Myself, Tom and Niall went over to Mosman yesterday for an ‘Intro To Kayaking’ lesson with Sydney Harbour Kayaks and had a great time. It’s an all-day course which assumes you know nothing about kayaking. You get set up with your own kayak, flotation device and paddle, then spend the morning session learning all the different types of strokes to allow you to manoeuvre your kayak – sweep strokes to turn, draw strokes to move sideways and stopping strokes (to stop obviously).

You also learn how to lean the boat over to one side which makes it easier to turn. You have to lean away from the turn, so it’s the opposite direction from biking, snowboarding or anything else, so it’s a bit counterintuitive. In fact, it’s so counterintuitive that Niall capsized twice while practising! Given that the rescue session was supposed to be in the afternoon, he claims he was just getting a head start.

The three hours in the morning flew by and soon we were munching our way through a burger before preparing for the afternoon session. As previously mentioned, this was when we learned how to get ourselves back into the boat if we capsized, both with the help of another paddler and unaided. There were three different types of rescues: the T rescue is where you help another paddler to get back into their boat, the paddle rescue involves strapping a rubber sleeve to one end of your paddle, inflating it and then using it like an outrigger to get back into your boat, and the final method is the cowboy rescue, so called because you end up straddling the boat and sliding along it before dropping your arse back into the seat.

All in all it was a great day. We all learned a lot and would be quite happy paddling anywhere on flat water, secure in the knowledge that we’d be able to deal with capsizing etc. We’re not ready for shooting rapids, or open ocean paddling yet though ;-)