Waves, Tides and Shallow-Water Processes

Book Description

Completely revised and updated for its second edition, this volume belongs to the Open University series on oceanography. It is designed so that it can be read on its own or studied as part of the Open University third-level course, S330 Oceanography.

The book begins by describing the characteristics of waves and tides, and their behaviour in shallow water. After outlining the sources of sediment supply to the oceans, some theoretical aspects of sediment movement and deposition by currents are considered. After looking at wave action in the littoral zone, the interplay of tidal currents, river flow and wave action in estuaries and deltas are explored. The final chapter provides an overview of shelf processes.

This is a vital book for all oceanography undergraduate students worldwide.

Easy to use question and answer format
Full colour illustrations throughout
35-40% revised and extended from 1st edition

Customer Reviews:

A Better Understanding of the Coastal Environment.......2001-04-03

As one of the Open University Oceanography Series, this book offers an excellent introduction to the physical processes operating in the nearshore and immediate offshore environments of the coastal zone. With a particular emphasis on the relationship between process and form, this work covers essential ideas and practical applications for university level instructors and students interested in the coastal environment. The book material is straightforward, readable, and offers the opportunity to develop fundamental research questions at a variety of levels. Best of all, it's a well-organized work at an affordable price.

The Ocean Basins: Their Structure and Evolution, Second Edition (Oceanography)

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The Ocean Basins: Their Structure and Evolution, Second Edition (Oceanography)
OPEN UNIVERSITY
Manufacturer: Butterworth-Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0750639830

Book Description

This is an invaluable textbook, prepared by the Open University team and designed so that it can be read on its own or as part of the OU course. This second edition has been fully revised and updated including new colour illustrations increasing the striking spread of full colour diagrams throughout the book. The clarity of the text has been improved, providing comprehensive coverage of the evolution of ocean basins and their structure in a clear, concise manner aimed specifically at the student market.

In this second edition the technological advances in fields as diverse as:
- deep-towed instruments for `sniffing' hydrothermal plumes
- mapping the sea-floor by sophisticated sonar techniques
- three-dimensional imaging of crustal structure by seismic tomography
- the use of satellites for navigation, and for making precise measurements of the height of the sea-surface

The first chapters describe the processes that shape the ocean basins, determine the structure and composition of oceanic crust and control the major features of continental margins. How the 'hot springs' of the oceanic ridges cycle chemical elements between seawater and oceanic crust is then explored. Sediment distributions are examined next, to demonstrate how sediments can preserve a record of past climatic and sea-level changes. Finally, the role of the oceans as an integral part of global chemical changes is reviewed.

High quality full colour diagrams
Substantial chapter summaries ideal for revision
Answers, hints and notes for questions at back of the book

The Essential Sea Kayaker: A Complete Guide for the Open Water Paddler, Second Edition

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The Best on the Market
Essential, though perhaps not complete
Very well written and informative
Exactly the sort of basic kayaking book I was looking for
Covers technique & basic gear for beginner/intermediate.

The Essential Sea Kayaker: A Complete Guide for the Open Water Paddler, Second Edition
David Seidman
Manufacturer: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0071362371

Book Description

Expanded to include sections on seamanship, navigation, and health issues, the completely updated and redesigned new edition of David Seidman’s bestselling guide reaffirms its reputation as the best sea kayaking guide available. A top-to-bottom introduction for novice and mid-level kayakers, this highly visual handbook provides kayakers with the whole scoop on everything from gear, transportation, and paddling technique to the finer points of Eskimo rolling, rescue protocol, group and solo paddling.

Customer Reviews:

The Best on the Market.......2001-06-09

This is the best general kayaking book on the market today (2001). Covers the range of the activity. Enjoy.

Essential, though perhaps not complete.......2000-08-24

I don't know if I'd agree with the subtitle; Seidman's guide is by no means complete (for that, see Dowd's "Sea Kayaking") but it certainly does cover the essentials of the sport, and as others have noted, it is certainly sufficient to introduce a newcomer to all the essential techniques needed to get started. While no book is a replcement for a good teacher, Seidman gives you enough to get out and teach yourself basic strokes, braces and perhaps even rolls- though that's something best seen demonstrated first.

