Pic: Douglas Wilcox

Ideas, suggestions or broken links? Please email me with details.

BCU 5* - discussion

BCU Personal Performance and Coaching Awards - links to the BCU website for details of "Star" Awards and Coaching Scheme. The Star Awards are an excellent benchmark of essential sea kayaking skills.

BCU star and coaching awards - interesting American perspective.

Cross-bow strokes etc and their use in a sea kayak - discussion.

Edging - from Wavelength, excellent article on this technique to help in kayak control. This discussion offers a mass of theory and insight into edging.

Forward paddling - good article from Sea Kayaker Magazine. The Qajaq USA site has a range of video clips on Greenland style forward paddling. This clip offers some excellent advice on forward paddling. Gordon Brown's excellent DVD "Sea Kayak" includes a section on paddling technique - reviewed by Douglas Wilcox. This excellent article by Nigel Denis has a mass of useful information on paddle choices and forward paddling technique.

Greenland paddling - article on Qajaq USA - discussion.

Injury prevention / warm-up - discussion. This Powerpoint presentation by Betty Wilson and Patti Ivory offers some interesting ideas and explanations - see also the handouts which accompany it for illustrations of excercises etc. These suggestions for stretch excercises by Heather Herbeck are on the Jackson Kayaks site.

Knots / lashings / hitches etc - numerous links on the Camping page

Lightning / storms - discussion

Navigation - see the Navigation page

Night paddling - discussion on ways of seeing and being seen at night.

Open crossings / ferryglides - discussion here and here

Paddling technique / paddle choices - discussion

Paddling with a disability - useful discussion.

Peeing (yes, really!) on a long trip - discussion on how to do it, or not. See this discussion too.

Planning your first multi-day trip? Mark Rainsley's article "a Special Kind of Freedom" is essential reading.

Rescue techniques - X Rescue, T rescue, sling rescues etc - see the Safety & Rescue page

Rockhopping - Article on playing among the rocks, by Mark Rainsley. See also this discussion

Roll failed? Need to get back in the boat? Use the "Over the Side Rescue" outlined in Sea Kayaker Magazine. A lot safer and easier than trying to come up between the boats, especially in a big sea.

Rolling - click here for some pointers from GORP. Atlantic Kayak Tours also have an excellent section on rolling with animated diagrams. See the list of kayak rolls from Kayak Wiki which has got to be one of "the" definitive learning resource a list of lots of different type of rolls and animated diagrams. The Qajaq USA site has a range of video clips on Greenland rolling techniques - click here and scroll towards the bottom of the page. Some good suggestons and animated images from the Performance Video site. See also this discussion. This discussion is relevant to rolling in surf. This article from seacanoe.org offers some thoughts on "hand rolling". Chris Joose's site has some useful video clips of the back-deck roll and hand-roll, albeit using a river boat. Andrew Elizaga has a great video demonstrating a variety of Greenland Rolls. This discussion covers much of the rationale behind learning to roll. This article from Paddling.net has an article on Teaching the Roll which includes a useful video link. Kayakpaddling.net takes a novel approach with some clear animated diagrams. Some excellent video clips are to be found on this Norwegian site - even if you don't understand Norwegian - "Ruller" would appear to be "Rolling". This video has a series of slow-motion rolls. Excellent illustrated article on rolling in Adventure Kayak magazine's early summer 2007 back issue. From Wavelength Magazine, a nicely illustrated and well described article on the sweep roll. From Adventure Kayak, foolproof your roll with this technique from Shawna Franklin.

Safety - see the Safety page.

Sailing sea kayaks - Douglas Wilcox has a lot of information on fitting and using sails on sea kayaks on his blog. See also the Equipment page.

Seamanship - discussion

Sea-sickness - discussion with some ideas on preventing and dealing with sea-sickness.

Shoulder problems - discussion with thoughts on use of cranks etc.

Skegs - excellent article from Atlantic Kayak Tours on how a skeg works. This one from Kayak Lake Mead also explains the use of a skeg. See also this PDF of a superb article from Sea Kayaker magazine August 2006 on turning a sea kayak. See this discussion and this discussion for an explanation of how a skeg works. From Solent Sea Kayaking comes this well illustrated article on using a skeg. The KariTek skeg / rudder system is the subject of this discussion. See also this discussion. See the Repairs Page if you need to fix a damaged or troublesome skeg.

Skills / technique - Atlantic Kayak Tours (US site) has an extensive range of illustrated articles on skills, technique, rescues etc. Kayakpaddling.net takes a novel approach with some clear animated diagrams. Many of the sites listed on the Other Sea-kayaking Related Sites page have excellent articles on paddling technique, skills etc. Lots of articles on technique in the archives of Paddling.net. WaveLength magazine also has lots of good articles. Some excellent video clips are to be found on this Norwegian site - even if you don't understand Norwegian! Doug Cooper's excellent video clips on sea kayak handling. The technique section pf kayarchy.com offers some good descriptions and nice illustrations.

Surfing - what size of wave is surfable? - discussion. Surfing etiquette - discussion. Surfing basics - discussion.

Towing / Tow lines - see the Equipment page

Turning a seakayak - excellent illustrated article from Sea Kayaker mag on strokes and techniques to aid turning, especially in wind. Contains a good description of leecocking and weathercocking. This article from Paddling.net also covers the theory and practicalities.