Explorer Water Activities - Sea Kayaking  

To achieve the Explorer Water Activities Target, the scout must be able to recognise four different types of craft constructions and and compete the requirements below, together with an elective - sea kayaking.

1. Weather

• Be able to locate weather forecasting information appropriate to the activity requirements
• Know the Pioneer level requirements for Weather
• Explain the effect of weather on the activity  - apply to a water activity event with a duration of 2 days

2. Safety

• Know the Pioneer Level requirements for Safety, including:
• Demonstrate wearing an approved personal floatation device (PFD)and knowing when it should be worn
• Without a PFD - stay afloat for 3 minutes
• Explain the importance of staying with an overturned boat and of never boating alone
• Swim 100 metres whilst wearing a PFD
• Be able to remove your clothes in water and then swim 100 metres
• Know local boating rules applicable to your own region of operation
• Have an understanding of:
• tides and currents in coastal areas, or
• water behaviour in creeks and rivers
• Be able to recognise five common distress signals, including at least one each of sight, sound and light
• Demonstrate knowledge of buoys, beacons and navigation signs used in your region of operation

3. First Aid

• Know the Citizenship First Aid Requirement for Explorer Level
• Know the most frequent medical hazards associated with boating (sunburn, eyestrain, sunstroke, seasickness, immersion, hypothermia)
• The appropriate treatment for these and precautions to avoid them

4. Knots

• Know the Pioneer level requirement for knots, including:
• Learn the use of the following knots for boating activities
• figure of eight knot
• anchor or fisherman's bend
• bowline
• clove hitch
• Learn and use a common rope whipping, eg. simple whipping, west country whipping
• Make and use, in a boating activity, two of the following splices:
• eye splice, back splice, short splice, long splice plus the following:
• palm and needle whipping
• barrel hitch
• Demonstrate the meaning and use of :
• Parbuckling
• Barrel hitch
• Spanish windlass

5. Basic Skills

Learn the nautical terms generally used in boating, with the assistance of an Adventure level Scout. These are found in the the Nautical Glossary in the Scout Field Book.

Sea Kayaking 

In a sea kayak and sit on top kayak, complete the following:

1. Learn the main parts of a kayak and paddle
2. Demonstrate paddling forwards, backwards and emergency stopping
3. Demonstrate steering strokes:
• Forward and reverse sweep
• Stern rudder
• Draw stroke
• Support stroke
4. Choose appropriate launch and landing sites
5. Launch kayak (floating in knee deep water), paddle at least 50m, return and make a clean landing to the landing stage, bank or shore
6. Capsize the kayak and re-enter with assistance (sea kayak) or remount sit-on-top (in at least 2m water)
7. Demonstrate an assisted rescue, as rescuer and rescuee
8. Have a good knowledge of paddling in waters of your region of operation
9. Be able to estimate the time it would take to cover a given distance of water
10. Demonstrate how to pack a kayak for an overnight journey
11. Participate in an overnight sea kayaking expedition

The Program

The sea kayaking program takes place over 5 sessions:

Session 1 - Information evening: overview, weather, equipment and clothing
Session 2 - Pool session - swim test, rescues
Session 3 - Training Centre, Sandringham (2-3hr) - sit on top kayaks
Session 4 - Training Centre, Sandringham (2-3hr) - sit on top kayaks
Session 5 - Overnight trip (base camp) on Mornington Peninsula in sea kayaks

6 Reasons to do our Sea Kayak Course

• Fun, fun, fun. Good kayaking skills means you can have more fun on the water
• Become a better paddler faster! Good instruction means you can gain skills immediately
• Increased confidence
• Good habits from the beginning
• Our small group sessions are supportive and enjoyable.
• Some stuff is just too hard to learn from books - we believe in “learning by doing”.