FIELD NOTES

Notes from the water

How to choose a packraft, what to take, and how to get the most out of it. New notes regularly.

Choosing a packraft

Best packraft in Australia: how to choose

The best packraft in Australia is the one matched to your water, your walk and your load. For lakes, estuaries and gentle rivers with a walk in, a self-bailing touring hull covers most trips: the Seeka Solo is 2.4 kg, the Tourer 3.65 kg and the two-person Duo 5.8 kg. For cold water or serious whitewater, look at a decked hull such as the Alpacka Expedition 2026 or the MRS Microraft.

Choosing a packraft

Solo, Tourer or Duo

Choose the Seeka Solo (2.4 kg) if you paddle alone and walk in light to lakes and easy flat water, the Tourer (3.65 kg) if you paddle alone and want room for overnight kit and easy rivers, and the Duo (5.8 kg) if you paddle two-up or carry a lot of kit. All three share the same cloth, the same self-bailing floor and the same two-year warranty. If you will only own one and you paddle alone, the Tourer is the default.

Choosing a packraft

Packraft vs kayak: which one fits your days

A packraft is the backpack kayak: an inflatable hull light enough to carry in a pack, 2.4 kg to 5.8 kg across the Seeka range. A kayak is faster and tracks better on open water, but it travels on a roof rack and launches from a ramp. Pick a packraft if your days start on a trail, and a kayak if they start at the water.

Choosing a packraft

Seeka Touring vs Alpacka, MRS and Kokopelli

Seeka Touring is the self-bailing choice at the lower price: every Seeka self-bails, from $799 for the 2.4 kg Solo. Alpacka and MRS make lighter one-person packrafts. Alpacka, MRS and Kokopelli all publish longer warranties, from three years to lifetime on the hull, and charge more for their self-bailing models. Pick by the water you paddle, then read the figures below.

Field Note

Food for packraft trips

Paddling burns fuel, walking in burns more, and the carry out at the end of the day takes whatever is left. Food on a packraft trip has three jobs: keep you moving on the water, get through a dunking in one piece, and weigh as little as possible on the walk. Plan it around those three and you eat well from the first stroke to the last climb.

Field Note

Lining and wading a packraft

Not every stretch of river is worth paddling. A shallow riffle scrapes the floor, a rocky chute looks messier than you like, or the water is too low to float a loaded packraft. You do not always need to deflate and carry. Often you can walk the packraft down the edge on a line, or wade it through the shallows, and be back in the seat a few minutes later.

Field Note

Packrafting without a car

A packraft is the one paddle craft built to leave the car at home. It rolls onto your back, rides on a bus seat and fits in a train's luggage rack. Take a regional train to a river town, walk to the bank, paddle downstream, and catch the train home from a different station.

Field Note

Weirs and low-head dams

A weir looks like the least threatening thing on a river. A tidy concrete step, a smooth sheet of water, a gentle line of white below. It is one of the most dangerous features you can paddle toward, and the rule is short: you walk around it. Every time, at every level, in every craft.

Field Note

Packraft self-rescue

Sooner or later, everyone who paddles a packraft ends up in the water. A gust, an eddy line, a lean too far reaching for a hat. The swim itself is rarely the problem. What matters is what you do in the next thirty seconds, and that is a skill you can learn on a warm afternoon in water where you can stand.

Field Note

Packraft vs stand-up paddleboard

A stand-up paddleboard and a packraft both inflate, both roll up, and both put you on the water for the price of a good tent. Stand on one, sit in the other, and they turn into different tools. Here is how they compare, so you can pick the one that matches the days you want to have.

Field Note

Choosing a riverside campsite

The best part of a packraft overnight happens after you pull out. Tent up, stove on, the river sliding past a few metres below. Where you put that tent decides how the night goes. Pick the spot well and you sleep deep and wake to a calm launch. Pick it badly and you spend the night listening to the water and the branches overhead. Here is how to read a bank before you commit to it.

Field Note

Eddies and ferry glides

Two moves turn a gentle river from something that carries you into something you steer. Catch an eddy and you can stop anywhere you like. Ferry across the current and you can land on whichever bank you choose. Learn both on easy moving water and every river trip gets calmer, safer and a lot more fun.

Field Note

Flying with a packraft

A packraft rolls small enough to check in with your tent. Fly into Hobart, Queenstown or Nelson, collect your bag at the carousel, and you are on the water that afternoon with no roof racks and no hire desk. A little preparation before the airport makes the whole trip smoother.

