The Sea Kayaking Learning Curve
As CAL gains its footing, I want to address straight up why sea kayaking may not be getting much traction. Sea kayaking puts you at water level and in the marine action, right from the start. A kayak is an itty-bitty narrow boat in a cold and austere place, and you are your own captain. This can be intimidating. Unfortunately, this stops reasonable people from even trying. Intimidating. But with a little practice, the rewards of sea kayaking come on strong.
Let’s break down three of the hurdles between you and wonderful kayaking adventures:
Cold and Austere
You stand on a cold beach looking at gray drizzly sky, cold water, watching waves push hard in every direction. Next, you must squat down, worm yourself into this little hole in the top of the kayak, and push off into harm’s way without getting sandy, slimy or tipped into the drink. How could this ever be fun? The answer is that with a bit of practice and sense of humor, you will get really good at it. Being bad at stuff is no fun. Being good at stuff is fun.
At CAL, we break down the sea kayaking routine into small steps, and each step is actually pretty simple. Once you are in your kayak with your spray skirt snapped over the cockpit hole, you are as snug as a bug. The kayak warms up inside. If you tip out of your kayak, you are wearing a second “boat”, your dry suit. Except for head and hands, you don’t even get wet! Deciding to get in the kayak is harder than actually kayaking.
Itty-bitty Narrow Boat
Getting into a kayak feels like getting into a Ferrari. Protective gear, tight fit, low slung. And like a Ferrari, a sea kayak is purpose built for performance. Your power to weight ratio is high, you are highly maneuverable on one axis and highly stable on the other two, and you are wearing your Ferrari rather than sitting on it. Again, a bit intimidating to start, but safe and comfy once you are familiar and confident.
One and Done Thinking
Recreation is changing. People want easy-entry, short-duration, low-consequence “adventures”. “One and Done” means “I tried it, I got my selfie and I’m moving on to the next thing”. The problem is, that gets boring fast because it is a shallow, empty way to approach life. Kayaking can be easy-entry, short-duration and low-consequence, but nobody wants to just paddle around in little circles forever. If One and Done is your mindset, a silly sit-on-top kayak will do, and there’s no sense in buying one because you’ll get bored fast. Just rent.
In a proper sea kayak, rather than in a pool floaty shaped like a kayak, you can dink around for an hour and have a nice time, and in the same boat, set off for a week of real adventure. However, to do this you have to give yourself the benefit of progressive skills training. And you must kayak with people with the drive and ambition to do more than splash around for an hour.
This is where the Center for Adventure Leadership comes in. We start you out with an easy kayaking afternoon, but we teach you real kayaking skills right from the start, not just splash and dash. As your confidence grows, you gain ambition to do more kayaking. With a little effort and practice, you are not just paddling in circles off the beach, but you are planning overnight trips to remote islands in Puget Sound and beyond. You know you have the skills, good judgement and right gear to do amazing things all on your own.
We do the same for you with mountaineering, whitewater rafting and backcountry travel, but this commentary is on sea kayaking.
Please subscribe to our newsletter so you find out when the next kayaking day paddles and our overnight SKLT (“Skillet”) course: Sea Kayaking Leadership Training. We teach real sea kayaking right from the start, the essential building blocks to develop great skill. Get out on the water with us and then we’ll help you plan your own sea kayaking adventures. Our world is 70% water. Let’s get out on it together.
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