Keeping Safe while Canoeing, Kayaking, or Packrafting in Hokkaido

GENERAL ADVICE

• Don’t trust HokkaidoWilds.org
  We’re enthusiastic amateurs at best when it comes to paddling in Hokkaido. Sure, we’ve got extremely experienced and highly trained paddlers on the team, and we’re experienced with Hokkaido’s wild places in general. But we’re still building our experience and knowledge with Hokkaido’s rivers, lakes and coastal areas. Take our experiences with a very large grain of salt.
• Hire a guide
  For all of the major paddling routes posted on HokkaidoWilds.org, we make note of local guides available that can accompany you on routes and sections appropriate for your level of ability. If you’re an experienced paddler, we’d recommend preparing a short ‘resume’ with photos that you can include in any correspondence with a potential guide. This will help the guide envisage what level of paddling they can expect from you – most of Hokkaido’s highly experienced guides spend most of their time guiding complete beginners, many of whom have never held a paddle before.
• Keep dry and warm
  Hokkaido’s waterways and coastal seas are very cold, so outside of mid-summer (where outside temperatures climb into the 30’s of °C), drysuits or thick (3-4mm) wetsuits are par for the course for most paddling.
  • Lakes – Lake Shikotsu’s surface temps are 5°C in April, 10°C in May, 14°C in June, 21°C in Aug, 18°C in Sep, 11°C in Oct (source). Self-rescue skills are paramount in these temperatures.
  • Rivers – River temperatures differ little from those temps above.
  • Sea/ocean – Sea temperatures around Hokkaido range between 3-5°C in winter, 5-10°C in spring, 10-23°C in the height of summer, and 10-18°C in autumn.
• Always wear a life jacket (PFD)
  While in Japan there’s no law requiring people to wear life jackets on small crafts such as canoes and kayaks, everyone should be wearing one when on the water.
• Tell someone your plans
  Before setting out, let someone who cares about you know where you are going, and when you expect to be back. There’s no official float-plan submission system in Hokkaido.
• Check the weather
  Our go-to weather forecast website for the outdoors in Hokkaido is Windy.com. It is a free site/app, but they use a sophisticated commercial forecasting model that is uncannily accurate to within 1-2 days. For sea kayaking and canoeing Hokkaido’s larger lakes, weather is particularly important. Lakes have large fetch, and all of Hokkaido’s best sea kayaking locations are on exposed coasts – if Windy.com is showing anything more than 20km/h gust speed, consider keeping off the water.
• Get some training
  • Paddling courses – There are a number of good canoe, kayak and sea kayak training schools in Hokkaido – look for Japan Safe Paddling Association (JSPA) accredited courses (see a list here). They’re generally around 12,000 to 15,000yen per day – a worthy investment. Outfits offering courses in English are rare.
    • Canoeing: If you’re looking for canoe lessons in English, then try the Niseko Outdoor Center. If you’d rather cut costs as much as possible, you live in Hokkaido, and speak at least basic Japanese, consider joining a club such as the Hokkaido Wilderness Canoe club.
  • River rescue training: There are a couple of outfits in Hokkaido that offer the accredited Rescue 3 Swiftwater Rescue Training (SRT) qualifications (in Japanese). See the list and dates here.
  • Sea kayak courses: Try contacting H2O Adventure, as they may have guides who can instruct in English.
• Prioritize travelling in a group
  Where possible, always travel with two or more boats, in order to facilitate rescue if needed. If you live in Hokkaido, and speak at least basic Japanese, consider joining a club such as the Hokkaido Wilderness Canoe club.
• Carry a navigation device
  On each of the HokkaidoWilds.org paddling route guides, we post a printable PDF map of the route. In addition to printing this out and having it on hand in a waterproof case along with a compass, make sure you have some form of GPS navigation device. Mist can happen, particularly on the Hokkaido coast. PLBs are fine for use on the sea, but cannot be used on land in Japan. Consider carrying a SPOT location device for emergencies. See our deep-dive on PLBs here.
• Do your due diligence
  Despite Hokkaido’s abundance of paddling zones, there is a real lack of resources out there in English – hence our desire to fill that gap. But don’t just rely on our information. Check websites such as HokkaiCamp.com (Japanese only), and seek out Japanese publications such as the 55 River Touring Routes book, the Canoe Touring Book and the All-Japan Canoe Touring Guide (here’s our full list). Apart from HokkaiCamp.com, all those resources are pretty old though – the newest being over 15 years old – your mileage may vary.