Kayaks and Canoes by Drone

Like most outdoor activities, Kayaking depends on reasonable weather to be enjoyable.  Norway doesn't typically come to mind when one thinks of kayaking spots, but one of the surprising things about northern Norway is that the climate is relatively temperate given the very northern latitudes here.  In this video, contributor Zdeno Dvorak uses a drone to show us the joy of paddling a kayak in the area around Svartisen Glaciers in Norway's Nordland County, on the edge of the Arctic Circle.  

Top AirVuz contributor and drone pilot Uncle Damn was hired to provide aerial video services for the European Wildwater Canoeing Championship in Matka, Macedonia. Representatives from the host nation as well as from Germany, France, Italy, the UK, and several other nations were on hand.  His drone video of the event provides a bird's eye view of some world class kayaking, as well as some great aerial views of Macedonia, a small Southeast European country and former member of the Yugoslave Confederation.  .

The first true seagoing vessels weren't powered by wind but rather by humans: outrigger canoes.  Exploiting the advantage afforded by double-hulls, so-called Hawaiian canoes allowed the people of the South Pacific Islands to make enormously long journeys more than 5,000 years ago.  Today, Outriggers have continued to spread throughout the world as a type of racing vessel.  In this drone video by Digital Peace Drone, you'll get a bird's eye view of an outrigger race near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  

The Dviete River is a tributary of the Daugava River in southeastern Latvia.  Occasionally, in years of heavy rainfall, the larger river (which is the most important waterway in this Eastern European country) backs up from the spring runoff.  When this happens, it turns the Dviete floodplains into a paradise for kayakers (as well as for birds of various species).  Contributor Eaglewood Films used a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone to capture this kayaking scene in one of the oldest parts of this Baltic Sea republic.  

The Polynesian people who initially populated Hawaii were some of the earth's first seagoing peoples, and the key to maritime success was having the right type of boat.  In this case, it was a boat style called a Va'a, which is an outrigger type canoe that has proven its seaworthiness over the centuries.  Contributor and pilot Tahiti Fly Shoot flew over the 2017 Hawaiki Nui Va'a race and created this spectacular drone video of the event, which is the largest such outrigger canoe event in the world.    

Check out this fantastic drone video of a dragon boat race in Hong Kong, compliments of AirVuz contributor and pilot Ekphrasis.  Dragon boats are large canoe-like watercraft which originated in the Pearl River Delta of Southeastern China.  Originally made of teak wood, the boats have been used for racing competition for over two thousand years.   The event filmed in the video is one of the largest modern-day dragon boat races; it takes place during the Tuen Ng Festival in the early summer.  

The Lovatnet is a beautiful glacier lake in Norway's Lodal Valley, in Sogn of Fjordane County in the western part of the country. The water comes from the Kjenndal Glacier.  The lake is a distinctive shade of green because it contains clay particles and rock dust, carved out by glaciers and swept along by rivers.  It is an outstanding spot for kayaking, as demonstrated by this awesome aerial video from contributor Aerial Norway.  

In this video, top contributor Wrenee, aka the Queen of the Dronie, takes her act to the massive Lake Nicaragua in the country of the same name in Central America.  Shooting from a kayak in the massive body of water, she uses her trademark pullout shot to film the lake (which is the 19th largest lake in the world by surface area) and the massive volcano behind it. Scenes like this are causing Nicaragua to follow the path originally set by Costa Rica to become a top travel destination.  

In Central Norway, kayaks aren't just for getting from point A to point B.  As contributor Hopenorway shows us, kayak polo is a "thing".  From Trondheim, the major city in the region, he brings us an aerial view of a kayak polo game.  It's just like water polo except, well except instead of swimming it's played on kayaks.  Given what are likely fairly cold water temperatures, perhaps it's just as well to be floating on the water rather than swimming in it.  

As most of the most well known parts of Canada's British Columbia are in the southern part of the province, it's easy to forget just how far north it extends.  A good deal of southern Alaska in the USA lies just west of BC, and the province's northern border is at 60 degrees north latitude.  In this video by Myworldphoto, you'll get a bird's eye view of one of the growing activities in northern BC: kayaking on the edges of the extensive glaciers which line much of the northern Pacific coast. 

Tomz FPV is making a name for himself in the extreme-sports-by-FPV world. The AirVuz Drone Video Awards winner in the FPV Freestyle Technical category has done some incredible work filming athletes for Red Bull. This video, shot with the production team SUPERSIZE Films, features Nouria Newman, the French slalom canoeist who competed professionally from 2007 to 2015. She’s won gold at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championship and you can see why in this risky trip down the rapids; this video made the FPV Pilots to Watch list in June, 2019.

Contributor and drone-explorer extraordinaire brings us this epic pull-out shot taken on the longest river in southern Africa.  The Orange River sources from the Drakensberg mountains and runs most of its 2.2 km (1,4k mi.) course westwards through South Africa, serving as its northern border with Namibia before discharging into the South Atlantic Ocean.  It is considered one of South Africa's greatest natural resources, supplying vast amounts of irrigation and hydropower to the region's most populous country.