What's the Difference?
As someone familiar with river kayaking for over 5 years, I had quite a few preconceptions about trying out sea kayaking for the first time.
I’ll be honest, a small part of me thought that it was going to be a bit boring in comparison to river kayaking. With the absence of rapids, rocks and waterfalls I failed to see how sea kayaking could excite me.
I did the Introduction to Sea Kayaking course and although my river kayaking experience gave me an edge in having marginally better balance and completely unnecessary Eskimo rolling skills over the other beginners, that was pretty much where my advantage ended!
With a river kayaking mindset, I had all the confidence in the world that I would find sea kayaking easy but was actually pleasantly surprised at the challenges and differences I encountered. Below are the 5 major differences that I noticed between sea kayaking and river kayaking, overlooking the obvious locational factor!
Here’s the basic list of differences between river and sea kayaking:
- You Actually Have To Paddle Whilst Sea Kayaking
- 4,000 Point Turns Are Pretty Standard in a Sea Kayak
- How Edging Your Sea Kayak Will Help Turn It
- Well They Call It SEA Kayaking for a Reason
- The Sense of Adventure Sea Kayaking Offers
So without further ado, let’s get stuck into the details.