Sea Kayaking on the Decline and Canoeing Bounces

The Outdoor Foundation’s 2021 Outdoor Participation Report Trends Report is out, and it has some interesting findings, including a some good new for paddling. First off 2020 was the biggest year for outdoor participation, but…

Research from Outdoor Industry Association indicated that about one-quarter of new participants say they don’t want to continue their new outdoor activities, a number that may grow sharply as consumers return to pre-pandemic habits

Another interesting piece of data from the report shows that although there were record numbers of outdoor outings in 2020, individuals continue to participate in fewer outdoor outings.

The average number of annual outings per participant continued a steady, long-term decline, falling from 87 in 2012 to just 71 in 2020.

As far as participation rates, overall participation was declining for kids. If you love outdoor sports, kids are where we need to look for the future growth or even to maintain the current levels of participation.

Here are overall numbers:

• Canoeing saw an annual increase after years of declining participation.
• Recreational kayaking saw declining growth rates.
• Sea kayaking continued to decline.

In sports less related to PaddlingLight, but useful for comparison purposes:

• Biking continued to grow. After yearly growth, it grew 7.8% last year.
• Backpacking continued its 1% growth rate.
• Fishing saw 9% growth. It was an excellent year for fishing. There is a report specific to fishing. It shows increases in women, kids and minorities participating in fishing.
• Hunting continued its decline.
• Downhill skiing saw a decline and xc skiing and snowshoeing held steady.
• 21% of all outdoor participants participated in running, jogging or trail running.

Paddlesports Deep Dive

Starting with canoeing, the statistics show that despite increasing by 6.7% during 2020, it has been on a decline since 2013. Canoeing is an accessible family sport, and the a report looking at new participants in the outdoors showed that new participants were looking for easily accessible sports during the pandemic in which they could participate with their families. One of the key takeaways was that new participants want to be able to enjoy the outdoors with their families. As the paddlesports industry moves forward this is something they should consider. Canoeing in contrast with sea kayaking or recreational kayaking can be an inherently family-orientated activity, because most of the time it requires two paddlers and the boats can easily carry multiple kids. Hauling a canoe is easier than hauling enough kayaks for the entire family and the cost for entry can be lower depending on the family size.

If I were a canoe manufacturer or retailer — basing this on what I’ve seen of the user base and consumer shows — I’d be switching my marketing push towards families. I’d have kids in nearly all my marketing materials, and I’d try to sell my products to families and encourage families to attend consumer shows by increasing the family content. Last time I was at Canoecopia in Madison, the audience difference in age was apparent when walking the floor of Canoecopia and then attending Bike-o-Rama next door. The bike show had more families and a younger crowd. I think there’s an opportunity moving forward to sell canoeing as a family sport. It really is a family sport.

That said, recreational kayaking saw a 14% growth in 2020. That’s coming off of a steadily declining growth rate since 2014. I think it’s safe to say that recreational kayaking’s lower barrier to entry than sea or whitewater kayaking, helped it grow during the pandemic. There are a lot of new participants in the sport. What I’ve seen in my area is that recreational kayakers are more likely to take trips with unknown or unapparent risks than canoeists or sea kayakers, so there’s some education to be done. For example, I’ve noticed a larger number of recreational kayakers going out on 40-50 degree F water on Lake Superior. This is a life-threatening situation if someone isn’t dressed for immersion and capsizes.

In the biggest disappointment, sea kayaking declined by 5.4%. This follows a number of years of declines. It has declined in participation by 19.7% since 2016. While the report isn’t specific on the reasons behind the decline in sea kayaking, it isn’t hard to see accessibility to newcomers as one of the reasons. The entry price into the sea kayaking world is steep and the knowledge requirement is steep. If this sport is to grow again, it will need a large outreach push. I wrote about sea kayaking marketing back in 2012, and how it has tended to show sea kayaking as an extreme sport with surf, big waves and big conditions. This isn’t what most people want from the outdoors. It doesn’t surprise me that after years of being depicted like this that the sport is in serious decline. I don’t see this as turning around anytime soon. Antidotally and based on some internet forums, I’ve seen sea kayakers act in unwelcoming ways to newbies. I’ve written about this culture of sea kayak safety shaming before.

On a final note, only 23% of new outdoor sport participants called canoeing/kayaking/rafting important, which was the lowest among all the tracked sports, but 40% found paddlesports enjoyable. Only 7% of the total tried paddlesports. I would have thought more would have tried it. With so few new outdoor participants being interested in canoeing and kayaking, it seems like it’ll be a bumpy road ahead.

You can find all the reports here: https://outdoorindustry.org/oia-participation/