Southern
Thailand kayak School
PaddleAsia's kayaking
school is operated by 32+ year paddling veteran 
Dave
Williams. Dave has more paddling experience, both on hardcore whitewater
and sea kayaking, than anyone else in Southern Thailand.
Dave is a British Canoe Union Level 2 Coaches and will soon have his Level 3.
This course is designed to give you a basic understanding of proper kayaking technique in addition to an understanding of safety issues, weather, tides and currents, basic kayak navigation and trip planning.
If your time is limited, you can sign up for the first day of the course. You can take the second day at a later date.
Kayak
School course (2 person minimum):
Click here to see our tour
prices.
Discounts available for group bookings - Contact
us 
Eskimo Roll clinic - PaddleAsia also offers Eskimo Rolling clinics. This technique is not easy, but it is one of the most important tools in a kayaker's bag of tricks. Mastery of the Eskimo Roll takes time. This clinic is designed to give you both the understanding of 'why' you have to do certain things (such as having your head come out of the water last) as well as the science behind the required actions. This is a four-hour course.
These courses include: local hotel pick up, lunch, drinking water and PaddleAsia's kayaking instruction manual.
Kayak
School Syllabus
Day 1 - Morning
Boat designs
· Name the parts of the boat
· Hull designs – advantages & disadvantages
· Handling characteristics – tracking, stability, etc.
· Various types of kayaks
Paddle design and materials
· Hand placement
· Oval shafts explained
· Blade shapes
· Feathered & unfeathered paddles
(feathered paddle proper technique to avoid injury)
· Materials
Equipment
· Life jackets
· Helmets
· Towing systems
Basic rescue
· Simple self-rescue
· Assisted rescue
Signaling
· Standard international hand and paddle signals
· Signaling devices
111. Alerting vs. locating devices
222. Advantages & disadvantages of various
devices
Loading
· Weight distribution
· Balance
· Swing weight
· Accessibility
Tides & currents
· Tides defined
· Tide tables
· Rule of 12ths
· Rips
· Currents
Short written test
Afternoon
· Proper body posture
· Launching from the beach
· Forward stroke
· Reverse stroke
· Stopping stroke
· Sweep stroke
· Draw stroke (basic)
· Rescue technique
11a. Self-rescue
22b. Assisted rescue
Day 2
Wind & waves
· Cause of wind
· How wind affects your paddling speed
· Beaufort Wind Scale
· Name the parts of a wave
· Beach shapes
Launching and landing
· Solo launching
· Group launching procedures
· Landing
11a.) Straight surfing
22b.) Side surfing
33c.) Chasing a wave
44d.) Group landing procedure
Navigation basics
· Nautical charts
· Chart symbols & reference manual
· Compasses
· Parallel ruler
· Dividers
· Dead reckoning
· Piloting
Trip planning
· Choosing paddling partners
· Trip leader
· Sweep paddler
· Paddle plan notifications
· Obtaining permission
Short written test
Afternoon
· Bracing
11a. Low brace
22b. High brace
33c. Low sculling brace
44d. High sculling brace
· Advanced draw stroke
11a. Duffek
22b. Bow draw
33c. Cross-bow draw
44d. Stern draw
· Linking strokes
11a. Draw stroke into a forward stroke
11b. Sculling into a forward stroke
11c. Three stroke combination – cross-bow,
rear sweep, and forward sweep
We are the most highly certified
and most experienced paddler and we're certified to international safety standards.
We
are the only ones who do what we do... You can do it with us!
