I’ve been kayaking for several years now and, if I do say so myself, progressed quite a bit in that time. However, up until a few weeks ago, my kayaking has been limited to mostly river yakking, with a bit of lake kayaking thrown in. However, recently while doing my weekly Neuse run, I met a fellow yakker who exposed me to an entire different type of kayaking…sea kayaking…and I love it!

While playing around in a rapid, I met a fellow who works in Raleigh, but also has a home on the coast near Emerald Isle. It was after we had had a good bit of rain and the Neuse river had been running really high, so I hadn’t been able to do my up/down run in awhile. So, as soon as the river started dropping I hit it twice in one week and both times I went out, ran into the same yakker. We spent some time playing in the river and talking both times.

He was kind enough to invite me out to his beach house and let me borrow a sweet sea kayak, while exposing me to some of the awesome bits of sea kayaking, such as playing in the surf, navigating currents, and doing water rescues(cowboy and t-rescue.) I have to say it was awesome and I really get the appeal of sea kayaking now!

Since I am mostly a river yakker, the pull of having a longer boat and flat water yakking never really appealed to me…or perhaps I just didn’t give it a lot of thought, but now I totally get it. This type of kayaking really fits with me as well, as it is a lot like the endurance river kayaking I enjoy.

So, I think I am hooked now, but the downside is that I need yet another kayak 😉