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 every week.

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 repair kit is the thing that gets you off the water and home when the hull picks up damage somewhere between the put-in and the take-out. Every Seeka ships with one, and a spare is $29. Knowing what is in it, and how to use it, is part of knowing how to packraft.

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. No pump. 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 packraft paddle lives in the same pack as the packraft. It breaks down into four pieces, folds alongside a deflated hull, and rides out on your back. That one requirement shapes how a good packraft paddle is built and what to look for when you choose one.

Field Note

Self-bailing packrafts, plainly explained

A self-bailing packraft has holes in its floor. Water comes in, water goes out. You do not pump, you do not scoop, you keep paddling. That is the mechanism, and most of what you need to know about it.

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

Packraft vs kayak: which one fits your days

A kayak and a packraft both float you across water. That is where the likeness ends. The difference that matters is not what happens on the water. It is what happens before the water, and how you get there.

Field Note

Best packraft in Australia: how to choose

There is no single best packraft in Australia. There is a best packraft for a given job, a given water and a given walk. The hull that suits a lake loop in Kosciuszko is a different choice from the one that suits a river journey in Tasmania. Get clear on what you are asking the packraft to do, and the choice gets easier.

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

Solo, Tourer or Duo

Seeka makes three packrafts. Seeka Solo, Seeka Tourer, Seeka Duo. Same cloth. Same colour. Same self-bail. Same warranty. The difference is who sits in it, how much room you want, and whether you are walking in light or going two-up.

Field Note

Self-bail vs decked

A packraft either lets water out through holes in the floor, or keeps it out with a spray deck. Those two designs sit differently, paddle differently, and dry out differently. This note is about that choice.

Field Note

Seeka vs Alpacka, MRS, Kokopelli

Seeka is an Australian packraft brand. Three packrafts, Solo, Tourer, and Duo, all self-bail. We ship to Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, the UK and Europe.

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Three hulls, all self-bailing, all backed by two years on materials and welding.