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Summary: This is THE best!
Review: For ANYBODY interested in Kayaking ... this is THE book!I found it very informative, while also being highly amusing. The illustrations in this book are very entertaining.
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Summary: Great introduction to white water boating!
Review: I bought the book before I ever hit the water so that I could get a quick primer on river dynamics. I'm not sure how much I was able to absorb the night before my first river trip, but I sure laughed a heck of a lot, and the book helped me to forget the apprehensions I was feeling. Honestly, I think that is one of the purposes of the book, and a nice unexpected bonus is the useful and insightful teachings. Besides, everybody could use a refresher course in river-ese, and there is nothing like being reminded that as kayakers, we have the inherent responsibility to continue our battles with those idiot C-1ers. Email me in ATL if ya wanna go padd'lin.
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Summary: KAYAK by William Nealy
Review: If you buy one book on whitewater kayaking, this is it. Very informative, lots of tips and extremely funny. All presented in a cartoon format with a unique 'time-lapse' approach. Particularily good are the sections of whitewater river reading & scouting; various rescue techiques both for yourself & others; and big water technique. An essential buy for any aspiring whitewater kayaker.
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Summary: If you paddle rivers, you want this book!
Review: Most introductory paddling books begin with equipment and clothing, run through basic strokes and present a couple of simple moves, eddying out and peeling out, for example, with some fundamental river information thrown in at the end. The assumption is that you will learn what you need to know on the water. This book is different. It may very well be the best introduction to flowing water on the market. Though it is supposed to be for advanced paddlers, the information and techniques it imparts are useful to boaters of all skill levels. It teaches you to approach a rapid and to figure out how it works, and what it will do to you when you get into it. Nealy's cartoons are humorous and engaging, and offer him a visual means of explaining a sport that doesn't generally translate well into print. I generally re-read my copy a couple of times a year.
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Summary: Great Book for any level
Review: Nealy does a great job of conveying his to-the-point descriptions in terminology that even the most novice of paddler can understand. Keep in mind that this book is geared towards the paddler that has been in the water a few times, but it is still a great book if you have never even sat in a kayak. As far as a read, it is great. This is a real page turner with tons of diagrams. I had absolutly no question about what the author was trying to say. Overall, it is an excellent book and well worth the money
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Summary: Great Book for any level
Review: Nealy does a great job of conveying his to-the-point descriptions in terminology that even the most novice of paddler can understand. Keep in mind that this book is geared towards the paddler that has been in the water a few times, but it is still a great book if you have never even sat in a kayak. As far as a read, it is great. This is a real page turner with tons of diagrams. I had absolutly no question about what the author was trying to say. Overall, it is an excellent book and well worth the money
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Summary: This is the SECOND book on kayaking you should buy.
Review: The first book gets you interested in kayaks, in a whitewater boat, and on the river. Nealy's portrayals of whitewater adventure and mishaps will either hook you permanently or scare you away entirely. Especially useful for visual learners, the animated Kayak! may be the first how-to book I've ever read cover-to-cover in one sitting. Many of the techniques and situations described will be irrelevant for average paddlers, but at least by reading about them, you'll know they exist. For example, a good friend said to me last week, "So there I was, pinned under the stern of my boat, unable to reach my grab loop, running out of air, and I'm thinking of that roll in Kayak! and how nice it would have been to know it right then." So... she lived through it, went home, flipped to the section on self-rescue and resolved to be more prepared next time. While ostensibly a book on technique, Kayak! is also a cultural primer for paddlers. As an introduction to stereotypes, river jargon, and river manners, Kayak! will help you stay likeable on the water -- thereby affording you a chance to learn from other paddlers instead of chasing them away. Nealy prepares you to approach river mishaps with caution and humor. Seeing Nealy's characters pummeled in hydrolics, assulted by "bad" victims, and swept toward undercut rocks reminds you that the dangers of whitewater are also half the fun and that those things which do not kill us will make great stories at the campfire.
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Summary: At last--useful advice for the more experienced paddler!
