Easy Kayaking Basics

It's fun, good exercise, a great way to get close to nature and easy to learn - no wonder kayaking is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world.

But the new enthusiast faces a daunting array of questions and choices. What kind of kayak is right for me, how big should it be and how much will it cost? What do I wear? What kind of food do I bring? And just how do I stay right side up, anyway?

Easykayaking Basics answers these questions and many more. From craft selection to paddling technique to navigation to safety gear, veteran kayakers Gary Backlund and Paul Grey offer advice and share secrets drawn from decades of experience and hundreds of expeditions. As with their acclaimed guidebooks, Easykayaker: A Guide to Laid-back Vancouver Island Paddling and Kayaking Vancouver Island: Great Trips from Port Hardy to Victoria, the authors combine clear, concise instruction with warm and humorous accounts of their own paddling adventures. Photographs and line drawings illustrate every aspect of the sport.

Gary Backlund has helped organize the last four Vancouver Island Paddlefests held in Ladysmith, BC. He is a house designer and building consultant and has delivered workshops on housing maintenance for First Nation communities throughout BC and the Yukon. Gary and his daughter, Katherine are the volunteer wardens for the Woodley Range Ecological Reserve, the home of 29 rare plant species. Gary and his family own and operate a British Columbia Managed Forest. Gary also sits on the Cowichan Valley Regional District's Round Table on the Environment.

Paul Grey was born in Nanaimo in 1951. His family has lived in Nanaimo and area for well over 100 years. He teaches at Coal Tyee Elementary School situated above the Northfield mining shaft his father worked as a young man. In 1993 Paul won the local Prime Minister's Awards for an environmental teaching project with his Grade 3 students. Three years later he won a provincial level Prime Minister's Award. In 1997 he won a Royal Bank fellowship to Queen's University in Ontario for his work in Information Technology. Paul has worked on several science projects with the Mid Island Science & Technology Council (MISTIC). He has been recognized for his outstanding science work and received a lithograph as the outstanding science teacher of BC in 1999. Paul has written four books including Easykayaker: a Guide to Laid-back Vancouver Island Paddling and Kayaking Vancouver Island: Great Trips from Port Hardy to Victoria. Paul is a co-founder of the Wave Publications Cooperative.