Inside TRAK

Nervous, unsure, and scared- yet, somehow still excited is how I felt heading down Highway 2 for the TRAK Retreat in Canmore, Alberta. I had never been kayaking before, but was anxious to try out a TRAK. (Let’s be honest though, I also look for any excuse to head out to the mountains.)

I arrived by bus, which was an easy and convenient way to travel with my TRAK, even getting priority boarding. Instead of staying alone in a hotel, I was hosted for the weekend by a long time TRAK user. We became instant friends and she was able to teach me some basic kayaking tips to calm my nerves.

Like great rivers, great stories always start as headstreams somewhere, cascade down mountains, meander through valleys, then braid and unite into a single channel that builds up momentum to join the ocean of our collective history. Here at TRAK, looking back this August, we’re celebrating 10 years of a story about perseverance and paddlers, about our people and products. What we’re most proud of is that along the way we created a vehicle to unleash life, for the adventurous hearts to follow their bucket list dreams, for the new explorers to seek uncharted waters around the world and come back to discover that amazing is inside all of us.

Think of a bucket list of paddling destinations as the operating manual for #TRAKeverywhere. It’s music to our ears here at TRAK. It’s the sound of life unleashing and not letting anything get in the way of paddling anywhere! We like to think that the one essential piece of paddle adventure gear is (sounds obvious but it isn’t)… the kayak. Not only because it’s tough (pick-up truck proof!) but because it’s got that combination of portability and performance, you can finally count on for a dream adventure without compromise.

TRAK owners have been quietly seeing—and changing—the world for the last 10 years. TRAKs are the most durable and most seaworthy portable kayaks on the market and you’ve been helping us prove it. You’ve been out there getting places you might not have been able to get to otherwise. And experiencing things you may not have otherwise experienced. You’ve been changing our sport and you’ve been unleashing your life.

During the depths of a northern winter, it’s easy to put your kayaks away, hang up your paddles, and eagerly wait for the return of longer days and more temperate weather. For many, our thoughts turn to ski season, hot chocolate, and playing in the snow; we are a culture that embraces our weather, making the most of the frigid temperatures. Not everyone is in love with our winters though — many Canadians book their departures to warm climates, gathering like migratory birds at all inclusive resorts in the south. For those seeking an adventure beyond the resort communities, a little bit of effort to get off the beaten track can result in great rewards!

Zephyr in Australia has been doing cool customizations of his TRAK; Allie on Vancouver Island was featured in the TRAK Files video series; Gregor in Germany stepped up to join a European paddlesport show; Paul in South Carolina meets his customers on the water (sometimes in the Amazon); Whitney and Kevin in Florida love meeting with groups and showing off their TRAKs; Matthew in Seattle hosted a demo day in Pacific Northwest; Don in British Columbia demonstrated how to fly into the remote Arctic to paddle 400 km of river rapids; Martin in New Zealand is showing off TRAK at trade shows...

The idea of paddling the Coppermine River in Canada’s Arctic was conceived many years ago in high school. Assigned reading for English class was Farley Mowat’s “Coppermine Journey: An Account of Great Adventure.” Based on the journals of Samuel Hearne, an explorer with the Hudson’s Bay Company, this book outlined his journey from Hudson’s Bay to the Coppermine River in 1770. It wasn’t an easy trip. Hearne spent the better part of a year completing the journey, faced starvation regularly, and his journals describe incredible hardships. Perhaps I’m a masochist, but from that point onward I was enchanted with the story, the river, and the North in general.