Review: This is William ("not Bill") Nealy's best book so far. Most paddling books waste their pages and your money with sub-elementary advice ("How to Choose Your First Boat", "How to Get Into the Boat", etc.). But if you can roll and do a high brace turn into an eddy, you're ready for the more advanced advice Nealy offers. I can't say which is better, the delightful cartoons or the practical advice, because I don't routinely paddle over 15 foot waterfalls and have never enjoyed the time I've spent in large holes. But I'm eager to do more of both after reading this well-illustrated how-to manual.
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Summary: Phat!!!
Review: TYhis is the best book ever. William Nealy is the best author. By it, read it, love it. It is a kayaker's Bible.
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Summary: the best illustrated primer on river rescue that you can buy
Review: William "Not Bill" Nealy should be known to virtually every paddler through his Whitewater Home Companion series, Whitewater Tales of Terror, Kayaks to Hell, assorted river maps, and other cartoons. He has been seriously paddling kayaks for at least 12 years. On the positive side, he has an apparently serious addiction to steep creeks and flood-stage whitewater, is one hell of a cartoonist, and I seem to recall reading that he has made the move up to C-boats. Nealy produced this revolutionary book on river safety for intermediate and advanced paddlers. KAYAK The Animated Manual of Intermediate and Advanced Whitewater Technique takes up where the average text leaves off and uses a unique "time-lapse" drawing style to put everything into a unique perspective. KAYAK The Animated Manual of Intermediate and Advanced Whitewater Technique begins a bit slowly for my taste. Except for a nice discussion of Fear and Introduction to Rapid Anatomy, you could jump directly to page 19, Hydrotopography, where the meat of the book begins. I've been boating for a while and am beginning to figure out what's happening to water above and below the surface in a rapid (in paticular what it's going to do to my boat). Nealy's illustrations of kick, holes, reefs, ledges, Big Drops, and hydraulics was tremendous. He first explaines what forces are involved, then he goes on to discuss tactics for running these mothers. We've all been taught the AWA universal river signals and they're repeated in most paddling texts and guide books. Nealy goes one step farther and presents some more specialized hand signals that the probe may use to modify what y'all learned during scouting. Are these really useful? Do some creeks with people like Will and you'll find out. Swimming Self Rescue (or "swimming lessons for those who NEVER go swimming."), pages 63 through 73, presented some good illustrated advise: on using your partially swamped boat to pull through the backwash in mega-holes, to cross strong eddylines or eddy fences; on swimming complex rapids and big drops; and, on orientation in big holes. His final piece of wisedom, "Above all, don't give up!" Pages 83 through 109 deal with River Rescue and were intended as a practical supplement to Bechdel & Ray's authoratitative River Rescue. This section is great! It is more than a practical supplement, it illustrates things in a way standard text books cannot. I have never encountered a more profound description of Chase Boating than that presented in Kayak. Chase Boating is an excitying sub-sport of creeking which involves running dangerous rapids while in pursuit of or actually towing fear-crazed victims. Born in the southeast Chase Boating began as a way to atone for leaving your rescue rope in the car. Since those early days Chase Boating has evolved into a complex and beautiful ballet of catastrophe. Nealy explains the choreography of this artform and provides seldom discussed insider information such as the taxonomy of good and bad victims. Finally, The Joy of Flood (or "big water technique if you subtract the trees and debris.") is the last section on river safety. I've never read about flood stage tactics in any previous whitewater book. Should those of you reading the Eddy Line paddle flooded rivers? Nealy recommends recalling, the tired but true, "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime." He then discusses the time (trees, strainers, mega-holes, whirlpools, funny water, exploding waves, etc. etc.). So, go out and buy the book. William (not Bill) can use the money. If you don't have time to read the book you'll enjoy just looking at the cartoons. You're paddling buddies can read it on the way to the put in. It fits nicely into a drybag so you can take it for amusement during multiday trips. More than likely it'll get lost because someone borrowed it.
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