Kayaking in Skellefteå

YOUR COMPLETE PADDLING GUIDE

There are many nice waters to paddle in Skellefteå and the surrounding area. Both calm and wild, for both the beginner and the experienced. Kågefjärden, Burviksfjärden, Buskösundet and Finnforsån to name a few. Below you will find both rental places and suitable tours of various lengths. If you have your own kayak route you want to tell us about, send an email to sven.burman@visitskelleftea.se

Kayaks and canoes rentals

6 nice kayak trips tips

Regardless of whether you are a beginner or an experienced canoeist, there are tours that suit you. The choice of kayak is also crucial to the overall experience. Never paddle alone and have a plan for how to handle a capsize. Always wear a life jacket and pack warm and dry clothes with you.

Småälvarna / Innerviksfjärden

This tour offers you to launch and pick up the canoe in the same place. You can either start at Stackgrönnan and paddle a bit upstream to get to the canal or at Kanotudden where you can also rent your kayak.

The canal is narrow and leafy, along the tour there is a hut for those who want to go ashore and take a coffee break. Innerviksfjärden is a nature reserve of 1530 ha where 190 bird species have been observed, of which about eight are brooding birds.

Access is forbidden during the period 15/4-1/6, with the exception of specially marked paths.

Length : 18 km
Difficulty : Medium
Sjökort – Småälvarna
Sjökort – Småälvarna

Kågehamn / Bastuholmen

Kågefjärden and the delta at the mouth of the Kågeälven river are perfect paddling waters as it is very protected by the islands and the surrounding coast. It is easiest to start at the Kåge harbour (Kåge hamn) where it is possible to load and unload kayaks and where plenty of space is available to park a car.

A perfect stop along the way is the guest pier at Storhällan (Bastuholmen).

It is also very nice to paddle past the west side of Storhällan where the hällorna plunge steeply into the sea.

Length : 8 km
Difficulty : Easy
Sjökort – Kågefjärden
Sjökort – Kågefjärden

Pite-Rönnskär from Avan, Byske

Pite-Rönnskär is one of the Skellefteå archipelago's foremost gems and can absolutely be reached in a kayak. However, the last 1.5 kilometers are exposed to wind and waves so this is a trip for the experienced.

A tip is to launch the kayak at Finnhamnen, Avan, which can be reached by car through Byske, Åbyn and Avan. Buskösundet, where the tour starts, is very beautiful and well protected.

Length : 12 km
Difficulty : Advanced
Sjökort – Pite-Rönnskär
Sjökort – Pite-Rönnskär

Finnforsån / Klutmark

Paddling in smaller rivers and tributaries is a very special experience. You reach places that you would never otherwise reach by boat. Finnforsån, starting in Klutmark is a perfect river to explore and it offers varied paddling in both narrow passages and larger calm water area.

How far up you get in the river depends entirely on the water flow. It is best during the spring flood or after long rainy periods.

There is a small guest jetty in Klutmark and a turning area where you can park the car and then paddle some 100 m up along the Skellefteälven river before turning into the Finnforsån river on the south side of the river.

Length: 5-7 km upstream and back
Difficulty: Easy
Installation location GPS : 64°43'40.1"N 20°42'30.6"E
Paddlingskarta–Finnforsån
Paddlingskarta–Finnforsån

Broarna runt / Skellefteälven

The Skellefteälven river offer a lot of nice things to experience between Mobackendammen and Bergsbydammen. Four bridges, Kyrkholmen, Rovön and Bryggarbacken to name a few. An excellent route for those who want to experience paddling close to the city is to paddle "broarna runt" ("around the bridges"). For those who want to rent a kayak, Swenature is strategically located right by the river, which will be a natural place to launch it.

Length: 8-20 km depending on route choice
Difficulty : Easy to medium depending on stretch
Watch out for the currents around the Lejonströmsbrons bridge pillars during the spring flood.
Turn in good time before Bergsbydammen
Broarna runt i kajak
Broarna runt i kajak

Bureå Hamn / Burvikshällorna

Burvikshällorna, or as it is popularly called, Burehällorna, is a nice excursion destination that is easiest to reach via the water. Via land you have to park the car 1.5 km and walk the last bit. To paddle there, a suitable option is to launch the kayaks at the Bureå harbour (Bureå hamn). Easterly or northern winds can trigger a strong sea, so this can be a challenging trip for those who are not used to it, but the open sea is incredibly beautiful when calm and completely flat.

Length: : 13 km round trip
Difficulty: Advanced
Sjökort – Burvikshällorna
Sjökort – Burvikshällorna

A magical evening on Kågefjärden

"The route there has not yet been determined but we paddle out from the harbor, a bit upstream in the Kåge River which meets the sea in a delightful delta, before we turn out into the sea again and head towards Bastuholmen. I ask Emil to tell me a little about the bay. It is. after all, his home ground."

Läs hela storyn

Breaking Waves in Swedish Lapland

The Gulf of Bothnia (Bottenviken) is the perfect place for all canoeists who love an outdoor experience. Secluded and with endless midnight light through the summer, it just makes for a perfect playground. This is Sven Burman's story about just that.

The difference between canoe, kayak and Canadian

There is some conceptual confusion surrounding these vessels. Canoeists who compete say, for example, that they compete in a canoe and then they sit in something that most people call a kayak.

 

Here is an explanation to clarify this confusion. Canoe is a collective name for light seagoing vessels with pointy ends and which are driven with muscle power and single or double paddle.

 

Canoes are then divided into kayaks and Canadians. The word canoe itself comes from Caribbean canoa, which can be translated to the English word for boat. In the cold Arctic waters around Greenland, the canoe became an important tool in hunting, but due to the temperature, the hunters could not sit in open canoes but instead built covered canoes with a cockpit. That is what most people today call a kayak.

 

Canadians and kayaks can in turn be divided into subcategories such as whitewater kayaks, sit-on-top kayaks, surfskis and more.