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Summary: This book should be mandatory reading for all sea kayakers.
Review: As a kayak instructor, I am glad that this book was written. A common thread to nearly every accident reported is a lack of training in basic rescue technique and failure to bring even the most basic rescue gear. This book is a sobering reminder for any so-called "self-taught" kayakers who haven't taken the time to learn about basic water safety and capsize recovery skills. It should be required reading for all sea kayakers.
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Summary: Calling all sea kayakers!
Review: As an ACA instructor I recommend this book to ALL my students! The real-life stories do a much better job of driving home the NEED for preparation, instruction, and safety than any how-to book. The book is especially helpful for those paddlers who have moved through the beginning stages of sea kayaking and are starting to expand their horizons. The authors do an excellent job of critiqueing the scenarios and giving paddlers concrete options for safety rather than just increasing their fears. Buy it-read it-think about it!
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Summary: The book is just the beginning...
Review: As co-author of Deep Trouble I wish to thank all the people who've read it and recommend it to their friends and other kayakers they meet. I know many of you have even bought a second or third copy after giving yours away to clueless kayak strangers you've met on paddling trips, ferry rides, etc. Keep spreading the word, and maybe someday we'll have fewer accidents to write about! If you have a story of a learning experience that you are willing to share with other kayakers, please write it up, and email it to me. If reading the book makes you realize that your training/experience/skill-testing hasn't prepared you for what could have happened on trips you've taken, I invite you to come take lessons with me at the Kayak Academy in Seattle, WA USA. Just as this book provides vital information that you won't read in how-to manuals, my school was founded to provide lessons that exceed the industry standards in order to address the kinds of safety problems that occurred to the paddlers in Deep Trouble (as well as many others not yet written about). As the book illustrates, the key to being safe is to stay within your limits, and I'll add to that by saying if your limits are too limited for what you want to do, then you need to increase your skill...take lessons, practice, and find safe ways to test your limits. Thanks, George Gronseth, Founder of the Kayak Academy (Established in 1991)
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Summary: Pilots read accident reports. Kayakers should do the same.
Review: As enthusiasts seek greater challenges and incur increased risks, they start to explore the dangers of their activities. Pilots read accident reports. Kayakers should who take their paddling seriously should do the same. By analogy, imagine a person who wanted to make a point and, when it was showtime, failed to meet the baseline requirements of capitalization and punctuation. That person will be dismissed as a lightweight. A kayaker who does not take time to understand the dangers of the sport faces much more serious consequences.Kayaking needed a book like this, and I applaud Mr. Broze for pulling it together.
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Summary: If you only have time to read one book, this is it!
Review: I have been kayaking for 4 years now and have read several books on sea kayaking, hands down this is the best book out there. Other books are good to serve as guides for where to paddle, but no other book I've come across offers so much. This book should be included in the sale of all kayaks. This book, if read and followed, will end up saving your life some day.
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Summary: If you only have time to read one book, this is it!
Review: I have been kayaking for 4 years now and have read several books on sea kayaking, hands down this is the best book out there. Other books are good to serve as guides for where to paddle, but no other book I've come across offers so much. This book should be included in the sale of all kayaks. This book, if read and followed, will end up saving your life some day.
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Summary: One of the most comprehensive reviews of sea kayaking
Review: I have been teaching sea kayaking courses for 7 years ranging from 3 hour nature tours to 6 day self-contained trips. Teaching on the coast of Northern Califonia has presented me with many challenges and potentially dangerous scenarios. The safety intro in the beginning of this book is simply the most comprehensive I have read or heard from another instructor. It is a great jumping off place for beginners and experts provided they paddle with other experienced individuals. I also co-authored a boating safety instructional manual for California Department of Boating and Waterways and can therefore appreciate the power of word choice. Matt Broze has chosen his words carefully and with precision. The reader should pay close attention and learn all that is presented in the safety intro as well as the 'Tips" in each chapter. I look forward to another book by Broze if he should choose to write one.
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Summary: This is a compelling and educational "must-read"!
Review: I have kayaked for almost twenty years, and I read this book twice and will read it again. When paddling in the ocean or sea or Lake Superior, it is all too easy to "cut corners" and this book has served to focus my attention back to the essentials of basic safety. I have lent the book to many experienced paddling friends who are similarly impressed.
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Summary: Cautionary Tales Hit Home
Review: I just can't let the first posted review stand alone. This is a book I read twice. Not because it wasn't well written. It was. It is so densely packed with stuff I needed to know that once through was not enough. The narratives are well crafted: concise, gripping - I felt like I was right there in the cockpit battling the waves, shaking off the salt spray, and bracing for dear life. The savvy sidebars are packed with right-on-the-mark stay/get out of deep trouble pointers...just the antidote for an anxious reader jarred out his complacency by these often harrowing cautionary tales. The book suceeded in a way I believe the authors intended. It's made me a safer paddler. I make many fewer assumptions that things out there will go well. I prepare for the worst and cut a lot fewer corners. I paddle alone a lot less often. I DRIVE away from a launch site, when conditions look borderline too challenging. The book has improved my judgment, doing the right things at the right time, without my getting wet. As an advanced beginner sea kayaker, I know I am at a high risk interval in my development as a paddler. The authors have recalibrated my margin of safety. It's a good thing. It's a great book.
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Summary: Good book
Review: I recommend this book to anyone who is active in watersports. It made me aware of the seriousness of some dangers I didn't think much about before (like hypothermia). Some stories have happy endings and some don't. Every story is analyzed to determine what the participants did right and what they might have done differently.
My only criticism is that most of the stories are centered around one particular geographical area (Pacific northwest). I wish there were more stories having to do with different conditions (whitewater rivers, flatwater, etc.) and in other parts of the country so that we non-coastal people could relate more. Still, a fine book.
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