Kayaking

The top of a kayak is covered with a deck; the paddler sits in a hole in the cockpit (which may be sealed off with a spray skirt) with their feet forward. Kayaks are typically propelled with a double-ended paddle.

The spray skirt (or spray deck) prevents the kayak filling with water should it become inverted, allowing the paddler, with skill, to right the craft again without taking on water. This manoeuvre is known as an Eskimo Roll.

Modern kayaks are made of plastic, fibreglass, kevlar, carbon fibre, canvas, other fabrics, or wood, and come in one, two, and occasionally three person models. In modern times, kayaks have been developed into several types including: whitewater, playboats, surfing, sea kayaks, flat-water racing, downriver racing, slalom, canoe polo and recreational.

The design of different types of kayak is largely a matter of trade-offs between directional stability, or tracking, and manoeuvrability. Touring kayaks, sea kayaks and flat-water racing kayaks are built as long as possible in order to improve tracking, because the better the directional stability, the more efficiently each stroke contributes to forward motion. However, this is at the cost of reduced manoeuvrability. Solo touring boats are typically 16 or 17 feet long while a cruising or racing boat can be 20 feet or longer.

Whitewater kayaks, which generally depend upon river current for their forward motion, are built quite short, to maximise manoeuvrability; whitewater boats rarely exceed eight feet in length, whilst playboats are generally about six feet long.

The design of recreational kayaks is an attempt to compromise between tracking and manoeuvrability, while keeping costs reasonable; their length generally ranges from nine to fourteen feet. There are, of course, many more elements of kayak design. Most kayaks are rigid hulled, although folding kayaks that can be transported easily, and inflatable kayaks are not uncommon.