January 1, 2001

Sea Kayaking Safety and Rescue - by John Lull

For those that progress into the intermediate and advanced sea kayaker ranks, I can recommend this book to you. Careful, I don't recommend a beginner take on these topics until they have built a firm foundation in basic skills and rescues. But those that chase hurricanes up the coast may want to give this book a read.

There are many topics concerning rescues/safety I haven't seen covered well in other books (if at all). Some examples:

Sea-kayaking domains (e.g. open water, surf zone, rock gardens, inland marine waterways)

Rescues in surf and rock gardens (including swimming, assisted and self rescues)

Towing (and loose boat recovery in windy or current conditions)

Paddling in current and handling tide rips

Dealing with different types of boat traffic

Safety in surf and ocean rock gardens

Risk assessment

Group safety through teamwork (club and private group trips)

Training (to include site selection)

The light but adequate coverage of self/assisted rescues leads me to believe the author expects you to already know these basics, so I still recommend the book by Schumann/Shriner for beginners/adv beginners. If you are starting to paddle in more advanced conditions, Woody gives Mr. Lull's book 2 thumbs up!