Customer Reviews

Kayaking Made Easy, 3rd: A Manual for Beginners with Tips for the Experienced (Made Easy Series)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This newly expanded and revised third edition of Kayaking Made Easy: A Manual For Beginners With Tips For The Experienced by Dennis Stuhaug is a complete and thorough "how to" guide to the sport and recreation of kayaking. Providing readers with a concisely presenting approach to preparing for and engaging in kayaking, Kayaking Made Easy offers a truly "user friendly" guide to everything from choosing the right hull for individual needs, outfitting the kayak with seat, flotation, spray deck and other fittings, mastering basic maneuvers from the sweep stroke to the sculling brace, and assembling a kayaking wardrobe that is both comfortable and affordable, to safe navigation through the hazards of wind, fog, eddies and rip currents, and ensuring that all companions, including kids, enjoy the active and fun ride. A welcome addition to personal and community library reference collections, Kayaking Made Easy is very strongly recommended reading for novice kayakers, and has much of value to offer even seasoned kayakers.

This book might be packed with information about the various paddling techniques but takes at least three readings to understand what the author is trying to describe. The narrative would be helped tremendously if some pictures were included. Simple things like showing the proper wrist rotatation during strokes, even body positioning during the stroke are not illustrated.

In addtion, the authors writing style leaves a lot to be desired. The author wants to imagine he is right next to us while we sit in the kayak. Things like, '...go ahead and pick up your kayak while we walk down this hill together....' UGH!!!!

Just describe each technique and some illustrations to go with each step would do wonders for this book.

As a novice to kayaking I can't recommend this book

I have some experience as a recreational kayaker...,my wife has never kayaked until now. Yes, I could have passed on what I know to my wife, and to some degree I have, but it's like teaching golf to your wife...,you don't.

This book is aptly titled. (.."a manual for beginners with tips for the experienced."

This book was the perfect mix for us. We didn't want a book that was filled with step by step pictures to "study". The physics of the strokes and the why's were more important to us. The text has meat to it but is still very easy to comprehend if you visualize the steps one at a time that the author takes you through. Additional illustrations aren't really necessary to follow his guidance in the text.

In anything worth pursuing, there is no such thing as instant gratification. I've learned a lot to improve my techniques and my wife felt very comfortable with the author's style for the pure beginner.

The book has a light-hearted and fun tone to it. The author feels like a friend who is there to assist and not be critical. Even if you have some kayaking experience, you will still come away with some worthwhile information even if it merely reinforces what you have known to date.

Being new to kayaking I found this book to be very through and in depth. An excellent primer along with many pointers for the more experienced.

Good information for a beginner, also helps with understanding terms used in kayaking.

Disclaimer - This reader has no kayaking experience. Your humble reviewer has taken to the waters on the Nimitz, in canoes on still and running bodies of water, a twenty one foot sloop, pontoon boats, rowboats, down the rapids of the Chatahoochie in a guided raft, and on the garden variety cabin cruisers that litter the waterways like so much floating garbage. (do you detect a bias?)

Your reviewer does read a fair bit, and compared to other books on this and other subjects, found Kayaking Made Easy to to be a very enjoyable read. The conversational style of the author reached me loud and clear. With some experience in boating and outdoor activities the advice seems sound.

The work is geared to touring and casual flatwater kayaking with some great advice for "gunkholing" and generally loitering about the calm waterways. Serious touring and navigation is also discussed. One thing that really impressed me was the brief tutorial on boarding the kayak - notably missing in a different book.

I am contemplating the purchase of an inflatable kayak and found this book more help than the one I bought specifically on inflatable kayaking.

Since I am not a kayaker per se, this book could be entirely bogus. I seriously doubt that, it seems sound and a very enjoyable read. I would buy another book from this author. Even those who don't ever plan to kayak might like this book for non-ficiton. Very happy with my purchase.

A wonderful gift idea for the outdoorsy, water loving type buddy who does not own a boat but might be inspired by this introduction to the world of kayaking.

While I do acknowledge that the author is an experienced and knowledgeable kayaker, I really disliked this book. First, I found the book heavily slanted towards sea kayaking. I live nowhere near the sea and that's not what I expected from the book description.

Second, I find a lot of things in the book dated. For example, there was no mention of bent/neutral shaft paddles when I was trying to select a paddle. There was no mention of any style of car-top carriers other than cradles (and these weren't even J style cradles!) when I needed advice on selecting a roof rack. These are just 2 of many examples. The book was originally written in 1995 with new editions in 1998 and 2006. I sincerely doubt much was changed in those subsequent editions.

Third, I agree with other reviewers who have expressed distaste with the authors annoying writing style. In an apparent effort to sound familiar and reassuring, the author writes as if he's speaking directly to the reader. This may not sound like anything substantial but it gets really annoying after countless passages like, "Now let's go to the beach. I'm going to walk along side you on your first launch." Ugh....it goes on for pages at a time.

I did find some useful information in this book but I'll admit that I couldn't read the entire thing. An annoying writing style, dated information, and a slant towards a style of kayaking I don't do made this book of little use to me.

I would not recommend this book.

I agree with Mark-from-DC; there is WAY to much verbage and WAY too few diagrams. Verbose "how-to" passages must be read several times to get the gist of what the author is trying to describe. I actually ended up diagramming my own sketches as I re-read sections. I too, would not recommend this book, and for the same reasons. I found it a big disappointment.

Done with humor and well done instructions even for the one who has never touched a kayak.

ive been kayaking a few times in my life. i recently decided id really get into it. this book is a good read with lots of info. its great if your thinking about kayaking and are new to the sport. buy it!!!