhere else in the world right now!” I exclaimed to my Danish paddling partner, David, just 5 minutes ago. I had spent hundreds of hours guiding waterfalls and canyoning on the Nam Yao River in a back corner of Shan State, Myanmar (Burma) with my company, Myanmar Adventure Outfitters. Myanmar is remote as it is, and now after a military coup on February 1, 2021, it's plunged this nation that had so much promise back a decade or more and imposed isolation. I’ve been passionately curious and explored so...
Packrafing the Amazon River: Interview with Sergio Rios Rodriguez
We are so excited to welcome Sergio Ríos Rodriguez today! You are going to love hearing about his amazing trip down the Amazon River in a packraft. (La versión en español se encuentra abajo.) A few years ago, you took an epic trip down the Amazon River. What can you tell us about your adventure? Ever since I was very young, I liked to watch National Geographic documentaries, and at the time, most of them were about Africa and the Amazon. I often watched the tribes in their traditional clothing, ants carrying tiny leaves, the caiman alligators, snakes, the gigantic river...
Interview with Karen Jettmar: Wilderness guide, Retired Teacher and Author
Today we are excited to interview Karen Jettmar - packrafting enthusiast with over thirty years experience! How did you get into packrafting? I've been paddling one kind of boat or another since I was a child. I learned to paddle on paddleboards made by my father. These were constructed using airplane wing technology. He used thin plywood stretched over a wood framework and were up to 15-feet long. He also made feathered paddles to use with the paddleboards. It took two of us to carry one down to the beach, and then we'd just hop on and paddle to our...