Northwest River Supplies (NRS), an equipment and apparel supplier for water recreation, safety and rescue, launched PaddleWays, a paddling navigation app in partnership with onWater.
“While other adventure sports have long benefitted from widely used mobile technologies, paddlesports has been left behind, until now,” said NRS Chief Marketing Officer Mark Deming. “Our vision for PaddleWays is to continue breaking down barriers to the outdoors, delivering the tools that help all paddlers access the information they need to get out on the water.”
Known for its fishing app, onWater provides detailed information on thousands of miles of rivers, creeks and shorelines in the U.S. Satellite imagery provides GPS-specific points of interest and public/private property boundaries along river corridors. Using a mobile device, users can track their location and movement or calculate distances, in river miles, to points of interest. An integrated photo and journal feature allows users to use GPS-specific data to record their travel. PaddleWays uses onWater’s technology to deliver the app.
“It’s about time we brought these tools to the paddling community,” said Alex Maier, onWater chief marketing officer. “We’re proud of our deep bank of data and mapping that gives paddlers all the beta they need—right at their fingertips. And because we’re constantly adding rivers and updating information, the community plays an active role in building this experience as we go.”
With offline capabilities, the PaddleWays app is a guidebook with GPS navigation technology to help paddlers make informed decisions on and off the water. In cooperation with American Whitewater, a river conservation group, the companies aim to “utilize the app to promote responsible use and to protect rivers and streams across the country.”
NRS is donating one percent of its PaddleWays app sales to American Whitewater.
“American Whitewater has been committed to providing easy access to river information in pursuit of creating a safer river-going experience for almost 70 years, and we’re excited to partner with NRS and the PaddleWays app to offer new and exciting tools to better inform river runners,” said Evan Stafford, American Whitewater Communications director. “We hope PaddleWays app users will take seriously the river safety and responsibility code we’ve helped to include with its purchase and that as river users, we can all work together to help protect, restore and maintain access to our rivers.”
Photo courtesy NRS
