Sea Kayaking - The Outer Hebrides

GRADING challenging

Choosing your trip - Our grading levels

Sea Kayaking
The following information provides an overview on our grading of our Sea Kayaking trips. Further information of a specific nature can be found in the relevant Trip Dossier. If you are in any doubt at all regarding your suitability for a trip, please contact us and we will be glad to talk about the trip in detail and provide you with a recommendation.

Grade - challenging

Our sea kayaking holidays graded ‘Challenging’ are suitable for those with at least 10 days experience of sea kayaking, and it is preferable if at least some of this was under instruction. You should be prepared for the possibility of rough conditions and have experience of kayaking in force 4 conditions. You should be confident on the water but the ability to Eskimo roll is not required.

You should have a good level of fitness as you can expect up to 8 hours of sea kayaking each day, with plenty of breaks onshore to stretch your legs. The kayaking will be in coastal waters, although these are not always sheltered so you can expect some choppy conditions. There will be some fairly open crossings and you can expect to kayak up to 15km in a day, although this will be subject to weather and wind conditions.

These trips usually involve wild camping with no facilities, so you should be prepared for the challenges posed by this as well as by the kayaking. Our most popular challenging trip explores the wild coasts of the Outer Hebrides.

Grade - moderate

Our sea-kayaking holidays graded ‘Moderate’ are suitable for those with at least 4 previous days of sea-kayaking experience, and it is preferable if at least some of this was under instruction, such as on our Introduction to Sea-Kayaking in Scotland course. You should be confident on the water but the ability to Eskimo roll is not required.

You should have a good level of fitness as you can expect up to 6 hours of sea-kayaking each day, with plenty of breaks onshore to stretch your legs. The kayaking will be in coastal waters with few open crossings and you can expect to kayak up to 12km in a day, although this will be subject to weather and wind conditions. These trips usually involve wild camping with no facilities, so you should be prepared for the challenges posed by this as well as by the kayaking.

Grade - moderate plus

"Moderate Plus" sea-kayaking holidays involve a similar level of physical demand and sea conditions as those trips graded "Moderate". However, there may be a couple of more challenging days within the itinerary, where you will take on longer open crossings, paddle for greater distances or sea-kayak in waters which are more experienced to more challenging sea conditions. Therefore, you will need to have good fitness and have recent experience of sea-kayaking, preferably in force 4 conditions.

Grade - easy

Our sea kayaking holidays graded ‘Easy’ are suitable for those with little or no previous sea-kayaking experience. Such trips will have a greater emphasis on instruction than our regular sea kayak journeys but you will still enjoy some superb kayaking on the ocean.

Although no sea kayaking experience is required, you should still have a reasonable level of fitness as kayaking can be quite tiring! You can expect up to 6 hours of sea kayaking each day, with plenty of breaks onshore to stretch your legs. The kayaking will be in generally sheltered waters. These trips usually feature accommodation indoors so there is always a hot shower and a warm bed at the end of the day.