7 exciting water games for kayaking, canoeing and more

When you’ve built your rafts, or learned to control your kayak or canoe, it’s time to race! 

If you’re racing rafts, make sure the rafts are secure before you get stuck into the relays. It’s much less fun if they fall to pieces straight away. You’ll want to give people paddles, too.

A relay is just a race between teams where people take it in turns to cover parts of the total distance. You can go back and forth across the same area: teams go from the start line to an agreed marker, then turn around and head back to the start line to tag a teammate in.

You don’t even have to tag team members in. If everyone in each team fits on the raft to begin with, you can play without swapping who’s on board.

Make sure you have a starting line and a clear finishing line. To start, everyone should get on-board their raft or get into their watercraft.

When everyone’s ready, shout ‘Go!’ then see who makes it across the finish line first. 

You could give out awards for good communication, teamwork, or perseverance. 

If you’ve made the rafts yourself, you could award best design to whoever’s raft stayed together the best. Or, you could award best sinking to the one which fell apart most spectacularly!

Either in kayaks, canoes or on rafts, teams could race to go round a set obstacle course. 

If the water space you’re using has any islands, buoys or other features, use these as markers the groups can paddle around. 

If you’ve got enough adults joining in, you can use your own boats on the water to make obstacles as well.

You could demonstrate or explain the route to the teams. 

You could also give them a map with the route to follow to help them practice their navigation skills - but remember to check they go the right way!

Everyone could do it together, or you could do it as a relay, depending on the vessels you’re using. 

Scatter floating objects, such as balls or swimming noodles, around the water. 

Either in kayaks, canoes or on rafts, the teams should race to retrieve them one at a time, taking them back to an agreed spot to the side or on land. 

When everyone’s ready, shout ‘Go!’ and the teams can start collecting the item, until they’re collected.

You could give out awards for good communication, teamwork, or perseverance, as well as for the most items collected.

If you’ve made the rafts yourself, you could award best design to whoever’s raft stayed together the best. Or, you could award best sinking to the one which fell apart most spectacularly!

This game is great for practising skills on the water, in whichever watercraft or boat you’re using. Mark out and tell everyone the boundaries for the game. 

When everybody’s out on the water in their craft, choose five members of the group to be the police. They could wear a sports vest or a Necker.

Everyone else is a pirate. The pirates should spread out around across the water. They could wear pirate hats.

The aim of the game is for the police to chase and capture the pirates. They can do this by ‘jailing’ the pirate’s boats. 

To ‘jail’, police should touch the bow (front) or stern (back) of a pirate’s boat with their hand, being careful not to trap your hand in the process.

Jailed pirates aren’t allowed to move unless they’re freed by other pirates. 

To alert fellow pirates they’ve been jailed, they must shout ‘Ahoy, matey!’ and hold up their paddles or oars in the air.

Boats are released when another pirate touches the bow or stern with their hand.

The game can be played until all the pirates have been jailed, or until a suitable time to swap has passed and let everyone have a go at a different role. 

This game’s designed for kayaking. Everyone should learn the basics of kayaking first or have a practice session. Take a look at our guide to Kayaking for more details.

On the water, everyone should form a large circle while still in their kayaks, with the noses of their boats facing inwards. The boats shouldn’t be touching and should be wide enough apart to fit at least two kayaks in the middle of the circle.

The person leading the game should then choose two players to paddle into the middle of the circle.

The outside players should use their hands to throw a ball back and forth across the circle. They must pass it as soon as they’ve caught it. They can only pass it across the circle and not to players on either side of them.

If they miss the ball and the ball is in the middle of the circle, the players forming the outside circle can carefully use their paddles to try to retrieve it. They mustn’t break the circle to get the ball if it’s in the middle. 

Meanwhile, the people in the middle should try to steal the ball. They could lift their paddles to intercept it, or race to get missed balls from the middle before the outside players reach it.  Possession goes to the player that reaches it first.

Whenever the players in the middle steal the ball, the outside player who touched it last should then join them. The number of players in the middle now becomes three, with the two original players staying in the middle.

If the ball ends up outside the circle, players can break the circle to retrieve the ball and bring it back.

Keep playing until about half of the group are in the middle. Then, the game can start over, letting other players have a chance to start in the middle. 

Alternatively, you can play this game a bit like ‘piggy in the middle’, so if a player in the middle catches the ball, they swap places with the person on the outside of the circle who touched the ball last.

This can be an excellent game for larger groups. Ultimate kayak football or Frisbee can be a great way to practice your skills, including your basic paddling strokes. 

You’ll need to identify and mark out the playing area, as well as two end zones. Use markers on land or buoys on the water to highlight the four corners of your playing area. You could use a net to mark out a goal, if you’ve sufficient equipment.

Around six players or six boats can work best for each team but you can have more or less depending on the size of the area you have.

The ball is placed in the middle of the playing area. Each team starts the game on their own half of the playing area. The referee blows a whistle. Possession goes to the player that reaches the ball first.

Once the whistle is blown, the ball can be passed between team members by throwing.

You can’t hold the ball while paddling, but you can dribble the ball in the water by throwing it in front of your kayak and paddling to it or by using your paddle to move it along. 

However, members of the opposite team can intercept a pass by using their paddles to block. 

A goal is scored when a player has gone into their end zone and catches the ball from another player in their team.

After a goal has been scored, the ball is returned to the middle of the playing area. All players move away from the ball and the referee shouts ‘Go!’ 

Possession goes to the player that reaches it first and the next round begins. 

You can decide how long to play for and you could play so the team with most points at the end, wins.

You could also play this game with a Frisbee for a game of kayak ultimate Frisbee. Just use a Frisbee instead of a ball!

Leapfrog is a simple game that’ll help people with vessel control and paddling.

Everyone in the group needs to form a single line, with each kayak or canoe lined bow to stern in the water. It’s best to stay still in this game, though to make it harder, everyone could stay in the line formation and slowly paddle.

The paddler at the back of the group should work their way to the front of the group to become the new leader.

When the new leader is at the front, the paddler who’s now at the back will begin to move up to the front of the group. Take turns to paddle to the front of the group and become the leader.

To turn this game into a competition, you can create two or more groups to race each other. Whoever gets all of their paddlers through the line first is the winner. You could also have prizes for best effort, best teamwork or good cheerleading.