A right good read...

Given that this sea kayak odyssey involves staff and friends of the University of Cumbria, a reading list is only to be expected. So, here are some suggestions based on my ever-increasing pile of bed-side reading.

Top of my list come two recent publications:

Sea Kayak - A manual for intermediate and advanced sea kayakers by Gordon Brown (2006). This well presented book includes kayaking history, boat and paddle dynamics, seamanship and navigation, safety and rescue, weather forecasting, caves, rockhopping and tidal races, expeditions and overnighting. It is highly informative and clearly draws upon a wealth of experience.

Last July, Ian and I spent a day paddling from Elgol on the Isle of Skye around Soay Island and back under the guidance of Gordon. Inspiration from that trip had significant part to play in the emergence of the idea of Sea for Cumbria. Have a look at http://www.skyakadventures.com/

Sea Kayak Navigation by Franco Ferrero. A concise manual of navigation aimed specifically at sea kayakers. I’d say that this is pretty much essential reading, particularly if you are new to coastal navigation (like me). Make sure that you get the second edition from 2007. Have a look at the Pesda Press website: http://www.pesdapress.com/product_info.php?cPath=9_13&products_id=18

Ocean Paddler is a fairly recently launched (July 2007) monthly magazine, produced in the UK, that has so far sustained a very high quality of news, technical guidance, product reviews, expedition reports and so on combined with lots of nice photos. Have a look at http://www.oceanpaddlermagazine.com/

There are a lot of good sea kayaking publications but I have been particularly impressed with these.

Cackle TV have produced a series of DVDs entitled This is the sea. I’ve seen the first one and enjoyed the collection of sea kayaking escapades from around the world. http://www.cackletv.com/this-is-the-sea.html