How To Use An Inflatable Sea Kayak

Learning how to use an inflatable sea kayak is a fun process that also requires plenty of time and practice. Once you have gotten it down, using an inflatable kayak at sea is a lot of fun. The following tips will help you make good use of an inflatable sea kayak.

1. To use your inflatable sea kayak, first make sure that you have a kayak that is fully functional. Inflatable crafts are prone to punctures, which can cause them to slowly deflate. Before you begin practicing, make sure yours does not have a hole by pumping it up, placing something heavy like an upside-down table on it, and letting it rest overnight to see if a lot of air is lost. If it is, find the leak and patch it; patch kits are available at any outdoor outfitting stores.
2. Before going out to sea, you will need to practice in calmer waters. Take your kayak to a lake or pond and put it in, then begin practicing. Wear a life preserver and practice your stroke. Holding the paddle with both hands in front of you, using an overhand grip, dip one side down and extend it forward, so that your other hand is high and pulled back. Pull the low hand, with the blade in the water, back, creating a solid stroke, and then lift that hand high and dip the other side into the water to pull it back. This is the basic paddling technique for sea kayaking.
3. Practice making sharp turns, as you will need to use them at sea. Hold the dormant hand very high, so that the hand with that side's paddle blade in the water is very low, and the paddle is almost vertical, and pull back, hard and fast. This is a way to turn the kayak nearly 90 degrees with one stroke. Work on this.
4. Once you have all of this down, head to the beach on a calm day. Put your kayak down in front of the breakers and paddle out through them, timing it so that none break over you as you head out between breaking waves. On rougher days, you may need to swim the kayak out. Once out beyond the breakers, practice paddling up and down the coast, and you will get the hang of using your inflatable sea kayak perfectly in no time. On rougher days, knowing how to cut the kayak sharply will come in handy. The more you practice, the easier and more fun it will be later on.

Once you know how to maneuver your inflatable sea kayak, it can be a source of great fun at the beach.