kayaking

Any kayakers out there? I just ordered one, thought it would be great to add to my back routine and looks like fun. I live on the east coast, in South Carolina so I have acess to lots of rivers, inland waterways and the harbor and surf (no white water). I bought a Calabria, by prijon. They kinda laughed at me at the store when I ordered the thing when I told them I had never been in one. Any tips or insight would be appreciated (although not really as to what to buy since I already dropped a G on this boat). It should be here by the middle of next week.

The University of Washington has a waterfront activities center that offers kayaking classes. Might check in to your local college for something similar. Or maybe the place you ordered the kayak from has a tip on a local club that could hook you up with lessons.

WOOHOO! You are set to have some fun! I’ve done a couple of “white water” river expeditions and they are a blast. As far as the lake or mellow river deal, I imagine that’d be more like the time I kayaked around Catalina Island. Even though Catalina is 22 miles from the coast, the waters are fairly calm (3’ swells on the day I went) on the west side of the island and barely noticeable swells on the east side. The currents north and south were fun to cut across.

I don’t know diddly about equipment as I do it purely for fun with other people’s stuff but as far as incorporating it into your back workouts - it’s a total upper body/trunk workout. You can vary the angles and heights/depths you paddle to get different levels of resistance. Or paddle backwards to do more pushing instead of pulling. If you want to focus on trunk/abs you can just do a bunch of rolls. Trying to right yourself can be a struggle but when you’ve got the incentive of …oh, say drowning if you don’t right yourself quickly, it can get the adrenaline going, until you get proficient at it anyway.

Congrats and have fun!! Ok, I’m officially jonesin’ for some water action now… thanks…