Carl,

Welcome to an awesome sport. There are many good books on kayaking you could
get, but better yet, find the local club and get involved. Not only will you
learn faster, but you will also enjoy it more. If you really want to get the
information from a website, the one that I recommend is Mariner kayaks.

Consider getting professional lessons. It is not necessary if you have a club
that can teach you, but your learning curve will be steeper.

I strongly suggest you not try surfing your decked kayak until you are
competant in your other kayaking skills. I have seen people rip the coaming
out of the kayak on a surf landing. That's not to say you should never do it,
just you need to learn more about boat control, exiting, and rolling first.

Trust me, you have plenty of other things to learn now if you want to be a good
paddler.

Brian Blankinship

There are many good books on kayaking you could
get, but better yet, find the local club and get involved.


I would be very cautious about joining a club in order to learn anything. I
too had been a big proponent of kayaking clubs in the past. I have some fond
memories of my own club experiences from many years ago. However I had been
hearing some rather disparaging comments about clubs on various newsgroups, as
well as reading some alarming trip reports from the local group, so I decided
to go back to our local club and see what's up. It was disappointing, to say
the least.
The last couple of club paddles I joined were little more then chest
pounding contests to apparently try to establish who was the alpha male in the
group. It was fairly humorous, while at the same time very sad. The macho
paddlers took all kinds of unnecessary risks in a display of leadership and
skill which I can only describe as pathetic. It set a very poor example for the
novices in the group.
Perhaps your local club is better then the one here. I don't know. But I
would highly recommend professional instruction. Get some good books on
kayaking, check out the articles in "Sea Kayaker" and "Paddler" magazines and
put in the time and energy required to figure it out. Trying to learn anything
from people who themselves are fairly clueless is only going to frustrate and
discourage you from what really is a great activity.

Scott
So.Cal.