find a group of people who are willing to teach you how to boat, and borrow gear from them or just buy a boat off craigslist, you could probley get a pretty good setup for less than 500 bucks. then just stick with it!

I'll do a 1,2,3,4 response in order of your questions.

1. I knew as soon as I got off my first river trip (rafting) and one or two NWOC rentals with my parents. I went in the army and a few years later without any contacts or experience I dove in.

2 and 3. I bought used gear and I had no idea what too buy. Find some friends that know what they are doing to help you along. I would highly suggest buying used for your first boat / set of gear.

4. Find other girls to boat with. The sport is highly off balance gender wise. Try to ignore to super macho vibes and do everything you can to bombproof your roll and basic skills.

Have FUN is the best advice. As long as your having a good time everything else will fall into play. It is easy to let kayaking turn into a bad time, so take it at your own pace!

Unless you can find a regular boating buddy with a lot of gear to loan, buy your own gear fairly early on. Picking up rental gear from one of the widely scattered shops around Seattle is a huge barrier to spending a day on the river. If you have to rent gear, you'll have one more excuse not to boat. If you boat less frequently you learn slower. If you learn slower, you spend more time getting humbled. If you get humbled one too many times early on, you will stop boating. Own gear. Boat lots. Get good before you get discouraged.

Buy used gear. You will buy the wrong gear for you. That's ok, you probably bought it from someone who bought the wrong gear for them. You can probably turn around and sell it for almost as much as you paid. Consider it a rental. New gear is for people who know what they want. They know what they want because they've used a lot of bad gear.

If you plan on paddling in WA, that means you are going to be paddling when it is cold and miserable outside. Invest in a dry-top and dry-bib combo or a full drysuit. If you don't have those, you won't paddle often, you'll get humbled too often when you do paddle. You'll quit.

For the first year or two of kayaking, most of your obstacles will be in the less rational parts of your brain. Find someone who is good at talking you through your fear in a productive manner. If you find the river doesn't scare you, that's an asset for a while. If you start boating class V and it doesn't scare you, seek help.

I tell this to a lot of people. Flat water practice is boring, but it will help you when you hit the river.

Practice on the lake, roll, brace, swim, ect...

Rent or borrow gear, because you don't want to invest in gear if you have a bad swim and get spooked and totally quit the sport later. You will have a bad swim, everyone does. It may take a while until you decide to stick with it or not. I have seen people kayak for a couple of years then just stop and never go again. I have seen people get injured and not be able to ever boat again. You never know. I am going on 20 years of kayaking and will probably never stop, unless my shoulders fall off.

This sport is 90% mind over matter and mastering your fears, I still have problems with that, it will always be a problem for me...

"Make sure the people leading you down are qualified, and truly invested in your safety and phsyclogical comfort."

+1

It's difficult to overstate how important this is. I think it's a wise strategy to follow anytime you're contemplating hitting a new river that's likely to be at or near the top end of your comfort zone, but it's critically important when you're starting out.

When you're a beginner, it's extremely difficult to properly asses the difficulty and danger of a particular river/rapid, and having an experienced, attentive, responsible mentor there to help guide your decisions can help you minimize the chances that you'll have a really, really awful experience on the river that will lead you to abandon the sport.

Wow. Thanks to all of you for all the great suggestions.

you folks are awesome.

Very little to add to the excellent comments already given, but here are my two bits (actually I just finished this and it is a bit lengthy, sorry), not in the same order as your questions:


1. Be safe.

Never paddle a river by yourself. If you can't find anyone going, find flatwater and work on your skills. I know a lot of people on this board paddle solo, but they are at a place where they can make that choice. You (and I) are not yet there.

Gear is far easier to replace than health or life (can't be done reliably). When you swim, take care of yourself first and gear last. When you help others who are swimming, make sure they are safe before you worry about their gear.

As mentioned, only buy a new helmet, and make sure it is comfortable on your head, in the water. Seriously consider a full-face helmet, the cost of a dental visit is greater than the added cost of full helmet.

My recommendation is also WRSI:
http://www.wrsisafety.com/helmets.asp

The site says they are sold out of the face guard, but I'm sure it will be made available again soon:
http://www.wrsisafety.com/fps.asp


2. Be confident.

Be self-assured in your ability to roll, preferably on both sides. Be a "strong" swimmer, by which I mean, be comfortable with the thought that you may end up swimming the rapids in front of you, and the ones below them. If that makes you twinge a little, find a safe place to swim some rapids with some friends standing at the ready.

If any piece of gear makes you less than confident, replace it. If any paddling partner makes you less than confident, replace him or her. If any river makes you question what you're doing there, portage that spot, or head back to the road.


3. Learn.

As was said above, paddle with people who are stronger paddlers than yourself. Watch them with the intent of learning from them. Ask them about how they paddle and ask for feedback on how you appear to be paddling. As with any skill set, investing in good technique early on pays dividends forever.

Because you won't always be on the water, continue reading. PP anchors a remarkable community, but links in posts appear as regular text (for me, using Firefox), so make sure you aren't overlooking them. The best book I've found is "Whitewater Paddling: Strokes & Concepts" by Eric Jackson. Your library will likely have a copy. The most fun I've had reading about kayaking was from "Kayak: the animated manual of intermediate and advanced whitewater technique" by William Nealy.

The UW kayak club plays kayak polo on Lake Washington through the summer, but I'm not sure when they end. Whether you get to play this year or have to wait till next year, it really is a good work out, and you will greatly improve your balance/bracing/rolling skills. They will go easy on you until you ask them to treat you as an experienced player.

The regional pool sessions should be starting up soon. They are a great place to meet people, get tips, practice skills, and plan trips. Worth every penny, at least once in a while.

ArnoBarno has a great guide:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhbr7t9s_1hd527qgf


4. Take your time getting gear.

I absolutely agree with the advice above about having to pick up gear, from a friend or a shop, being a huge obstacle to paddling. But you are still in the honeymoon phase and for a while will be willing to face that. In case you are going to rent, find a place that will let you "demo" boats. This gives you a much reduced price on each rental, and when you buy a boat from that shop, they will credit your rental fees toward the purchase price. Also you get to try out a few different boats. If a shop doesn't know what you're talking about, explain it to them and ask if they would consider it.

If you are going to borrow, from a good friend, ask if you can keep the gear at your house so that you can go practice on the lake without troubling your friend.

Stick with the basic gear (PFD, helmet, boat, paddle, sprayskirt, floatbags) until you know what you need/want. I bought a 75' throw rope when I first started because I thought I needed one. As the freshest paddler, I wasn't a position to be saving people from my boat, and I wasn't running rivers that needed someones out of his/her boat as a downriver safety. I still carry that rope on some trips, but have also bought a more compact, more accessible throw rope that goes everywhere.

Before you buy any boat, demo it in moving water for more than ten minutes. If you have a sprayskirt already, make sure it fits the boat. If the boat comes with a skirt, make sure the tunnel (the part that seals around your body) fits you.


5. Make sure you are having fun. If you aren't, figure out how you're doing it wrong.

PM me anytime you want to run the Powerhouse on the Snoqualmie.

Hang with these freaks. This really is a good community.

Tons of great advice on here - as you've probably figured out already, the paddling community is mostly made up of really, really nice people.

If you're a uw student or faculity member you're able to join the kayak club which gives you access to gear, pool, lessons and trips.  We also have more female ww kayakers than males.

I'm late to this thread...  Becky, I think it's great that you're getting into kayaking.