Vancouver Island: A Sea Kayaking Paradise!

Vancouver Island: Leading the way in Kayak Touring!

When we think of international sea kayaking destinations, Vancouver Island tops the list. More multi-day kayak touring is done here than any other place in the world. And it’Äôs easy to see why: Vancouver Island’Äôs shores are dotted with literally thousands of islands, from tiny unnamed islets with barely a few trees, to small continents like Quadra, an island more than 100 square kilometres in size containing 3 major ecosections within its land mass.

Vancouver Islands's tightly clustered offshore islands offer paddling which is safe from the wind and stormy seas of exposed areas, and between them are narrow channels that create environments rich in terrestrial and intertidal life. The Broken Group, the Bunsby Islands, the Deer Group, the Whaler Islets, Clayoquot Sound, Desolation Sound, the Broughton Archipelago, the Discovery Islands, and the Southern Gulf Islands of the Georgia Basin, all provide fascinating and safe sea kayaking with a wide range of climates, geography, and ecosystems.

But Vancouver Island also has wilder sides! The west coast contains dozens of miles of remote, exposed sandy beaches, surf-exploding reefs, and inhospitable shorelines impossible for any craft to approach. This has earned our west coast the ominous title, Graveyard of the Pacific.

The inland sea between coastal British Columbia and Vancouver Island’Äôs east side provides access to numerous deep Fjords which cut sharply into the British Columbia’Äòs Coast Mountains, the formidable north-south range containing Canada’Äôs highest peaks. The Fjordlands are dramatic inland waterways, channels carved up to 100 kilometres into the BC interior, and into some of the wildest most remote places left on earth. Intense anabatic and catabatic winds, and the presence of grizzly bears, cougar and wolves reserves these places for the most adventurous of kayakers.

Whatever your threshold for a kayak adventure, Vancouver Island contains a lifetime of paddling opportunities!

Sea Kayaking Quadra Island