More Paddlers. Fewer Outings. What Does That Mean for the Paddlesports Business?
A preview of the participation data Kelly Davis of Outdoor Industry Association will bring to PTC Colab 2026
Recorded July 16, 2026
Paddlesports has more participants than ever. But beneath that growth is a trend every paddlesports business should be paying attention to: people are getting outside less often.
Kelly Davis, Director of Research for the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), offered PTC members a preview of the data during the recent Beyond the Booth: What’s New at PTC Colab 2026 webinar.
The headline is encouraging. Outdoor recreation has added roughly 30 million participants since the pandemic, and nearly 60% of Americans age six and older now participate in some form of outdoor activity. But participation alone doesn’t tell the whole story.
The Frequency Gap
While the number of outdoor participants has grown, the average number of outings per participant has been declining for years.
Davis shared a striking comparison: the average outdoor participant now gets outside 65.2 times per year, compared with 87.4 times in 2012. That creates an important challenge, and opportunity, for the outdoor industry:
We have more participants. The opportunity is getting them to participate more often.
Davis pointed specifically to the roughly 30 million people who entered outdoor recreation since the pandemic. Rather than focusing exclusively on recruiting the next new participant, the industry has an opportunity to encourage the people already here to take one more hike, one more camping trip, or one more paddle.
For paddlesports, that opportunity may be particularly significant.
Only 23% of recreational kayakers paddle 8+ times a year.
What would happen if we could get everyone else to paddle just one more time?
There are now just over 40 million U.S. paddlers across recreational kayaking, canoeing, stand-up paddling, rafting, whitewater kayaking, and sea/touring kayaking. But Davis offered another number that deserves attention.
OIA considers a recreational kayaker a core participant at eight or more outings per year. Only 23% of recreational kayakers currently meet that threshold.
That means the bigger business question may not simply be: How do we create more paddlers?
It may also be: How do we help occasional paddlers become more active paddlers?
That matters because participation frequency and consumer behavior are connected. OIA’s consumer segmentation research indicates that the highly frequent, high-spending “super core” represents only about 6.5% to 7% of the market. Meanwhile, a much larger group participates less frequently, spends less, and approaches outdoor recreation more casually.
Davis also noted that the group participating 51 or more times annually has been declining. For the industry, that matters because greater participation frequency can mean more frequent purchases and potentially higher-value purchases.
Paddlesports Is Still Growing, But Growth Is Slowing
The latest numbers also provide important context for the market. Across outdoor recreation, participation grew 1.1% from 2024 to 2025, compared with a three-year average annual growth rate of 2.9%. Davis described the pattern in paddlesports as a similar slowing growth trend, although individual paddling disciplines are performing differently.
Those differences create actionable intelligence for brands, retailers, outfitters, sales reps, and organizations.
If one paddlesports segment is slowing while another is growing, where are the crossover customers? What might encourage a recreational kayaker to try touring? What gets someone who paddles twice a year onto the water a third, fourth, or eighth time? And what products, programs, experiences, partnerships, and messages help make that happen?
Those are business questions, not just participation questions.
The Deeper Dive Is Coming to PTC Colab
This webinar was only a preview. At PTC Colab 2026, October 14–16 at Montgomery Whitewater Center, Davis will bring a deeper look at OIA participation and consumer intelligence data and what it means specifically for the paddlesports industry. PTC Colab is designed to bring brands, retailers, reps, outfitters, organizations, media, and other industry leaders together around participation growth, profitability, collaboration, and long-term industry health.
Featured Guests
- Andrea White – Founder, Cross Currents Leadership (Host)
Kelly Davis – Outdoor Industry Association, Director of Research
Next Steps
- Register to attend PTC Colab 2026 (FREE)
- Register to Exhibit at PTC Colab 2026 (and nominate Retailers for Retailer Engagement Fund)