Book Reviews

I recently rediscovered a fantastic little book published by Pesda Press called Tip Tips for Coaches.

It is a simple, no-nonsense collection of 319 fantastic ideas and teaching tips for coaches assembled by the fine staff at Plas Y Brenin which is also The National Mountain Centre for Wales.

Read more: Lightening Book Review: Top Tips for Coaches by Pesda Press

Pesda Press recently released the 2^nd edition of their popular book, Sea Kayak Navigation by Franco Ferrero. The new edition is a completely updated layout including several chapter rewrites and updates to help explain the tougher concepts even better than before. A clearly written and very practical manual, this is a great book for anybody who is interested in learning more about sea navigation.

Read more: Book Review: Sea Kayak Navigation - 2nd Edition by Franco Ferrero

Visit your local the book section at your local outdoor store and you will find a boatload of books on sea kayaking skills. Generally speaking they are written towards the novice paddler and cover a wide range of skills from packing your boat to how to keep your boat going straight.

Read more: Book Review - Sea Kayaking Strokes

In 2006 the British Canoe Union released an addition to its very popular Canoe and Kayak Handbook. The new Coaching Handbook is an ocean of useful information and practical tips for coaches and instructors whether you are involved with canoe, white water, sprint slalom, or sea kayaking.

Rather then just getting the perspective of one author or instructor, the Coaching Handbook was written by a group of 18 top BCU coaches in their particular sport. At over 380 pages there is more then enough information to satisfy both beginner and advanced coaches.

Read more: Book Review - British Canoe Union Coaching Handbook

This book review was generously donated by Andrew Elizage at The Dash Pointe Pirate. You can view his blog here.

One of my favorite kayaking books, and one of the books I highly recommend to any sea kayaker, is Deep Trouble: True Stories and Their Lessons, by Matt Broze and George Gronseth. It's a compilation of incident reports published in Sea Kayaker magazine, harrowing stories of death and near death by blunt force injury, drowning, and hypothermia, especially interesting for me because so many of the cases occurred right here in the Pacific Northwest. Thumbing through it now I realize that a lot of what I first learned about sea kayaking safety probably came from that book. Nothing teaches a lesson like a gripping story of a trip gone horribly wrong. I’d like to see more of these incident report compilations. Isn’t anyone out there ready to write Deep Trouble 2?

Read more: Book Review - Deep Trouble: True Stories and Their Lessons

Ask 10 paddlers which skill they would say is the most difficult to master and the vast majority of the group would say learning how to roll ranks up there at the top of the pile. The same is true for teaching somebody else how to roll. It is more difficult compared to say, teaching how the low brace.

Read more: Book Review: Kayak Rolling - The Black Art Demystified