Field Note

Strainers and sweepers

Strainers and sweepers are the two hazards you meet most on the small rivers that suit a packraft. One sits in the current and lets water through while it holds you. The other hangs over the water at head height and knocks you off your seat. Learn to spot both from a long way off and you paddle easy rivers with a relaxed mind, because you always see them first.

Field Note

Packrafting estuaries and tides

An estuary is where a river meets the sea, and the tide runs the show. Twice a day, give or take, the water rises, turns and drains back out. Time your paddle with it and you ride a moving walkway through mangroves, sand flats and channels. Time it against it and you grind for every metre. A packraft is at home in this water, as long as you plan around the tide first.

Field Note

Your first packraft trip

Your first packraft trip is the one you will measure every other trip against, so set it up to go well. Three choices do most of the work: the water, the day and the people beside you. Get those right and the rest is a walk, a paddle and a good lunch on a bank.

Field Note

Packrafting in summer heat

Summer is prime packrafting season. Long days, warm water, swims whenever you like. It also brings its own set of problems: hard sun, dehydration, low rivers, algae and a hull that heats up on the bank. None of it needs to cut a trip short. Plan for the heat and you get the best of the season.

Field Note

Leave no trace packrafting

A packraft gets you to water most people never see. A riverbank with no footprints, a lake at the end of a long walk, a gravel bar under cliffs. The job is to leave it that way. Leave no trace is not a rulebook. It is a habit: plan well, camp light, carry it all out and clean your gear so the next paddler finds the place as you did.

Field Note

Packraft weight explained

A packraft is the paddle craft you carry, so its weight is part of every trip before you ever reach the water. Side by side, the difference between models looks small. On your back, over a long climb to a mountain lake, it adds up. Here is what makes a packraft heavy, what that weight buys you, and how to pick the right balance for your trips.

Field Note

Packrafting in cold water

Some of the best packrafting in Australia and New Zealand is on cold water. Highland lakes in Tasmania, snow-fed rivers in the Victorian and New South Wales alps, glacial country in the South Island, and almost anywhere on a winter morning. Cold water asks for a different plan: shorter trips, closer to shore, the right layers on and a dry set packed. Get that plan right and you have the place to yourself.

Field Note

Portaging a packraft

The best thing about a packraft is that it never has to stay on the water. A weir across the river, a log jam around a bend, a rapid that looks bigger than your plans: step out, pick it up and walk around. Portaging is part of packrafting, and a smooth one takes a few minutes.

Field Note

Lake crossings in a packraft

A lake looks simple from the shore. Flat water, a far bank, a straight line between them. In a packraft, the straight line is a decision, not a default. The far side can be closer on foot, safer around the edge, or an easy hop across if you pick the right hour. Here is how to choose, and how to cross well when you do.

Field Note

Portable kayak alternatives: packraft, folding or inflatable

The lightest portable kayak is a packraft: the Seeka Solo weighs 2.4 kg and rolls onto a backpack, while folding kayaks from Oru and TRAK weigh 7.7 kg to 22 kg and inflatable kayaks typically 10 kg to 20 kg. A folding or hardshell kayak is faster and tracks better. Choose by how far you carry it: a car boot suits a folding or inflatable kayak, a walking track suits a packraft.

Field Note

Carrying a packraft on a hike

Most packrafting days start on foot. The track down to the gorge, the ridge between two lakes, the long walk round to a river nobody drives to. A packraft, paddle and PFD on your back should walk like any other load. Set up the pack well and the kilometres go by; set it up badly and you feel every one.

Field Note

Packraft vs inflatable kayak

A packraft is the lighter, shorter craft: the Seeka range weighs 2.4 kg to 5.8 kg and rolls onto a pack, while inflatable kayaks typically weigh 10 kg to 20 kg and travel in a car boot. An inflatable kayak glides further per stroke and holds a line better on long open water. Choose the packraft if you walk or ride to the water, and the inflatable kayak if you drive to the ramp.

Field Note

Packrafting near Melbourne

The closest packrafting to Melbourne is on the Yarra and the Maribyrnong, two rivers that run right through the suburbs, with launches you can reach by train or tram. The Barwon at Geelong is about an hour down the highway, and Lake Eildon and the Gippsland Lakes make a weekend. Here are the waters to start with, and where to go once you are hooked.

