[Sportsandrec] kayaking

[Fred's ol' XP]

Hi JJ,
A tandem kayak is a common rental, since couples often like to be 
close.  In many respects, a tandem is tougher, and I've whacked many 
a captain with my paddles!  Hahaha!

In my experience, kayaks are elegantly simple and skim through the 
water's top Inch or so.  Paddling them takes very little effort, 
unless you are trying to race, fight a stiff breeze, etc.  Even so, a 
small stroke of the paddle can move the boat far.  Kayaks have 
paddles with blades (the flat part that scoops into the water) at 
both ends.  The single-bladed paddle is made for canoes.

Kayaks are lower in the water than canoes.  Kayaks are set up so you 
sit on your rearend, with your legs fairly straight out in front of 
you.  Some kayaks are enclosed, to minimize your exposure to the 
elements, while other kayaks are called "sit on top," making your 
legs less confined, but you get more wind, spray, rain, and sun.
I just checked, and Wikipedia has a good blurb on kayaks, which I'll 
post below.

You've got time.  Visit the boats in a sporting goods store.  The 
staff love to get the boats  on the floor for people to sit in or on, 
and check 'em out.  It attracts other shoppers, and probably sells a 
few more boats!

Keep working out, talk to people with kayaks, you'll have a blast!
Fred


A kayak is a small, relatively narrow, human-powered 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Boat>boat primarily designed to 
be manually propelled by means of a double blade paddle. The 
traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each 
seating one <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Paddler>paddler. 
Their cockpit is sometimes covered by a 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Spraydeck>spraydeck (or "skirt") 
that prevents the entry of water from waves or spray and makes it 
possible for highly skilled and specially trained kayakers, to 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//wiki/Eskimo_Roll>roll the kayak: that 
is, to capsize and right it without it filling with water or ejecting 
the paddler. In modern kayaks, such recovery methods have been 
replaced by a preventive approach based on increasing the kayak's 
stability, and by that reducing the likelihood of its capsize. Many 
modern kayaks have modified the traditional design in various ways, 
such as: eliminating the cockpit by seating the paddler on top of the 
boat ("sit-on-top" kayaks); having inflated air chambers surrounding 
the boat; replacing the single hull by twin hulls ("W" kayak), and 
replacing paddles with other human powered propulsion methods, such 
as foot-powered rotational propellers and 'flippers'.

fRom:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayak