This classic guide focuses on the fundamentals of seamanship that are essential knowledge to all ocean paddlers. Sea kayaking has come a long way since this informative manual was published more than twenty years ago. From an offbeat pastime enjoyed by an adventurous few, the sport has become an industry unto itself. Veteran paddler John Dowd's readable, well-illustrated guide still stands as "the bible" for both new and experienced kayakers. Sea...

What makes travel special? Perhaps the chill realization that a polar bear's eyes are fixed on you. Maybe it is the chance meeting with a man who buries sharks in a beach, only to dig them up months later, not out of morbid curiosity, but for food. Perhaps it is the undulating wing-beat of a dark shell-less gastropod in the canal of a 17th Century French sea port, or the criminal history of a rusting ship with a tree growing from its hold. “Encounters...

This is the essential guide to achieving and maintaining physical fitness and body tone through kayaking.

The Art of Kayaking is the distilled essence of a lifetime of kayak instruction at all skill levels around the world, with the added insights gained from years of designing kayaks, paddles, and kayaking equipment. This comprehensive kayaking manual by one of the biggest names in kayaking offers more essential detail about commonly used techniques than ever before published in a single volume. Color photo action sequences show how to perfect skills,...

In Fifty Places to Paddle Before You Die, the newest addition to the Fifty Places series, Chris Santella explores the best destinations for the diverse sport of paddling. The book features the world's top spots for kayaking, rafting, canoeing, and stand-up paddleboarding. Destinations include the Grand Canyon, Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, Baja California, Indonesia's Komodo Islands, and the Antarctic Peninsula, as recommended by paddling experts. Compelling...

Drawn by its mysterious history and wild and rugged shores, the remote and little-known Australian island of Tasmania proved to be perfect coastline for us to explore by kayak, stopping along the 600-mile route to visit with fishermen and historians, sailors and aboriginals.

"The Art of Stand Up Paddling" includes everything both new and not-so-new paddlers need to know--from buying a board and getting started on your local lake to paddling rivers and surfing waves in Hawaii. Also included is a fascinating and controversial history of stand up paddling, which, although new to many, actually dates back hundreds of years to Peruvian and Hawaiian fishermen.

A riveting white-water ride down a raging river in the Italian Alps, pitting people against Nature, in "the novel Tim Parks was born to write" (Sunday Telegraph, London). When 15 vacationers-six adults and nine adolescents-arrive in the Italian Alps to try their kayaking skills against the wild waters of the upper Aurino River, they have no idea what harrowing events await them. Among the group are the London banker Vince- recently widowed and trying...

"What makes kayaking an extreme sport? Ever tried staying right-side up in swirling rapids that want to turn you upside down? Learn all about kayaking in whitewater, down waterfalls, and even on the ocean. Question prompts included to assist reader comprehension."--