Field Note

Packrafting near Sydney

The closest packrafting to Sydney is inside the city: the Lane Cove River and the Georges River both run through suburban bushland, with sheltered reaches for a first paddle. Within about an hour you reach the Nepean and the Hawkesbury, and Kangaroo Valley and Myall Lakes make a weekend. Here is where to start, from city rivers to remote gorge country.

Field Note

Dry bags for packrafting

A self-bailing packraft keeps you afloat. It does not keep your gear dry. Water sloshes over the tubes, spray comes off the paddle, and anything sitting loose on the floor gets wet. Dry bags are how your sleeping bag, your phone and your spare warm layer arrive at camp the way they left home.

Field Note

Packraft paddling technique

A packraft rewards a short, relaxed, rotating stroke. Paddle it like a long sea kayak and the bow swings side to side. Paddle it like a packraft and it runs straight, turns on the spot and holds its line across a lake. Here is how to get there in an afternoon.

Field Note

Packrafting in wind

Wind is the thing most likely to spoil a flat-water packrafting day. Not current, not cold, not distance. Wind.

Field Note

Reading a river

Moving water follows rules. Once you can see them, a river stops being a surface and becomes a set of features you can plan around.

Field Note

Hire or buy a packraft

A packraft is a considered purchase. Hiring one first is a sound way to find out whether the pattern of days it opens up is the pattern of days you want.

Field Note

Planning a packraft trip

Most packrafting problems are planning problems. The paddling is usually the easy part of the day.

Field Note

How to pack a packraft

Roll it well at the take-out and it comes out fast at the next put-in. A packraft that goes into the pack badly comes out slowly and wears out sooner. Packing it well takes about two minutes once you have a method.

Field Note

Packraft vs canoe

Choose a packraft over a canoe when your trip starts on a walking track or a bike, and a canoe when it starts at a ramp with a lot to carry. A canoe tracks better, carries more and suits a multi-day river journey with a road at each end. A packraft rolls into your pack and walks in with you: the Seeka Solo weighs 2.4 kg and the two-person Duo 5.8 kg.

Field Note

Packrafting with kids

Children are good at packrafting and bad at being cold, bored or rushed. Plan around those three and most trips go well.

Field Note

Buoyancy vests for packrafting

Put the vest on before you carry the packraft down the bank. A buoyancy vest only works when you are wearing it. Every other consideration comes second.

Field Note

What to wear packrafting

For packrafting, wear quick-drying wool or synthetic layers, a windproof jacket, shoes that drain and stay on, a sun hat and a buoyancy vest, and leave cotton at home. Every Seeka self-bails, so plan on a wet seat and carry a warm layer you put on at the put-in. If a swim in that water would be serious, wear a wetsuit or drysuit.

Field Note

Packrafting with a dog

Dogs and paddling go back a long way. A packraft is the smaller, lighter, softer version of the same idea, and it works with the right dog and a bit of groundwork. The trips that go wrong are the ones where somebody finds out mid-river that the dog panics in a moving hull. Do the groundwork first and you never have that day.

Field Note

Overnight packrafting trips: how to plan

Walk in with a camp on your back. Paddle to the far shore, pitch the tent, and wake up beside water nobody drove to. An overnight packrafting trip is not a longer day trip. It is a different plan. You choose water that fits the hull and the distance, and you settle the shape of the route before you settle on the destination. Get the shape right and the rest falls into place.

Field Note

The packraft day-trip packing list

A packraft day trip needs less gear than most people think and more than some people bring. Every item has a job, and a few have no safe substitute. Pack once with care, then check it all again the night before you go.

Field Note

Whitewater packrafting, explained

Whitewater packrafting is running rapids in a purpose-built packraft: a decked hull with a spray deck, thigh straps and extra rocker, paddled by someone trained in bracing, ferry-gliding and swiftwater rescue. Rivers are graded from Grade I to Grade VI, and Grade II is already consequential in a small hull. Seeka builds self-bailing touring packrafts for lakes, estuaries and gentle rivers (Grade I), so for whitewater, look to the specialist hulls from Alpacka Raft, MRS or Kokopelli.

Field Note

Packrafts for hunting access in Australia

A river walls off more country than a fence. You can see the far bank, the timber, the drainage you want to walk into, and the water between you and it makes the decision. A packraft removes that wall. It rides in the pack on the way in, inflates at the bank, gets you across, and packs down again before the country dries on your boots. That is the access problem water creates, and the way a packraft solves it.

