One day, you see a few paddlers kayaking on a lake. This makes you want to give it a try as you think kayaking is cool. But, you never kayak before! And here you wonder. Do you need lessons to kayak?
You know what. This question boggles beginners all the time.
Whenever you ask around or search the Internet for answer, most of them would advise to take lessons for it.
Despite that, you realize many paddlers never sign up for kayaking lessons, and it seems they could paddle just fine.
It doesn’t mean they are wrong, right?
Let’s get back to the question. Do you need lessons to kayak? Well, it depends. – I guess you hate getting this answer again.
Whether or not you need lessons to kayak, it depends on YOUR situation.
It is not an absolute YES or NO question. What matter are the REASONS behind each answer.
So, let’s dive into both reasons FOR and AGAINST, so you know whether you need lessons to kayak or not.
1. You might not need lessons to kayak
1.1 Self-taught
We are living in the world where we no longer rely on library to look for knowledge and information. Do you still go to the library? – Wait! Do you even know what libraries are?
Yeah. Whatever we want to know, we use the Internet to look for answers. Whatever comes to your mind, you get the info instantly!
This makes SELF-LEARNING super convenient.
Technically, you can self-learn many things, so long the info is on the Internet. Of course, this includes kayaking.
You can use Google, Youtube, or social media to learn kayaking skills and techniques.
The beauty is, the Internet is SMART enough to predict what we need, and suggest useful contents.
For example, you search “kayaking skills”, and you click any one of the videos. And once you’ve watched the video, it suggests relevant videos, such as kayaking mistakes, kayaking strokes, etc. So, you can pick whatever you want to learn.
Same goes to Google search. When you key in any keywords, Google also suggests other relevant keywords for you.
This is literally like a SPIRAL effect. When you learn something, you are explored to new things for you to learn.
Before going to the lake to kayak, you already know what that is. And it makes you be prepared for kayaking even if you have zero experience.
Nonetheless, kayaking is pretty much self-taught in nature. Just like babies learn crawling or walking.
You grab a paddle and get onto a kayak. And you start paddling. That’s where “trial-and-error” kicks in. – It’s awkward, but you’ll get better at paddling.
1.2 Save money
Perhaps this is the main reason why people avoid having lessons. – Talk about MONEY.
Depending on the structure of kayaking courses, the tuition fee could be fewer than one hundred bucks, or go up to few hundred bucks.
It may not be pricey. But, since we can learn for FREE from the Internet, why do we choose a more expensive option?
And the amount could be huge if we plan to sign up for kayaking lessons in GROUP. Well, maybe your friends and family would like to kayak as well.
Because of that, some might opt for the free option, which they self-learn, and figure out together when kayaking. – As long as the kayak moves forward, they are happy with that.
Not to forget to mention when you spend for the lessons, you are committed to learning. And this forms PRESSURE, especially from your classmates, which drives you create intrusive thoughts.
“What if I still couldn’t kayak after the lessons?” “What if they kayak much better than me? Then I look like a loser”……
If you self-learn kayaking, you don’t have this unwanted pressure. You just follow your pace. Or, what if you can’t kayak? Never mind, you have nothing to lose.
1.3 Recreational purpose
You are not paddling for racing or kayak sprinting. You just want to paddle for fun. And you don’t care about speed and efficiency.
Meaning, you are paddling for recreational purpose.
Besides, you know the importance of safety when kayaking. So, you follow the advice from some blog posts or videos to put on Personal Floatation Device (“PFD”) before you kayak. – Again, self-taught.
As long as you kayak on a calm, peaceful lake and close to the shore, you know you are quite safe. Even when capsizing, you can ask for help or swim to the shore.
So, you get ready for the trial-and-error in learning paddling. Speed and efficiency are not your concerns. And you kayak close to the shore. – So, you don’t see why you need lessons to kayak.
Further to that, you might just consider “TRYING” kayaking at the moment. Maybe you just kayak once in a blue moon.
Hence, signing up for kayaking lessons might be a waste of money and time.
2. You may need lessons to kayak
2.1 Proper technique
Let’s face it. Many people only focus on FORWARD stroke.
While self-learning, they put most of their time and effort in learning and “mastering” forward stroke, to hope that they could kayak in a straight line.
Even they know about other strokes, such as reverse strokes, sweep strokes, etc, they rarely practice them.
This makes learning SKEW towards particular stroke, and NEGLECT the rest.
Besides, it is easy to form bad techniques and habits as there is no guidance. Meanwhile, we THINK it might be the right way to kayak. In fact, we could paddle the wrong or inefficient way.
And it is terribly hard to break the bad habits and relearn the proper techniques.
That’s why you need lessons to kayak!
