Sea Kayak Skills Lesson
What is the SK skills lesson and why do I need it?
This is the first and fundamental Sea Kayak (SK) Lesson, which will give you an SK0 rating. Combined with R1 rating (which you get once you go to "Sac" – follow this link or see whitewater kayaking pages for details of that trip), this lesson gives you the SK1 rating, which is necessary for most of the sea kayaking trips in the club. (The order is not important, though - You can take this lesson before the Sac trip.) An alternative way of getting the SK1 rating is to take a second sea kayak lesson, which is called "SK1 lesson".
What are the prerequisites for this lesson?
You must have taken a Kayak Lake Lesson to take this lesson. For details on these, follow these links or see the whitewater kayaking pages.
What should I bring with to the lesson?
1) Swimsuit
2) Warm-when-wet clothing if you tend to get cold (Plan to get wet practicing rescues!)
3) Towel and change of clothes (Again, don’t forget that you’ll get wet practicing rescues!)
4) Boating shoes are nice. Nose plugs are excellent.
5) Membership card
6) Sunscreen
7) Water
How long does this lesson take?
The lesson generally takes 2.5-3 hours
What will I learn in this lesson?
The lesson consists of three main parts:
1) Boathouse
2) Weather and on-land instruction
3) Water instruction
The first part is about equipment, lake rules and procedures how to sign out boats. We will go over
· paddles and spray skirts, how they differ from whitewater gear, how to use them, and how to take care of them
· boat care and their parts (foot pegs and rudder)
· lake rules, flags, and chart for boat usage
· sign-out procedure
In the second part, you’ll learn
· weather conditions and how to pay attention to them, how the main hazards differ for sea kayaking vs. whitewater kayaking
· boat fit
· land drill of wet exit
· how to enter water
The last part consists of strokes (forward/reverse strokes, forward/reverse sweep), getting used to the boats and finally T (or TX) rescue.
