How to Pick Up a Kayak

Video Transcript

Next thing we're going to talk about is how to pick up your kayak. So the first thing, most people would just bend over, try and pick it up using their back. Most of these kayaks weigh in the range of about forty to fifty pounds for a recreational kayak. Even a good kayak weighs about thirty pounds. So what you want to do is use your legs, because they're the strongest part of your body, to pick up the boat. So the first thing I'm going to do is bend down alongside my kayak like this, I'm going to put the kayak on its' side which brings the height up to me, I want to get my shoulder underneath the kayak like this, and then I'm going to stand up using my legs. Notice how at all times I kept my back nice and straight? I put no strain on my back picking up the kayak. Now when you take your kayak you're going to walk it over to the water, first thing you've got to grab your paddle if you didn't have your paddle with you. So one of the tricks that you can do, you can go, I've got the kayak in this hand and I don't want to bend back down to grab my paddle, I can just take my foot, stick it under the paddle like this, lift it up, bring the paddle to my hand, and then I'm ready to go and head for the water. So that makes it easy when you want to take the kayak from your car, take it from the garage to your car, or take it from the car to the water.