Southern Thailand kayak School

PaddleAsia's kayaking school is operated by 30 year paddling veteran Dave Williams. Dave has more paddling experience, both on hardcore whitewater and sea kayaking, than anyone else in Southern Thailand and possibly all of Southeast Asia.

Dave is the ONLY person in Southern Thailand with international certification in the paddling industry. Dave is a British Canoe Union Level 2 Coach.

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:
1 person - US$100 per person per day
2 to 6 persons - US$80 per person per day
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.

The Eskimo Roll Clinic costs US$75 for a 1 person tour and US$55 per person for 2 to 6 persons per day.

These courses include: local hotel pick up, lunch, drinking water and PaddleAsia's kayaking instruction manual.

Kayak School Syllabus

Day 1 - Morning classroom

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 on the water

· 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 - Morning classroom

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 on the water

· 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 only ones who do what we do... We are the only ones certified to international safety standards
and you can do it with us!