Whitewater Capabilities of DIY Packrafts

Safety First

If you paddle a packraft, safety should be your number one concern. This is especially true if you plan to tackle whitewater. Online it’s easy to find videos of people taking unnecessary, uncalculated risks in their packrafts. Don’t follow their example, or you may become a cautionary tale. Your safety and the integrity of your boat are your own responsibility – remember the DIY Packraft Terms & Conditions, and don’t do dumb stuff! Please:

• Wear a PFD (life jacket)
• Learn paddling skills from trusted experts, not YouTube
• Get swift-water rescue training
• Wear a helmet
• Wear a wetsuit or drysuit when paddling in cold water
• Carry a throw rope and practice using it
• Scout rapids before paddling them
• Use other people as spotters
• Don’t paddle alone
• Know your limits
• Take care to minimize the risk of entrapment: perimeter grab lines (and any other lines, ropes, straps, or webbing) should be tight to the hull or stowed whenever possible, and thigh straps should only be used by experienced paddlers
• Tell a trusted person where you are going and when you will return
• Learn wilderness first aid, including CPR
• Become a strong swimmer

Check the American Packrafting Association’s Packrafting Safety Code for a more detailed list.

Factors Affecting Your Packraft’s Whitewater Capability

Let’s acknowledge that no lightweight inflatable boat will ever be as tough as a plastic river kayak – even a $2000 packraft at four times the weight of a standard DIY Packraft can’t compete on the durability scale against a kayak or a heavy-duty whitewater raft. On the other hand, the first descent of the Grand Canyon in a DIY Packraft was completed in the Spring of 2018, and others have since repeated the feat.

Sometimes people ask if a given DIY Packraft model will handle a specific class of whitewater. There’s really no simple yes or no answer because there are many factors that will determine whether a paddler and boat make it through rapids unscathed, such as:

• Paddling skill and experience
• Water level
• Wood
• Stream bed rock shape/size/sharpness
• Type of rapids
• Momentum (speed multiplied by the weight of the boat and its payload)
• Judgment/risk-taking
• Load distribution and center of gravity
• Luck
• Fatigue
• Hypothermia
• Packraft design
• Care taken during packraft construction to create strong welds
• The materials your packraft is made from
• Whether or not you have installed thigh straps, a spray deck, spray skirt, or self-bailing floor
• (etc.)

I do my best to provide high quality packraft designs and materials, but the majority of the things listed above depend on you, the builder/paddler.

Here are a few tips:

• Add padding (e.g. inflatable or foam floor+seat) between your self/gear and the boat to reduce pinching forces when the packraft encounters something hard – when storing gear inside the tubes, always wrap hard gear in soft gear, and when tying gear to the outside of the boat, avoid placing hard edges against the tube fabric where it will rub and wear.
• Add sufficient gear tie-down points so gear is held securely in place without putting too much stress on any single attachment point as the boat pitches and rolls.
• Add a seat back and thigh straps to improve the responsiveness of the boat so you can make it go where you want. Be very careful not to add any straps that could lead to entanglement!
• Add a spray deck and skirt or self-bailing floor to shed water; a swamped packraft is nearly impossible to maneuver.
• Avoid under-inflating your packraft. If it’s too soft it could wrap around a sharp object and puncture or tear instead of bouncing off or sliding past the obstacle. Keeping your packraft firm will also make it more responsive.
• Sit forward in the boat for better weight distribution and handling (i.e. add a back rest or back band).
• Lower the packraft’s center of gravity and improve forward visibility by storing gear inside the tubes instead of attaching it over the bow.
• Experienced whitewater paddlers sometimes add weight to their packrafts to help them punch through big water features.

Please add to these lists by posting a comment below!