The photos are one of the strongest parts of the book, and a good argument for buying it- next to the "Perforamance Sea Kayaking" video Seidman's book has the best illustrations of basic moves to be found anywhere. If you were only going to buy one kayaking book, this would not be a bad choice- but after working your way through it you'd be well advised to move on to more detailed and specialized books as well.

Very well written and informative.......1999-05-04

I got into sea kayaking after reading this book and it is all the author said and more. I've lent this book to a number of friends who are now also "hooked". This is an easy to read book, one that evokes the possibilities of kayaking along with information necessary to develop the confidence to make them happen. I highly recommend it to anyone considering this great sport.

Exactly the sort of basic kayaking book I was looking for.......1998-09-02

This book is exactly what I needed to guide me through the kayak shopping and learning process. It begins with equipment basics to help you choose what's right for you and proceeds step by step through other basics of kayak ownership, use and transportation. I recommend it to all beginning kayakers and to anyone who's considering buying a kayak.

Covers technique & basic gear for beginner/intermediate........1998-07-15

This was the first book I bought after purchasing my kayak. It covers the gear you will need for paddling, safety and clothing. As well as discussing basic paddling and bracing strokes, a number of rescue techniques are covered, including the roll. Armed only with what I learned from the 8 pages on the eskimo roll, I went out and had myself rolling in two days. The book also include a chapter on family and handicapped paddling.

Book Description

This second edition retains the general structure of the first edition, but
has been updated in the light of recent oceanographic research, and improved
as a teaching text on the basis of feedback from past students and other
readers.

Notable additions include new sections addressing the topic of
numerical modelling, and more discussion of natural oscillations in the
ocean-atmosphere system (previously confined to the El Niño phenomenon). In
particular, the Chapter on the North Atlantic now includes a discussion of
the North Atlantic Oscillation, as well as of the Great Salinity Anomaly. In
the final Chapter, treatment of water mass formation has been updated to
reflect recent ideas about the processes involved and how they relate to
climatic change over different time-scales, from decades to millennia.

High quality full colour diagrams
Substantial chapter summaries ideal for revision
Answers, hints and notes for questions at back of the book

Customer Reviews:

Excellent primer; second in a set of three books.......2004-12-23

What a wonderful text book! Clear, concise: lots of good diagrams, very interesting satelite photos, excellent chapter summaries and really thought provoking practice questions.

Starts with the basics (atmospheric dynamics) and gets into a little depth (ocean currents, no pun intended). This book is the perfect introduction to oceanography. But it's a tiny bit dated, published in 1989; not clear if it's been updated in its 1995 printing. We've learned a lot more about the oceans since then, especially Japanese research on The Pipeline: two thousand years to complete a single circuit.

Our planet, while probably not unique, is a truly marvellously complex system. This book shows how the anthropic principle is operating, and the unlikelihood of finding another planet that would suit us as well, which is a strong argument in favor of terra forming.

This book is the second in a set of three on physical oceanography. Really worth the time and effort (and money) to read the set.

Great introduction and background.......2003-12-17

The Open University series of books on Oceanography is excellent. I would recommend them for anyone wanting a background on the subject, all the way from lay readers to 1st year grad students. As an oceanographer, I still use mine from time to time to refresh my memory! There are intermediate texts, such as Intro to Dynamical Oceanography, but you really can't beat the illustrations and simple explanatory problems of this text for someone's first introduction to the material.

An excellent and comprehensive introduction.......2000-04-05

This book provides a very accessible introduction to a topic that is often confusing to newcomers. It introduces the concepts and equations of oceanography in a step-by-step manner, with self-quizzes and problems to assist the reader in grasping the concepts. The book is good for people exploring an education in oceanography, or for people who are not oceanographers but need to understand the concepts for their own research. The book takes you from being a novice to understanding the different issues, terminology, and methods of data presentation typical of the field. A grasp of the material puts you in a position to dive into the oceanographic literature and pull out the information relevant to your own field of study.

