Before we buy a boat, before the boating safety class or a paddling class, if I want to read up a bit, is this book a decent overview?
http://www.paddling.net/store/showProduct.html?product=138
Only books I have left are
-Coastal Kayakers Manual, Washburne
-Sea Kayaking, A manual for long distance Touring, John Dowd
-Sea Kayaking, Derek Hutchinson
When I started paddling, Dowd and Hutch published about the only available books on the subject. Both very good and extensive, though some of Hutch’s advice seems relevant to paddling in English rivers. Still, comprehensive and good material from the early master of the sport. The Coastal Kayakers Manual I found to cover the same information, but the explanations worked better for me. That is an individual preference, but all 3 books are quite good. I can’t comment on ones I haven’t read, so I can’t comment on the book you listed.
Rick
Addendum
I haven’t purchased it, but Matt Broze (and bother Cam) wrote the safety articles in Sea Kayaker for a lot of years and have compiled a lot of this, plus commentary and recommendations in “Deep Trouble: True stories and their lessons…” These are really good sources of information and what can go wrong while paddling. Most of the stories are from the Seattle-Vancouver area and discuss conditions that exist there, but much of this is still relevant (though some of the ocean rapid stories are kind of unique to that zone of the world).
Rick
It looks good to me
I would take a chance on it. It is the 3rd edition, that right there tells you that it has proven to be a good seller. Always a good sign. It is not particularly expensive. Go for it.
Check out guidelines here …
The links under getting started here are pretty useful for beginners. The book looks OK, but a lot of the basic information is easily found on websites like this.
http://www.paddling.net/guidelines/
Another good educational website is
www.sit-on-topkayaking.com
Don’t take one book and one authors views as the gospel when you are getting started, try some different kinds of boats and paddling. You may see yourself as a flatwater lake paddler, but be sure to try some other kinds of experiences.
Book Quality
Yeah, I’ve been reading a few of the articles in “guidelines” in recent days; seems a good way to get basic info instead of plowing through topic drift, etc. I still want to read an actual book; Amazon has this one listed at a nice price.