A quick roundup of must-watch paddling tips, behind-the-scenes stories, top gear picks for 2026, and more.

• How To Empty A Swamped Canoe Using The Parallel Rescue (Video)
• Behind The Scenes On The Photo Of A Lifetime
• Best Inflatable Paddleboards For 2026
• And More…

— Paddling Magazine Newsletter Editors

While there is no one perfect way to deal with a swamped canoe, for tandem paddlers, the parallel rescue can be adapted for a variety of situations.

This seven-person, six-hour mission pushed the limits of technical and paddling skills and almost fell apart at the last minute.

Inflatable standup paddleboards have revolutionized the sport of SUP. They store in oversized luggage bags to transport, often include a pump and breakdown paddle, and provide ease in the ability to access arguably the most relaxing form of paddling there can be. Oh, and there’s no shortage of budget-friendly options out there. The Paddling Magazine team has spent plenty of afternoons slacking off on SUPs and calling it field testing. After extensive research, here’s a selection of our favorites.

South African paddler Hendri Coetzee earned his place in whitewater history with a series of landmark expeditions in Africa. In 2004, he led a four-month, source-to-sea descent of the 4,130-mile Nile. Five years later, he completed a 1,000-mile solo descent of the Congo River, from Rwanda’s Lake Kivu to the Atlantic Ocean, portaging around Inga Falls (see his book, Living the Best Day Ever).

In 2010, Coetzee partnered with Ben Stookesberry and Chris Korbulic to kayak from the headwaters of the White Nile and Congo rivers, which he had skipped in 2009, into the DRC to document its whitewater and call attention to the clean water crisis in Central Africa. This first descent ended in tragedy. Seven weeks into the journey, Coetzee was leading Stookesberry and Korbulic down a section of the Lukuga River when a crocodile attacked his kayak, capsized it, and Coetzee was never seen again…