A Storm in the Port: Keeping the Port of New York and New Jersey Open

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Lessons learned from Port Story Relevant to Katrina

A Storm in the Port: Keeping the Port of New York and New Jersey Open
Alex Lechich
Manufacturer: Dartmouth College Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1584654708

Book Description

The ocean resources on which we depend for food, commerce, transport, and recreation are not limitless, nor are ocean waters capable of continual self-cleansing. Alex Lechich makes it painfully clear that the world's oceans are, in fact, in desperate peril: fish stocks are overexploited, other marine resources are depleted, habitat is being lost or its resilience is declining, water contamination is pervasive, and the economic and human costs related to ocean decline are escalating. All of these considerations contributed to a dangerous shipping crisis that threatened the Port of New York and New Jersey's very viability in the early 1990s.

Modern navigational channels and shipping berths must be periodically dredged. Historically, the millions of cubic yards of frequently contaminated muds and sands regularly removed in this way have been dumped at sea. When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency imposed tighter restrictions on ocean dumping in the 1990s, almost all dredging halted, putting the Port of New York and New Jersey's standing as one of the busiest cargo ports in the nation at risk. The crisis was temporarily abated by a Vice President Al Gore-sponsored agreement between environmental groups and government agencies, but many of the original problems remain.

Accessibly written by a scientist intimately familiar with these dramatic events, A Storm in the Port explains the origins, escalation, and specific and broad implications of this port crisis. Lechich explains the science and environmental concerns that come into play, considers solutions to complex dilemmas, and makes clear the desperate need for new ocean policies that tread the delicate line between protecting the world's oceans and preserving their economic and recreational value. This urgently needed book is poised to heighten regional and national interest in ocean policy and related issues, and promote the sustainable use and enjoyment of the world's oceans. It will be essential reading for professional and lay students of oceans and environmental policy.

Customer Reviews:

Lessons learned from Port Story Relevant to Katrina.......2006-04-15

Glad I did not listen to the Publishers Weekly review before I decided to read the book. As a former Librarian and someone interested in local environmental issues, though not a scientist, I found I was able to absorb more of the book than I initially thought. The book gave me insights into governmental politics as well as learning more about local marine biology. The beaurocratic in-fighting discussed in the book brought to mind the Katrina fiasco.

Average customer rating:

madness and suicide by the open sea

By the Open Sea
August Strindberg
Manufacturer: Univ of Georgia Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Strindberg's famous novel in the authorized Ellie Schleussner translation.

Customer Reviews:

madness and suicide by the open sea .......2006-10-20

August Strindberg (who died in 1912) is often regarded as the greatest Swedish writer ever. He was certainly one of the most succesful. His main works have been translated to the major European languages, including English. Some of his works have even been translated to more obscure languages like Lithuanian, Hungarian or the artificial language Esperanto. In Sweden, his works are readily available in public libraries. Personally, however, I have only read two of his novels and one of his theater plays. I can't say I'm exactly thrilled. But then, I hate to read something just to look "intellectual". And here in Sweden, all "intellectuals" presumably read Strindberg, Schopenhauer and Dostoyevsky.

"By the Open Sea" is an English translation of Strindberg's novel "I havsbandet", originally published in 1890. Translating Strindberg to English must be a real attitude test, and since I've never read this translation, I can't vouch for it. I've only read the Swedish original, and that too was tough.

"I havsbandet" is often described as a Nietzschean novel. Indeed, the main character, a government bureaucrat named Borg, does regard himself as a Nietzschean Ubermensch or Superman, and despises the rest of humanity. Borg is sent to a small island in the Stockholm Archipelago, Osterskar, to aid the fishermen in developing new technologies and fishing methods. He also helps them build new and better houses. However, the islanders turn out to be primitive, stupid and superstitious. They simply don't want to be helped. Even when Borg saves them from a famine, they still remain ungrateful. And when Borg shows them one of his inventions, they interpret it religiously and start an evangelical revival! Finally, Borg experieces a mental break-down, becomes insane and commits suicide by steering his small boat out onto the open sea. Symbolically, the suicide takes place on Christmas Eve, the day the weakling god of weakling men, Jesus, is celebrated. By contrast, Borg steers his tiny vessel in the direction of the star constellation of Hercules, a much better and heathen god, according to Strindberg. Most people who've read this novel strongly suspect that "Borg" is actually Strindberg's alter ego. Indeed, Strindberg himself got a mental break-down and experienced a religious crisis shortly after the novel was published. Incidentally, Nietzsche himself ended up at a mental asylum.

