Back in 2017 I wrote an article for AG Outdoor called 6 Canoe Touring Essentials. It was my attempt to boil years of guiding and personal lessons down into something useful: a handful of things that could turn a canoe trip from a hard slog into a genuinely enjoyable adventure. Looking at that piece now, what strikes me most isn’t just the gear or the planning tips, but the images. One in particular always stops me: Sarah in a hammock strung out over the water, under the heading “comfort.” I just love it.
At the time our son had just turned one, and we were canoe camping with friends who also had little kids. For Sarah, that hammock wasn’t just a place to lie down, it was a rare gift of a moment to herself, baby-free and blissed out. That photo brings it all back for me: the chaos and joy of parenting, the surprising way our kids slept like champions in tents even though they were sleeping terribly at home, and the simple rule we shared with friends: no toys, no clutter, just the outdoors. The kids made their own fun with sticks, rocks, and the odd lizard, while the canoes themselves became playpens. Life stripped back to its simplest form, and somehow it worked.
For me, that’s what the “essentials” are really about. Not just gear lists and checkboxes, but setting yourself up so the space is there for moments like that , the kind of memories that remind you why time outdoors matters.
So, with that in mind, I thought it was worth revisiting those six essentials: the simple things that can make the difference between a tough outing and a great canoe trip.
When I first started writing for AG Outdoor it wasn’t because I thought the world needed another “how-to” list. It was because I’d met Justin, the editor, and realised he was a rare breed in Australia, someone genuinely excited about traditional open canoes. For me, that was huge. Up until then, I hadn’t crossed paths with many people who shared that passion. Talking with him was the push I needed to put some thoughts on paper.
At the time, I kept seeing people out on trips, which was fantastic, but also watching things go wrong that were so easily preventable. Not packing properly. Not waterproofing gear. Heading out without a plan. Sometimes it meant a miserable experience that turned people off canoeing altogether. Other times it meant real risks, both for the paddlers and for the places they were exploring. And that stuck with me. Because if we are going to encourage more people to spend more time in nature, we need to make sure they are set up for success and that they treat the environment with care while they are at it.
That’s really what the “six essentials” were about. Giving people a handful of things to focus on, so that the gap between wanting to go canoeing and actually having an enjoyable, safe trip did not feel so big. Because the truth is, when a trip goes well, you come home buzzing and want to do it again. And the more time people spend outside, the more they connect with the places they are in, and the more they start to care for them.
Choosing a canoe
If there is one question I still wrestle with, it is the idea of the “perfect canoe.” I sometimes imagine being told I had to pick just one boat for the rest of my life. Honestly, I could not do it. If I chose a lightweight touring canoe for family trips, I would miss out on whitewater. If I went with a plastic whitewater canoe, I could paddle solo, I would lose the space for the family. Canoes, like most gear, are always a trade-off: weight, durability, cost. You can have two of the three, but rarely all at once.
Waterproofing done right
I have seen more trips undone by poor waterproofing than anything else. And it is rarely the gear that fails, it is how it is used. People don’t seal their dry bags properly. They buy barrels or cases but don’t clip them shut. They trust “waterproof” bags that really aren’t. Or they store food in soft dry bags only to find a rat has chewed through overnight.
One friend borrowed a dry suit for a winter canoe trip. She thought the relief zipper on the back was funny, kept unzipping it to joke around. Until she forgot to zip it up before a practice capsize. Suddenly, her suit filled with water, turning a light-hearted drill into a real emergency. She was freezing, heavy with water, and it took every bit of effort to haul her back to shore. That is the sort of lesson you don’t forget: waterproofing isn’t optional, and using gear properly matters.
The power of preparation
I have always believed that the outcome of a trip is decided long before you hit the water. Preparation is what makes or breaks it. That means checking your gear, checking the weather, knowing the wind direction, leaving a trip plan, charging your comms devices, and having backups for your backups.
I like to remind people of the old saying: “Prior preparation and planning prevents piss-poor performance.” It’s true for professional guiding, where it is our legal responsibility to prepare, but it is just as true for my personal trips. These days, they are rare enough that if I’m going to carve out the time, I want them to be awesome.
Comfort vs necessity
Packing is always a balancing act. The beauty of canoeing is that you can take a lot more than you could hiking. Take the last couple of weeks, for example, with rain forecast, I packed two raincoats. Why not? The weight made no difference, but having a dry one in the evening made all the difference.
When I was younger, I often carried too much on bushwalks, lugging around things I never used. Eventually, I would lay all my gear out after a trip and ask: what did I actually need? What was just dead weight? Over time, I learned to strike the balance: enough for safety and comfort, not so much it weighed me down.
Of course, I have also had the other problem, like packing a tent but forgetting the poles. You only need to make that mistake once!
Rescue skills matter
Even the best paddlers can end up swimming. A lapse in attention, a gust of wind, a hidden stump, that’s all it takes. I tell people to test their self-rescue skills close to shore, in warm water, on a calm day. Because if you can’t get yourself back in, that is good information to have before you are kilometres from shore in bad weather.
If you can’t self-rescue, you can still enjoy canoeing, just stay close to shore, paddle with others, and don't push conditions. But if you can self-rescue, the world opens up. You can tackle bigger trips, open water, and solo adventures with confidence.
A memory that stuck
When I think about all these essentials together, one trip stands out. Not the Shoalhaven, though that is an obvious one. It was actually one of my first trips guiding in the Adirondacks of northern New York, 24 years ago.
Because we had prepared well, we were able to paddle out far and camp on an island. It was summer, and the Perseid meteor shower lit up the night sky. I suggested we raft the canoes together, lie down with our sleeping bags, and look out for shooting stars. Loons called in the distance. The sky was alive with meteors. It was absolute bliss.
I remember lying there thinking: this is me. This is what I want to do with my life. I did not know exactly how at the time, but that trip cemented it. And all these years later, I am still here, grateful that I get to help other people set themselves up for those same moments.
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Sign Up HereYou can read the original article here: https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/australian-geographic-adventure/how-to/2017/03/6-canoe-touring-essentials/
