Benefits of Kayaking

Few activities give the outdoor enthusiast such a varied array of experiences as kayaking especially around the Kaikōura Coastline. Whether you are seeking the heart-stopping wildlife encounters, viewing birdlife, improving skills or simply would like to enjoy the serenity and peace, you can find your passion in a kayak. The Kaikōura coastline offers all the above!
 

Fun and relaxation
Kayaking is fun. Splashing about, exploring places inaccessible by land, and just generally mucking around, are great ways to enjoy yourself. It is also a great family interactive activity. Close encounters with the marine life are experience’s you will never forget.

Kayaking with others is social. Paddling alongside friends (or new acquaintances) allows conversation – or the peacefulness of quiet companionship.

The rhythm of the paddle stroke helps quiet the mind. With your body in the groove and your heart rate settled, your mind is free to relax.
 

Exercise
Correct kayaking technique emphasizes the use of your core muscles, with arms and legs providing added strength and power.

The steady rhythmic paddle, using many of the body’s major muscle groups, makes kayaking an ideal aerobic exercise (best for “fat burning”). For those wanting an extra boost into the anaerobic range, just increase your stroke rate.

Kayaking is a low impact aerobic workout, with the resistance of the water as you paddle building strength without the strain.

Your balancing skills will improve, as will your upper body flexibility and mobility of the joints. Kayaking with good technique can also help alleviate back pain, largely through the working of those core muscles.

Kayaking is a relatively easy skill to learn. Our guides have beginners paddling satisfactorily within a short time, this includes a paddle lesson even before you hit the water.

Being in the great outdoors
Enjoying the fun, relaxation, and exercise out in the open air provides added benefits. We need a certain level of sunshine to produce our needed levels of vitamin D – how better than to do this whilst enjoying ourselves.

Our guides have local knowledge of the area and will share interesting facts about the marine life and history of Kaikōura while you explore our big playground.

Challenge and confidence
Many of our customers are paddling for the first time, or perhaps the last time they paddled was as a youngster many years ago. They are a little nervous, some lacking in confidence. We enjoy seeing a nervous first timer finishing their tour with a big grin on their face and a huge boost to their confidence.

Paddling as part of a tour group on a guided tour provides support and safety for those challenging situations, as well as emphasizing the fun and social aspects, and providing tuition to master the exercise elements. We use stable enclosed double sea kayaks which are easily steered by a rudder, and foot pegs in the front for comfort.

Social responsibility
More and more of our customers are interested in the environment and our eco-tourism credentials. In a kayak you are not just close to, but part of the environment. As a person-powered activity, kayaking has a minimal impact on the environment. From our kayaks though, we can see the adverse effects of environmental harm – the most obvious one being plastics and other rubbish. Many of our guests help in cleaning our marine environment by removing what they can as they paddle. That sense of social responsibility to our environment is one benefit we particularly value
 

Kayaking with Kaikōura Kayaks– well worth having a go.

Posted by Matt and Kim Foy on February 10, 2021