The message of this novel is a pessimistic one. Borg may be a Superman, but he is nevertheless broken by the mediocrity and stupidity of the sub-humans. In the end, more or less voluntary self-destruction becomes the only option for those who have managed to rise above the herd. The fate of the Ubermensch is ultimately a tragic one.

Fair enough, but then what?

THE OPEN SEA: ITS NATURAL HISTORY. The World of Plankton. (The New Naturalist Library)

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THE OPEN SEA: ITS NATURAL HISTORY. The World of Plankton. (The New Naturalist Library)
Alister C. Hardy
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M55E7C

Product Description

General study and introduction to the plankton and other fundamental marine life forms.

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Marine Biogeochemical Cycles
OPEN UNIVERSITY
Manufacturer: Butterworth-Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0750667931

Book Description

This Volume belongs to a series on Oceanography. It is designed so that it can be read on its own, or used as a supplement in oceanogrphy courses. After a brief introduction to sea-floor sediments, the book shows how the activities of marine organisms cycle nutrients and other dissolved constituents within the oceans, and influence the rates at which both solid and dissolved material is removed to sediments. It goes on to review the carbonate system and shows how sediments that come from continental areas may be transported to the deep sea, explores what sea-floor sediments have taught us about the history of the oceans, and describes the biological and chemical processes that continue long after sediments have been deposited on the deep sea-floor.

* Covers the basics on the occurrence, distribution, and cycling of chemical elements in the ocean
* Features full-color photographs and beautiful illustrations throughout
* Reader-friendly layout, writing, and graphics
* Pedagogy includes chapter summaries, chapter questions with answers and comments at the end of the book; highlighted key terms; and boxed topics and explanations
* Can be used alone, as a supplement, or in combination with other Open University titles in oceanography

Average customer rating:

Myopic and Condescending
a different kind of sailing book
Not Just a Sailing Book
Good Book!

The Solitude of the Open Sea
Gregory Newell Smith
Manufacturer: Seaworthy Publications Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1892399229

Book Description

A collection of 17 narrative essays that range from the light and humorous to the sobering and reflective even including a harrowing brush with death.

Customer Reviews:

Myopic and Condescending.......2005-12-10

I recommend that you pass on this book. I purchased it based on an advertisement and the current Amazon recommendations, but I found the author to be myopic and condescending. In one chapter, he describes some short stature tourists as "munchkins." In another, he discusses his thought process on turning back to New Zealand during a gale, and decides against it because his crew might flee and he would have difficulty finding new crew. Obviously, the primary concern should be protection of crew and not the convenience of the captain. He seems obsessed with money and the cost of items to the point of being miserly. For example, when a crew member with whom he has been romantically involved takes her leave, he makes a point of explaining how he offered to buy from her a pair of swim fins to give her some road money. He continually discusses his purchase of food from street vendors and its low cost - while commenting on the unsanitary manner in which it is served. Most of the travel discussions are little more than tourist bus rides. Frankly, I found the author's egocentric point of view distracting to the point of being offensive. Pass.

a different kind of sailing book.......2005-10-29

Most sailing books are the I got here using this sail with the wind from the south, etc. variety. This is quite different. It is a single, male in self imposed exile on a sailboat. Interacting with the local cultures to some degree, but never a part of it, and thus an observer. A sharp, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, sometimes sad observer. Most are stories and observations at his various longer stops along the way.

True to what any of us might experience going solo, with assorted crew, around the world. A couple would have had a different experience, and perhaps fit in better, but would not notice what he does.
Highly recommended.

