2026 Texas Water Safari

Texas Water Safari (aka, “The World’s Toughest Canoe Race”)
Friday, June 12, 2026, 9 a.m. (race start) - Tuesday, June 16, 2026, 1:00 p.m. (deadline to finish)
Texas Water Safari Registration Deadline (online registration only)
Entry Fee $250 (through March 27), $300 (through May 1), $350 (through May 15) per paddler. No entry fee for team captains. No team captain changes after registration closes. Must be registered by May 3 to hold prelim finish for starting position in TWS.
www.texaswatersafari.org/
Legend has it that in 1962, Frank Brown and Bill "Big Willie" George decided to take their V-bottom boat, without a motor, from San Marcos to Corpus Christi. They accomplished their mission in about thirty days and decided that other people should have the opportunity to experience the same journey. So, in 1963 they set up the first Texas Water Safari.
Today the Safari is a long, tough, non-stop marathon canoe-racing adventure, traversing 260 miles of challenging rivers and bay. Many participants enter the race with no intention of winning, but with the goal of joining the elite group of finishers and earning the coveted Texas Water Safari finisher's patch.
Entrants must have all provisions, equipment, and items of repair in their possession at the start of the race. Nothing may be purchased by, or delivered to, a team during the race except water and/or ice. Each team must have a team captain (18 years old, or older) whose responsibility it is to follow the team by vehicle (car, truck, or bicycle) to keep track of their location and condition and to give them water and/or ice. During the Safari, teams may not receive any assistance of any kind, except verbal. Teams must be prepared to travel day and night, nonstop, to be competitive but teams who occasionally stop for sleep have been able to reach mandatory checkpoint cutoff times and cross the finish line by the 100 hour deadline.
Are you tough? Are you looking for a race that tests your limits? This is the race that could change your life and your ideas about who you are and what you are capable of achieving!