Imagine, One beautiful sunny Sunday. You can’t wait to get into a Kayak and explore off-shore to your heart’s content. But the fun part is you don’t know how to get into a Kayak. You place your skitty beast on the water and try to hop on. Splash !! You just blew it. The moment, It’s gone leaving you with a body soaked up with water and a confidence shattered miserably.
The first thing you have to know about getting into a kayak is it’s not the same as riding a canoe. When you put on a kayak, It just becomes an extended part of your body that can float on the water. Now, Ill walk you through the sequential process of getting into a Kayak:
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- Select a suitable place: Before learning how to get into a Kayak, Selecting a suitable place to get into your Kayak is really important. You can’t trust a place with violent waves generated by other boats or canoes. Choose a dock or a shore. Whatever it is, Just make sure it’s calm and quiet.
- Select a way that suits you: If you are planning to get into Kayak from the shore, You must know how to get into a kayak from the shore. You can slide your kayak into the water just by pushing it gently with your hand. If you think that would be hard for you to keep balance, It’s even easier to learn to get into a kayak from the dock. You can choose a dock with shallow water and hop on it when it’s afloat.
- Put your Kayak in the water: Keep your hands firmly on the stern and slide the bow gently in the water. Watch out for the cockpit. It must be on the shallow portion of water. Don’t forget to untie your Kayak before getting into it.
- Getting into Kayak: Keep your paddle by the edge of the wooden dock and then put your feet into the Kayak at first. Make sure that your Center of Gravity still remains on the dock and you sit straight. Then with your left hand, Hold the left side of the Kayak firmly. Gently put your butt into the cockpit and spread your legs inside it. In the case of land shores, There is a common trend of placing the paddle at the end of the Kayak and getting into it. Professional trainers nowadays demotivate their trainees to use this method as it is detrimental to both the paddle and the Kayak. They encourage this “Cowboy Method”, where you need to hold your paddle in the dominant hand and the place yourself right on the cockpit with your legs on the both side of the cockpit and snuggle yourself into the cockpit.
- Don’t forget the paddle: When you are sitting firmly Into the Kayak, please remember to retrieve the paddle kept on the wooden dock. Otherwise, you would drift away without any paddle and this can cause a havoc. Then you would get to know how to get back into one in the water eventually !!
- Place yourself in the Kayak properly: Sit comfortably and straight. You have to ensure that you are not putting your weight on any sidewalls. Spread your legs to the front and hold the paddle softly but with enough grip to not to lose hold it when a tide strikes.
Almost every kayaker finds it more or less difficult to get into a Kayak in the beginning as they don’t know how to get into a kayak smoothly. For beginners knowing how much a kayak weighs may help you and so will inflatable kayaks if you're planning to move the kayak around. Following these easy steps can make your kayaking experience smoother and evergreen. Happy kayaking. 🙂
