By Tom Stienstra, San Francisco Chronicle

The summer horror story is a getaway or camping vacation that is overrun with crowds. The vision is fed by year-round traffic nightmares in the Bay Area, Sacramento and other cities, where people jammed shoulder to shoulder can start to feel like an omnipresent condition you can’t escape.

Yet with one small change in your life, you can find redemption.

It starts in a boat. Of the dozens of styles available, the cheapest, fastest and easiest boat that provides a gateway to freedom is a flat-water kayak.

With just a few strokes, you propel yourself to escape from every worry. That’s the thing about boats. No traffic jams. No red lights. Just open water in every direction.

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