Field Note

Packraft fishing: quiet approaches, light kit

A packraft is a strong fishing tool because it carries you to walk-in water most anglers never reach, then puts you past the margins to the middle of a pool or the undercut on the far bank. Rig simply: one four-piece rod, a small chest or waist pack, a net, and an anchor to stop wind drift. A self-bailing hull suits it, from the 2.4 kg Seeka Solo to the 5.8 kg Duo when you want room for a second angler or a heavier load.

Field Note

Bikerafting: getting started in Australia

Ride to the water. Strap the bike to the packraft. Paddle the section you could not ride, then ride on. That is bikerafting, and it turns a dead-end trail into a circuit. The bike and the packraft are both in play, each used where it belongs, and the day covers more ground for it.

Field Note

Is a packraft worth it?

Worth is a maths problem, not a feelings problem. A packraft used once a year is an expensive afternoon. A packraft used twelve times a year is a hard-working piece of kit. So the question is not whether a packraft is good. It is whether the way you move through country puts one in your pack, again and again.

Field Note

Packraft care and storage

Look after a packraft and it lasts a long time. The materials are tough, the welding is solid, and the two-year Seeka warranty covers both. What the warranty does not cover is how you treat the hull between trips: stored wet, cooked in a hot car, dragged across sharp rock, left inflated in full sun. Those are the things that shorten a life. None of them is hard to avoid.

Field Note

Packraft repair: the field kit that gets you home

A packraft repair kit holds what you need to seal damage on the bank: self-adhesive patches for quick field fixes and adhesive for bigger repairs. For a pinhole, dry and clean the area, cut the patch at least 15 mm past the damage on every side, and press hard for sixty seconds. Every Seeka ships with a repair kit of self-adhesive patches and a tube of adhesive, and spares are in the accessories range.

Field Note

How to inflate a packraft

Unroll it on the bank, sweep the air bag a few times, top it up by mouth, and you are afloat. Most people have the technique down on their first outing.

Field Note

Packraft fabrics and floors, explained

Packraft fabric is a woven base cloth with an airtight coating bonded to it. The coating holds the air in the tubes. The cloth takes the abrasion, the UV and the flex. Choose a packraft well and you know what the cloth is, where each weight goes, and what the seams do.

Field Note

Two-person packrafts: who they suit

Two of you, one hull. You share the paddling, you share the weight of the kit on the water, and you share whatever the day throws at you. That is what a two-person packraft is for. It does a different job from a solo hull, and knowing that job means you buy the right one.

Field Note

Packraft paddles: what matters

A good packraft paddle breaks into four pieces so it packs with the hull, runs longer than a kayak paddle because a packraft sits wide and high, and carries a touring blade unless you paddle whitewater. The Seeka paddle runs 220 to 230 cm, in fibreglass at 950 g.

Field Note

Self-bailing packrafts, plainly explained

A self-bailing packraft has drain holes in its floor, so water that splashes into the cockpit runs straight back out and you never stop to pump or empty the hull. The trade is a wetter seat, which suits warm rivers, lakes and estuaries better than cold, exposed water. Every Seeka self-bails, from the 2.4 kg Solo to the 5.8 kg two-person Duo.

Field Note

Packraft safety: the non-negotiables

Packrafting is not a high-risk pursuit when you give the water the same attention you give a mountain or a remote track. The risks are real, they are manageable, and most of them come down to a handful of decisions made before you launch. Get those right and you come home. Get them wrong and the packraft cannot fix it.

Field Note

How to choose a packraft

The packraft you need is the one that fits your day as it is, not the most ambitious version of it. Start from the water you paddle most. Then the walk between put-ins. Then who comes along. Get those three right and the rest of the spec falls into place.

Field Note

Packrafting for beginners: your first season

Walk to water you cannot reach by car. Inflate a small hull at the bank, paddle it, roll it back into your pack and walk out. That is packrafting. The gear is light. The skills build in a sensible order. A first season on flat water will show you whether this pattern fits the days you want.

Field Note

What is a packraft

A packraft is a small inflatable hull built to live in a pack. You walk with it. You inflate it at the water. You paddle. You deflate it, roll it, and walk out.

Field Note

Self-bail vs decked

Choose a self-bailing packraft if your days are splashy, warm or full of wet-bank entries: drain holes in the floor let water straight back out. Choose a decked packraft if your days are long, calm or cold: a spray deck keeps water out and the seat drier, but water that does get in stays until you empty it. All three Seekas self-bail, from the 2.4 kg Solo to the 5.8 kg Duo.

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