Sea Kayaking in Vancouver

Any day of the week on the water of Burrard Inlet you will find, among the cruise ships and freighters, sea kayaks gliding along the shores.

Sea kayaks are the smallest and most manoeuvrable craft on the water, a sleek, stable one-person (or tandem) boat whose origins can be traced to the baidarkas designed centuries ago by the North Coast Indians of the Alaskan Panhandle.

Vancouver’s two most popular paddling destinations are equally unique. The placid waters of False Creek, ringed by bustling Yaletown to the north and Fairview Slopes and Granville Island to the south. On the North Shore, kayakers paddle from Deep Cove to explore Indian Arm, a finger-shaped fjord which bends northward for 30 kilometres 18.8 miles) deep into the heart of the Coast Range mountains. On the way, paddlers can stop to marvel at majestic and mysterious old-growth forests and lacy waterfalls while gulls, ravens and bald eagles soar overhead. It’s the kind of wilderness trip that ecotourists pay thousands of dollars for, and you can take a bus right to the starting point.