Not Just a Sailing Book.......2005-05-15

Gregory Newell Smith's The Solitude of the Open Sea, a collection of narrative essays drawn from Smith's around-the- world sailing adventures, is much more than a sailing book: it is an insightful reflection on cross-cultural misunderstandings and the problems of cultural isolation; an album of portraits of fascinating people (his account of a young English woman, "Florence," was my favorite); and, most of all, the book is a philosophical examination of solitude and how being alone on his journey shaped his experiences.
The title essay, which tells of Smith's 53-day solo passage from Panama to Hawaii, explains how a full appreciation of solitude goes beyond merely being alone, away from other people. On the contrary, it is through solitude that Smith is able to experience communion with nature and all of its power, a sublimity that, for Smith, is inspired by the breadth and majesty of the open sea. The experience of the sublime is a distinctive aesthetic that overwhelms the observer in a way that ordinary perception cannot.
The sense of what Smith calls "wonder and awe" is difficult to apprehend outside of nature, though it is perhaps approached in some Chinese and Western landscape paintings. As Smith writes, "It took the sea's total freedom and the solitude I found there to finally achieve the communion I'd sought for so many years. When I found that communion, . . . it was a communion with Nature, with the universe beheld each day, with the wind, the waves, the sky, and the creatures of the sea. . . . For a brief time I was at peace. There was nothing I truly desired, no other person I needed to make me feel whole. My world was complete."
What Smith experienced on the open sea was nature mysticism, which differs from traditional mysticism in at least two ways. First, nature mystics are extroverted, by which I mean that all their senses, including the kinesthetic, are stimulated. By contrast, other mystics turn inward and deliberately shut down their senses. Second, traditional mystics, rather than merging with nature, experience a fusion with God or the universal soul (atman) of the Hindus.
Both types of mysticism, however, do draw a person into the Eternal Now. Smith writes, "I can think of no more immediate experience than sailing by oneself. . . . we feel bored or lonely when we are no longer living in the present moment. We want a change of circumstances, to be somewhere else or doing something else. We separate ourselves from our immediate reality by positing an alternate. We react rather than respond." The mystics and the sea teach us the same lesson: "The key is acceptance: eventually the sea will get you to admit that one of the few things you can change in life is your attitude. A successful ocean passage is therefore nothing short of the union of the boat and its crew with the natural environment, and exemplifies the difference between reacting and responding."
By the end of the book, however, Smith has learned that he really needs soul fusion and not just nature mysticism. "I know I should be savoring each and every moment of this wonderful sailing-around-the-world life, but my willingness to experience wonder and awe has been drained by the absence of a soul mate with whom to share it." This confession appears at odds with his claim that the open sea is a cure for loneliness and boredom, but now, although he has "increased [his] capacity for solitude," he admits that he is lonely.
Smith fears that his profound experiences of the sublime have made him less than fit for ordinary human fellowship. Nature accepts us unconditionally and she is fair and faithful, "treating us with he same care and respect she affords all." But most human beings want more than this-they are after all social animals-and each of us desires a special someone in a unique relationship of love and trust.
Smith is able to admit that his life is not complete, and that he really does need another person to make him whole. He acknowledges that he has been "nursing [a] resentment about having no partner, no soul mate, no special person with whom to share the journey." Furthermore, he has discovered that other lands, such as New Zealand, even though very much like his own Pacific Northwest, could not really be his home. "I'll leave those places to their own natives, to those people who, as Terry Tempest Williams writes, naturally comprehend their landscapes and hold them as sanctuary inside their unguarded hearts."
In addition to insightful ruminations on solitude, the author also reflects on the difficulties of cross-cultural understanding. The reader gets the impression that Smith initially assumed that Euro-American "cruisers"-those who sail leisurely from island to island, continent to continent-would be ideal emissaries for international understanding. The actual experience, however, was far from what he expected.
Though he is not as cynical as the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein ("One culture misunderstands another; and a petty culture misunderstands all the others in its own nasty way") he still comes to some rather negative conclusions: "There is little meaningful interaction between the cultures, as if both sides recognize the impossibility of either being able to fathom the other. Notions of universal brotherhood are pragmatically reduced to simple acceptance, without any real understanding of each other's lives."
He expresses his frustration at his failure to make further inroads into the native environment, but recognizes that his frustration is equally a measure of his own society's values and their hold on him. Nor does Smith believe that we westerners can hope to "go native;" no matter how much we may try, they will always remain at a distance from the culture we would embrace, forever identified by the locals as the outsider, the "Other."
The Solitude of the Open Sea is a marvelous book, both philosophically astute and a constant pleasure to read. Through a series of carefully chosen snapshots, Gregory Newell Smith has ably recreated the daily realities of extended travel and the insights it provides, ranging from the depths of despair, to the humdrum quotidian rituals, to the dizzying heights of rapture. The book is also a portrait of a caring, deeply introspective man-a nature mystic if you will-searching for peace with himself and with the world.

