One of the absolute biggest mistakes that new kayakers make is choosing to start in a slim, sleek and sexy kayak. The sleek kayak is built for speed and though can provide many exciting thrills it is also typically very unstable. For a new kayaker this means usually rolling head first into the water.

If you don't mind swimming and know how to re-board your kayak from within the water, then by all means try out the speedy model. However for most beginner kayakers they want to stay dry and hopefully arrive at their paddling destination.

Beginner's Mistake...

I took a friend out paddling one time many years ago. We were in Deep Cove in Vancouver, B.C. and rented kayaks for the day with our destination being a little island not too far out. I had kayaked many times before but for my friend it was his first time. Being his first time out and being an athletic type of a guy, he wanted the fastest boat available. Trying to explain the dynamics of how the different shaped kayaks worked fell on deaf ears. My friends inexperience and slightly overzealous need for excitement had his focus centered solely on getting into a fast kayak.

As we were renting the kayaks I decided that he would have to learn from experience. After a very brief verbal lesson we hit the water with our destination in sight. I noticed fairly quickly that my friend was having an extremely hard time controlling his kayak. I figured he would get the hang of it pretty quick though and paddled along my way. Within minutes I had covered a fair distance and realized that my friend was nowhere in sight. After a quick panic sensation I soon burst into uncontrollable giggles as I realized that his kayak had rolled and all I could see was his head bobbing in the water. Laughing so hard I could barely paddle I watched as a speed boat came to his rescue, hauled his embarrassed butt into their boat and helped him to get the water out of his kayak.

Although my friend's kayaking experience turned out not to be a good one, it was by far one of the funniest kayaking trips I've ever had. His deflated ego paddled soaking wet onto our destination where we then switched kayaks. He then paddled the beginner kayak back to shore with no other problems.

His mistake though very common for first time kayakers can also be very dangerous. Though I had a great laugh out of it, in reality it could have been dangerous and disastrous had my friend hurt himself or been somewhere where help was not close by.

Lesson learned...

The lesson was definitely learned in this case... as a beginner kayaker it is not necessary to be the fastest boat in the water. The trick is to get a stable kayak and learn the basics before you move on to the speed.