Sea Kayaking 101 - Beginning Sea Kayak Safety Skills

Want to put your toe in the water and see if you'll like kayaking? You'll learn how to paddle a touring kayak without developing bad habits or taking unnecessary risks. Our students will tell you, "kayaking is more fun once you've overcome the fear of capsizing and learned how to get back in a kayak from deep water". Those are two of the first skills you learn in this beginning sea kayak course. Our instructors are patient and well trained to help students work through their anxieties about getting out of an upside down kayak. We'll also get you started on the path to an efficient forward stroke and show you how to turn, steer a straight course, and we'll cover how and when to use rudders and skegs. We teach both feathered and unfeathered paddling technique, and let you experiment to find out which one you want to use. This six-hour, experiential course both prepares you for recreational kayaking on sheltered lakes and gives budding sea kayakers the best possible start with training that goes hand-in-hand with the rest of our school's unique state-of-the-art kayak programs.

Get started on the right foot (or paddle blade) by learning the basics such as how to launch and land and how use your paddle to prevent capsizes -- like when a boat wake hits you. We'll show you how to: adjust a kayak's seat and foot braces for comfort and performance, choose a paddle that's a good size and style to learn with, and what clothes and accessories you need to make your kayaking safer and more enjoyable.

Today's skilled kayakers know that wearing a dry suit speeds up the learning curve and makes learning more fun by allowing you to get in the water without getting cold and wet. The Kayak Academy is the only kayak school that gives you this advantage by providing free use of drysuits in our kayak lessons. You'll also benefit from the first hand experience of learning how to put on a dry suit and wear it while swimming and paddling. Thanks to the drysuits, booties and headwear we provide, you will stay warm and comfortable while learning skills that could save your life as a beginning sea or rec kayaker. And this gear allow you to start right out in fresh water -- we don't waste your time indoors or in chlorinated pools. These are some of the reasons why students learn so much more in our lessons.

If you're a beginning sea kayaker or recreational kayaker, this lesson is for you. If you've never been in a kayak or never practiced capsizing one, take this course before doing any other paddling in a sit-inside kayak! If you've been sea kayaking for a while but never had a formal kayak lesson or it's been so long that you feel the need to start over, this course will prepare you for the next level. If you're a veteran kayaker and already comfortable practicing capsizes and wet exits, we recommend skipping this course and going directly into our school's Sea Kayaking Part 1 (SK 111) or Five Day Training Camp (SK 115) courses.

After completing this course, students generally feel comfortable paddling on small lakes and/or progressing onto some of our Adventurous Journeys and our more comprehensive "Paddle Strokes & Rescue Techniques" course or "Five-Day Training Camp".

Location: Tibbett's Beach, Lake Sammamish State Park (see map below)
Duration: 6 hours, typically on a Saturday or Sunday
Class Size: 10 maximum with 5 to 1 student/instructor ratio maximum
Fee: $160 (includes use of our dry suits, booties, and scull caps) -- $100 of this tuition may be used as credit toward the Kayak Academy's "Part I, Paddle Stokes & Rescue Technique" (SK111) lesson or "Five-Day Training Camp" (SK115).

Kayak Rental: $25.00 plus tax, delivered to the lesson. (Includes kayak, spray-skirt, PFD, bilge pump, paddle float, and paddle)

Call us at (206) 527-1825 or E-mail us at info@kayakacademy.com to make a reservation.

Prerequisites: Anyone who can swim well enough to be comfortable putting their head under water and able to swim the crawl stroke or breast stroke without a buoyancy aid can take this class, and yes we wear PFD's (life jackets) while on the water -- but you still need basic swimming skills. Minimum age--sixteen (no minimum for private lessons).

Map to Tibbitts Beach (click on blue tag to get driving directions)

View Tibbett's Beach in a larger map