Good Book!.......2005-05-06

In the nineteen-nineties, approaching the age of forty, Gregory Newell Smith gave up his career as a Seattle corporate lawyer, sold most everything he owned, bought an ocean-going sailboat, and set out to see the world. After logging more than 45,000 blue water miles, and circling the globe aboard his Fast Passage 39, Atlantean, Smith returned to the Northwest to write a book about his travels. It's a dream many of us have had, and few have followed through on.

"I wanted to write about what it was really like to be out there," Smith said when I spoke to him recently about his newly published book The Solitude of the Open Sea. "Extended travel is a life changing event, but it didn't make sense to tell readers everything I did in the three and half years I was underway." Smith's solution was to craft a collection of seventeen stories from his journeys, each of them drawing upon a particular experience in order to address the themes of his book, which he describes as "broadening our horizons beyond the known and commonplace, freeing ourselves from cultural self-centeredness, and achieving self-discovery through perseverance, hardship, and solitude."

Smith begins with the title essay, an account of his fifty-three day solo passage from Panama to Hawaii. Though Smith rarely traveled alone-he used pick-up crew for nearly all of his ocean passages, and the Hawaii passage actually takes place near the end of his journey-it's a good place for the reader to start, because Smith's perspective throughout the book is very much that of the lone traveler confronting a "world of strange customs . . . and people who don't look like us or speak our language." Almost all of Smith's stories address his experiences ashore (only three of them are set exclusively at sea), and they do not appear in chronological order, which may frustrate those readers looking for the typical "went there and did this" account. For this reason, I would say The Solitude of the Open Sea is more a collection of travel narratives than sailing stories, though I imagine it will be the armchair sailors who will be initially drawn to the title.

Smith is a careful observer, and his descriptions of the traveling life ring true. There are highs and lows, ranging from the idyllic joys of exploring the "jeweled anchorages" of Tonga's Vava'u Group, to the depressing realities of Madagascar's descent into poverty and environmental devastation. But Smith rarely gives way to the easy cynicism of some travel writers who call our attention to the fact that the South Seas are hardly the paradise many of us would like to believe. He points out that exploring the world by sailboat gives the cruiser a unique advantage-the boat is home, a refuge for those times when life on foreign shores becomes too much to face on a daily basis.

It's Smith's voice that impressed me from the outset and kept me reading. I never forgot that the author was a real person, willing to admit when he was terrified (climbing the mast to replace a broken halyard in the midst of a five-day gale) or lonely (overcome by nostalgic memories during night watch on the Indian Ocean). I appreciate that kind of honesty in a writer, but I was most surprised by Smith's lyrical prose, such as when he refers to Joseph Campbell's "rapture of life" upon hearing a lone bagpiper's sunset skirl on New Zealand's Great Barrier Island. Clearly this man cares about what's happening around him, and is unafraid to listen to his soul.

One of the back cover reviews says, "This book will make the reader want to get out there and do it." I agree, but at age seventy, and with a "busted gut" (a hernia, in the parlance of the tars that inhabit the mess deck in Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series), my most ambitious sailing days are probably behind me. At least with books like The Solitude of the Open Sea, readers like me can be there in our imaginations, as Smith puts it, "spending this precious gift we call life finding out how much the world has to offer, over the horizon and not so very far away."

The Kayaking Sourcebook: A Complete Resource for Great Kayaking on Rivers, Lakes, and the Open Sea

Average customer rating:

No pictures for parts and types of equipment

The Kayaking Sourcebook: A Complete Resource for Great Kayaking on Rivers, Lakes, and the Open Sea
Cecil Kuhne
Manufacturer: Globe Pequot
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0762701897

Book Description

Reviews the latest kayaks and paddling gear on the market, from casual touring boats to whitewater, sea, surf, and sit-on-top models. Includes product information charts and great tips on selecting and outfitting boats.

Customer Reviews:

No pictures for parts and types of equipment.......2005-08-09

Unfortunately, this book is a rare example of bad informative books I have recently bought. There is no picture when this book explains something. For example the book explains several parts of kayaks, but one cannot understand anything because there isn't any single picture that will point out parts of a kayak boat. This is the beginning, of course. Whenever the book starts to talk about a specific type of pedal, or another piece of gear, you are sure confused, because there is no picture.
There is only one good about this book, which gives the names of good kayak books! So instead of buying this book, I advise everyone to buy other books concentrating on the subject matter with good explanations instead of a book of book names.

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