One bag. One week. No plan until Tuesday.
The trip came together fast. On a Tuesday I had a ticket to Great Exuma, Bahamas. By Saturday morning I was standing on a white sand beach I'd found on Google Maps, assembling the TRAK 2.0 while a local waded past with his own kayak and didn't seem remotely surprised.
That's the version of the TRAK story that doesn't get told enough. Not the expedition — just a last-minute week that happened to include a folding sea kayak, warm open water, a few skills I needed to practice, and some wildlife encounters I didn't plan for. Including pigs. More on that later.
Flying with the TRAK — what actually happened
The TRAK 2.0 packs into a single rolling bag — roughly 41" × 19" × 9" and about 46 lbs assembled with kit. Delta flew it as oversized checked baggage through Atlanta. I paid the standard oversized fee. No drama, no special negotiations, no pre-approval phone calls.
I brought a Gearlab Greenland paddle as my primary and a Euro blade as backup. Both broke down small enough to go in the same bag or as additional checked luggage. The Greenland paddle, as it turned out, became more useful than I expected — not just for paddling, but for the re-entry skills I was about to spend three days practicing.
Check your airline's oversized baggage policy before booking. Most major carriers handle it as standard oversized — no kayak-specific rules. Weigh your bag before you leave. The TRAK bag is 41" long but weighs around 46 lbs with kit, which typically falls under most weight limits for oversized.
Why Great Exuma works
Exuma is surprisingly practical for Americans. English is the first language, USD is accepted everywhere, rental cars are available and left-side driving is manageable once you get used to it. The airport is small but functional. Wi-Fi was solid enough that I worked remotely for a few days without issues.
For a TRAK paddler specifically, the island geography is ideal. Protected channels, sandbanks you can land on anywhere, shallow turquoise water you can see through completely, and enough variation in conditions — from flat lagoons to open water crossings — to make it genuinely useful for skills practice rather than just sightseeing.
I booked maybe a week out. Not a huge production. If you own a TRAK and you're looking for a warm-water destination that's close to Houston and easy to navigate, Exuma belongs on your list.
Warm-water skills camp
I had a specific goal for this trip beyond exploring: I wanted to work on wet re-entry. It's the skill that separates a paddler who can go somewhere alone from one who can't. And I'd been putting it off because practicing re-entry in Texas means either cold water with a wetsuit, or waiting for a warm day and hoping the conditions cooperate.
Exuma removes all of that friction. The water is warm enough that falling in is pleasant rather than dangerous. There's no current in the protected areas, the bottom is visible, and you can practice in private. I watched the TRAK Foundations re-entry videos before the trip and arrived with a plan.
The failures first
The first attempts didn't work. I kept making it most of the way back in and then tipping at the last moment. It was reproducible and frustrating — not random capsize, but the same failure point every time.
After slowing down and diagnosing it: I was lifting my head and shifting my weight too early, right at the end of the reentry. The momentum of almost being upright was making me rush the last part, and that was the problem.
"Reliable re-entry is the passport to solo kayaking. Without it, you're always dependent on conditions being forgiving."
What fixed it
- Keep your head down and center of gravity low through the entire reentry — especially at the end, when your instinct is to look up
- Slow down the final phase. The rush to be upright is what tips you
- Heel-hook reentry with a paddle float — the float on the Greenland paddle needs to be pulled tight; the tapered blade means it can slide
- The Greenland paddle lying flat on the deck is actually an advantage — it acts like a large stabilizing handle across the boat
- Practice until it's boring, not until it almost works
If you're using a Gearlab or similar tapered Greenland paddle with a paddle float, draw the float tight — the taper means it will slide if loose. The flat profile of a Greenland paddle lying across the deck is genuinely useful for outrigger stability during re-entry.
Wildlife and exploration
This part wasn't planned — it just happened. Turtles surfacing alongside the boat in shallow water. Shoals of tropical fish visible through the hull at depth. Rays gliding below. Starfish on the sandy bottom visible from the surface. Barracuda following the boat at distance. The word from locals was that lemon sharks were in some of the channels, though I didn't see any — which is probably how I prefer it.
Seabirds on every dock piling. The water colors change every few hundred meters depending on depth and bottom composition — from the pale green of shallow sand to deep indigo over coral.
Pig Beach — with caveats
You can paddle or boat to Pig Beach, where a small colony of semi-wild pigs lives on a beach that has become a minor tourist destination. The pigs are photogenic. They are also completely willing to climb on or into any object that might contain food, including a TRAK kayak left unattended on the beach.
Worth visiting. Keep your hatches closed, don't feed them from your hands, and if a pig starts actually testing the rigging, it's easier to just move the boat into the water than argue with it. They're fast and they have a plan.
Island culture
Great Exuma is unhurried in a way that's not performative — it's just how things work there. Word-of-mouth restaurant recommendations led to better food than anything I found on my own. Conch fritters that were still hot. Souse on a Tuesday morning from a place with no sign. Hospitality from locals who seemed genuinely curious rather than practiced at being friendly.
The pace of it was a good match for solo paddling. No schedule pressure. The boats go when the conditions suit and tie up when they don't. Nobody is tracking you or expecting you somewhere.
Why this matters for TRAK owners
This trip wasn't an expedition. It wasn't a challenge or a distance goal. It was a week with a folding kayak, good water, and a specific skill to practice. The TRAK made it possible because it checked as luggage, assembled on a beach in under twenty minutes, and then performed like a sea kayak when the conditions asked it to.
The bigger thing I came back with wasn't the sunburn. It was the re-entry. Practicing it in warm, forgiving water — where failure means a pleasant swim rather than hypothermia management — is the fastest way to get it reliable. And reliable re-entry changes what you can do alone.
If you own a TRAK and you haven't practiced re-entry until it's boring, that's the thing to fix first. Exuma is one of the easiest places in the world to do it.
Want to try the TRAK 2.0 before committing?
Demo sessions available on Houston-area waters — Buffalo Bayou, Lake Conroe, Armand Bayou. See the assembly, feel the hull, ask anything.
Final verdict
Great Exuma is an excellent destination for a TRAK owner who wants warm-water skills practice in a beautiful, easy-to-navigate setting. Book it last-minute. Fly Delta or American through Atlanta or Miami. Rent a car, accept the left-side driving, eat what the locals recommend. Bring a paddle float and practice the re-entry until you stop thinking about it.
The water colours alone are worth it. The pigs are a bonus.
ref=martin_robb) that supports Texas Paddle Works demo operations at no additional cost. Martin Robb is an independent TRAK Pilot and is not an employee of TRAK Kayaks. This article reflects personal experience and was not commissioned by TRAK.