The Art of Kayaking: Everything You Need to Know About Paddling

Yesterday, I attended a seven hour class with Nigel Foster. He has an easy to understand teaching style and a relaxed manner that puts everyone at ease. Best of all, he has an absolute wealth of knowledge regarding kayaking techniques. I’ve kayaked for many years, attended classes, and read numerous books. Yet, the skills we learned worked beautifully and were completely new to me. We learned techniques for turning around in a strong wind (gale conditions according to the NOAA website), along with a variety of advanced ruddering and edging techniques. He truly is an artist with a paddle.By the end of the day, I was eager to learn more, and I knew Nigel had a lot of information there wasn’t time to cover in a seven-hour class. Lucky for me, Nigel mentioned he had just published this book the day before (4/1/2017). I’m ordering it and will update this post once I read the book.Update: Like Nigel himself, this book is an absolute wealth of information regarding sea kayaking, including beginner to expert techniques, trip planning, equipment, weather and more. Each section is well explained and accompanied by excellent photos, diagrams, and charts.There is so much material here that it took me some time to finish the book. During a trip to the Oregon coast last month, I ventured out into the surf and really regretted that I hadn't yet read the section on kayaking in "the surf zone." I did make it back to shore in one piece, but I could have saved myself a difficult swim if I'd read that section first. In the accompanying picture, Nigel is the one holding the paddle.

Nigel Foster is an "artist on the water" who has paddled thoughtfully and shared his artistry with many paddlers around the world for a long time. His former book, "Sea Kayaking" was brief but intensely written and full of terse nuggets of insight into fine points of paddling. The Art of Kayaking is a delightfully expansive follow up containing much more practical information than the former book and significantly more and detailed information than the average paddler might feel the "need to know". On the other hand, for one who would master the art I have never seen a better or more intricate breakdown of skills or of their application in diverse, real water scenarios. Mr Foster has "been there" and survived, taught widely and long, and having long studied the crafts of paddling and writing he has combined them to give the kayaking world this clear and meaty guide.

The author is eminently qualified to write on this subject, very clear and complete guide book

I did get some good information from this book, although it tries to cover too much in a small volume and lacks some important descriptions that needed to be graphically represented by something like line diagrams in addition to pictures of a paddler. Very difficult to understand some of the maneuvers without more depth to the subject.

Nice book and well written. Clear illustration and good paper quality. No regrets buying this book. Highly recommended.

price

Nigel Foster is both fun and an expert.

I bought this book because of the reputation of its author in paddling circles. Sadly, although the book appears to be well written and filled with useful reference material, the PRINT is so light that it is very hard to read, even in bright light. There is no excuse for the printer not using a bolder print that contrasts properly against the white background of the pages. It is too bad that I had to return the book. If the print problem were ever corrected, I would happily buy the book again. I thank Amazon for its excellent return policy.