Bill Tuthill wrote:

bb wrote:
How did you guys and gals get started kayaking? Work your way through
formal instruction? Friends? Get a book, a kayak and start self
teaching? Just wing it with a kayak? Any and all types of kayaking
would be of interest.

I'm self-taught, which explains why I'm so bad. William Nealy's cartoon
book "Kayak" helped me, but not enough to make me good.

After I get comfortable with a kayak in protected waters my current
opinion is to at least get with someone and learn to roll.

River kayaking, or sea and lake kayaking? The answers are probably
very different depending. It's hard to roll a sea kayak. On rivers
inflatable kayakers seldom can roll, but enjoy themselves anyway.

Probably the biggest misconception that non-kayakers have is that you
need to know how to roll to be able to paddle a kayak. Granted, there
are conditions that you shouldn't even consider going into without
having a strong, polished roll, but for your average recreational
kayaker knowing how to roll just isn't all that important.

I've talked to quite a number of people who seem to think you need to
spend six months in a pool practicing your roll before you have the
skills to go out on a river or a lake. Nothing could be farther from
the truth.


--
//-Walt
//
// Sigs suck. Oh, the irony.