When having kayaking lessons, you get to learn and practice all these necessary strokes and skills. The coaches check your posture and skills. They will also rectify and correct you right away.
So, you learn the proper techniques without going through trial-and-error. This helps set strong foundation at the very beginning.
And it helps you avoid forming bad habit. So, you don’t have to go through the unlearn-and-relearn ordeal.
2.2 Safety and avoid injuries
Let’s test your knowledge on kayaking safety. I guess PFD will come to your mind.
What about the others?
Try to imagine if your kayak capsized. What could you do other than ask for help?
Or, worse can happen. What if you were stuck inside a sit-inside kayak when capsizing? How would you rescue yourself?
This is yet another reason why you need lessons to kayak. – Safety precaution is kayaking lessons’ essence.
Depending on the lessons structure, kayaking lessons may cover some advance, yet essential skills, such as:
- Wet exit drill
- Roll-over techniques (such as C-To-C Roll and Sweep Roll)
- Re-enter kayak
Bear in mind where it’s hard to self-learn these techniques without guidance. That’s because you can get drown if you do them wrongly. – This is not the time to talk about trial-and-error.
For the record, do you even know there is a proper way to enter or exit kayaks? Most people do it intuitively without knowing the proper way.
As a result, they might slip and get hurt.
Again, kayaking lessons will cover this. You know how to enter or exit kayak safely so you can avoid injuries.
2.3 Save time
Well, the Internet is great as it gives tremendous amount of info for us to self-learn kayaking.
But, this could be OVERWHELMING as the volume is too big. The info could be all over the place. For example, some advise us to feather paddle. Some could disagree with this……
So, we might need to spend a lot of time to filter and research properly. Otherwise, the research won’t be focused. And it makes learning difficult.
Besides, with this huge volume of info available at the same time, it’s hard for us to know the ORDER to learn.
Yes, we should learn the basic skills before we proceed to the advance skills.
Since we lack the knowledge and dunno the order, we might screw the order up. We might learn the advance skills first, which are the extension of basic skills. – In the end, we fail to learn both basic and advance skills.
If you don’t want to waste your time and deal with this mess, then you need lessons to kayak.
Kayaking lessons are designed by kayaking experts. They know what skills are required in respect of the levels.
Accordingly, they group necessary skills in the lessons.
Yes, you need to pay for it. But, you save your time as you don’t need to search and read / watch the contents one by one.
Your job is just need to attend the lessons and learn. That’s all!
2.4 Improve confidence
Ok, let’s say you self-learn kayaking. Finally, you are able to move in a straight line, and you don’t fall into the water.
You feel a great sense of achievement. And you feel proud of yourself, don’t you?
Now, let’s turn the table.
Imagine where you’ve attended kayaking lessons. Right now, you have proper kayaking skills and knowledge.
Not only are you able to kayak in a straight line, but also are able to kayak fast.
Besides, you also know how to self-rescue when capsizing.
Ask yourself. Would you still be able to be satisfied by only moving in straight line and paddling close to the shore?
Obviously, No! You already improve your self-confidence as kayaking lessons expand your horizon.
Thanks to this, you are now tempted to EXPLORE further and willing to TRY challenging kayaking, such as whitewater or sea kayaking.
And this brings to the next point.
2.5 Whitewater / sea kayaking
With that being said, the arguments above refer to FLAT water kayaking. That’s because kayaking on flat water doesn’t need great maneuver skills, which is why self-taught is possible.
In contrast, whitewater / sea kayaking are much more turbulent. Inherently, the risk is higher, too.
So, greater maneuver skills are needed, apart from forward stroke.
Essentially, whitewater / sea kayaking are performance in nature, but not recreational purpose.
So, if you are interested in either one of these, you need proper kayaking techniques and safety precautions even for entry level.
That’s why you need to sign up for lessons to kayak whitewater or on the ocean!
Not only this, you get to know extra, essential knowledge, such as:
- Whitewater reading
- River signals
- Marine buoys and marks signals
And you need supervision while learning these! Otherwise, you might interpret them wrongly, which might bring repercussion when kayaking.
Final thought: do you need lessons to kayak?
Do you need lessons to kayak? So, it depends.
But, you are much clearer on this, aren’t you?
Instead of merely Yes or No, you know the reasons behind your answer.
Most of the time, we just want to paddle for fun. As long as we observe safety measure, self-learn kayaking is fine. Take your time for the trial-and-error.
But, when you intend to get serious about kayaking and strive to learn the proper skills, then you really need lessons to kayak.
After all, do consider your CURIOSITY when kayaking.
You might even want to sign up for lessons if you wish to explore further while having fun with your friends and family. And you need proper techniques and safety precautions as the foundation.
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