How to track a kayak or SUP trip with your phone or watch
Track a paddle with the mobile app on your iPhone or Android phone, or with an Apple Watch: pick the sport, start, share a live link, and read speed, pace and distance afterwards. Settings that save battery, and what happens if the phone dies.
By Paula Acebo
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To track a kayak or SUP trip, open a mobile tracking app on your phone or watch, choose the sport and press Start before you launch. Keep the phone in a waterproof case on you. Stop when you land, and the app saves your route, distance, speed and time. Waterspeed does this on iPhone, Android and Apple Watch.
Based on the Waterspeed help centre, read on 22 October 2026.
What do you need to track a paddle?
- A phone with GPS, iPhone or Android, in a waterproof case. Or an Apple Watch, which records without the phone.
- A tracking app. Waterspeed is free to start; live tracking, weather forecasts and the full statistics are in Pro.
- Optional: a Garmin, Coros or Suunto watch. Waterspeed imports their sessions.
How do you start and stop a recording?
On an iPhone: choose kayak, SUP or canoe, then press the green Start button. You see your speed, distance, time and the map while you paddle. Press Stop to pause, and Stop again to save.
On an Android phone: the app records with the phone’s GPS and shares a live link in the same way.
On an Apple Watch: choose the sport and tap it to start. With wet hands, use the crown: turn on “Crown to Start” in the watch settings, then turn the crown 5 or 6 times. Press the side button and the crown together, twice, to pause or resume. On an Apple Watch Ultra you can also use the Action button. Stroke counting on the watch works well for SUP and is in beta for kayak.
How can someone ashore follow you live?
Press Go Live on the phone or the watch and send the link to a friend or your family. The link never changes, and live tracking stays on for every session until you turn it off. On an Apple Watch, it needs an internet connection: through the iPhone, Wi-Fi or cellular. Live tracking is part of Waterspeed Pro.
How do you save battery on a long paddle?
An Apple Watch 4 or later records for about 5 hours, more on newer models. For a longer day:
- Turn off “Save Workout”: heart rate and calories are not recorded.
- Turn off the distance alarm and the start sound.
- Use dark mode on the iPhone.
If the phone or watch runs out of battery, or the app closes, the track is not lost. Waterspeed saves every point as it records and recovers the session when the device restarts.
What can you see after the paddle?
Open the session in the diary. You see the route on the map, distance, time, average and top speed, splits for each kilometre and, with an Apple Watch, heart rate. Play the track back (Pro), compare two trips on the same route, or cut a part you do not want. You can send the session to Strava, automatically after a Strava login, or export it as GPX or CSV.
