It’s April on the coast of Maine, and I’m upside-down underwater again. The ocean’s surface is a green gauze curtain swaying in the wind, and I can’t tell sideways from up. Think. I force my numb ...

Roll, roll, roll your boat, gently up the . . . Oh, hi! Excuse me for a moment while I blow this river water out of my nose. The world sure looks funny right-side-up. Have you seen my boat around here ...

The kayak’s precise origin story is murky, but sources credit various Indigenous groups of the far north — modern-day Alaska, Greenland and Siberia — with inventing the boat for hunting and fishing.

Kayaking has become a popular pastime for many the past few years, and it's no wonder why. It's relatively easy to learn how to kayak, and it can be done in any body of water, whether that be a lake, ...