The Sea Kayak Award covers basic skills for safe sea kayak use. The syllabus is on this website.
This provides a checklist individuals can print out and complete as they progress through the award.
| SKA Heading | SKA Sub-heading | User ticks and comments |
| Location | Weather/Wind | |
| Tide (times, height, direction of current) | ||
| Getting Ready | Clothing | |
| Boat type | ||
| Additional kit (Radio, PLB, flares, whistle, light, phone, towing, pumps, floats, etc.) | ||
| At the Water | Consideration of others (recreational and commercial) | |
| Safety and Rescue | ||
| Getting to water (possible launch sites, carrying boats to water, securing kit on/in boats or person). | ||
| Boat Skills | Forward paddling (using different parts of body for power, different conditions) | |
| Negotiating confined spaces (around rocks, harbours, etc). How does boat type affect ability to manoeuvre. | ||
| Maintaining direction. How to use water and environment to assist maintaining direction. Using boat edge and paddle position to maintain direction. | ||
| Changing direction. Looking where we wish to go (and how this affects turns), techniques, tactics, type of stroke, body position, stopping and reversing. | ||
| Moving sideways. Techniques and tactics to move sideways, how body position helps. | ||
| Group working. Monitoring others in the group. Communication methods. | ||
| Dealing with mishaps. Supporting self when off-balance. Can we self-rescure ? Can we safely get ourselves and other back into craft ? How to deal with loose kit ? Being proactive when being rescued or performing a rescue. | ||
| Towing. Different types of tow. How to release tow. Dangers with types of towing. | ||
| After session | Look around. Has anything changed (eg. weather, water, etc.) | |
| Learning from what others do – are others more effective than others ? | ||
| Take away from today – what have we learned ? What can we look at in a future session ? |