The ACA sponsors more than seven hundred events each year, along with safety education, instructor certification, waterway conservation and public information campaigns.

More than two hundred local paddling clubs and fifty thousand individuals are members.

In 1883, ACA Secretary Charles Neide and retired sea captain "Barnacle" Kendall paddled and sailed over three thousand miles (4,800 km) from Lake George, New York to Pensacola, Florida.

The site of Neide and Kendall's launch and the formation of the American Canoe Association is located on the grounds of the Wiawaka Holiday House.

The Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain, New York has many artifacts from the early years of the ACA.