Kayaking is a popular water sport that has many diverse forms, including sea kayaking, sit on top kayaking, white water kayaking, surf kayaking, kayak touring, and many different types of competition kayaking.

Kayaking is also an Olympic sport, with flat water sprint races and white-water slalom races. You can learn a lot more about Olympic kayaking on the GB Canoeing web site.

Hundreds of thousands of people try kayaking in some form every year, making it one of the fastest growing adventure sports in the UK. A lot of people learn to kayak either at an activity centre or at a kayak club, of which there are many all around the UK. There are also a large number of adults that regularity participate in paddle sport (canoeing or kayaking) of some form. Between October 08 and 09, nearly 63,000 adults paddles at least once a week, a massive increase over the previous year, so now is a great time to try it out and get involved in paddle sport.

Many people ask about the difference between kayaking and canoeing, and there seems to be much confusion about the definitions, so here is my definition. “A kayak is a water craft that you SIT in and propel with a DOUBLE BLADED paddle.” on the other hand “A canoe is a water craft that you (are meant to) KNEEL in and propel with a SINGLE BLADED paddle.”

It is common to associate kayaks with the long, thin, wobbly, and hard to escape from craft of olden times! This is not the case with modern...more