Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
The Marine Environment - Coggle Diagram
The Marine Environment
Unique
The ocean is an incredibly dynamic environment, much more so than even whitewater kayaking.
At the smallest level, you have second to second and minute to minute variations in the swell and waves that can instantly change how a feature reacts.
At a larger time scale, tides and currents are changing throughout the hour, and play spots are always disappearing and forming somewhere else.
From a different point of view, sea kayaking also has a huge variety in its scope. One day you might be rock hopping around a single island, and the next day you might try and complete a huge multi mile crossing. Some people even take sea kayaking as far as circumnavigating entire continents.
Unlike most other adventure sports, most of the time you have the option to put yourself right into the thick of it or just outside. Surprisingly, this is a very thin line and you can generally get out quick when things get a little uncomfortable. This fact does make for an environment where it is pretty easy to challenge yourself day after day, but also a little too easy to get in over your head really quick.
Challenging
The planning aspect of sea kayaking can very easily be compared to planning for trips in avalanche terrain.
The amount of research and different factors that go into safely planning a day out on the ocean can be very intimidating sometimes.
It also seems to me that sea kayaking has a very high skill celling, both in physical skill, and in techniques and tactics. This means that you can continue to develop you kayaking skills all throughout your life
Familiar
-
Tide races, surfing waves, and moving around eddy lines are all very transferable skills
Being able to use previously developed paddling skills, but in a new environment is a very cool experience. Jumping right into sea kayaking and feeling like I have a decent background definitely makes the sport much more engaging, and teases me to learn more about it.
Special
Among all of the different adventure sports, sea kayaking is one of the easiest on your body.
For many extreme sport athletes, this makes it an excellent sport to retire to. You can still get the same intensity, just with much less wear on your body.
Tides
Tides are an incredibly unique factor when navigating in sea kayaks. No other sport has terrain that literally changes on a 6 hour schedule every day. While it can make some planning very difficult, it is also very predictable, so as long as you are willing to work for it, you can use the tides to your advantage
Currents
Currents are another double edged sword of sea kayaking. Sleep in too long and you might find that what you expected to give you a huge speed boost has now turned your journey into a giant treadmill.
Waves
Waves create an excellent playground and training ground when sea kayaking. They can vary dramatically day to day, and present new challenges every time. Sometimes, you might struggle to catch a wave just right, and other times you may be paddling like mad to avoid being taken out be each wave.
Weather
Weather is a common factor with all of our many adventure sports. But when looking at sea kayaking, it is absolutely critical to know what the weather is going to be like when you are going out. Most other danger factors can be mitigated simply by moving away from them, but if you get the weather wrong, there is no escape.
Wind
Wind is often a feature that we must face when out on the ocean. When forced to paddle against it, you might really regret going out paddling that day. However, wind is the driving factor for one o the things that we have the most fun with when out on the ocean, waves!
-