Paddle power

Except for swimming, there’s no form of ocean transportation more intimately in contact with the sea than kayaking.

Skimming across the ocean through a morning fog or on a full-moon night -- with the paddle rhythmically slipping into the water on alternate sides to push the boat forward -- is a sensual experience. Until the kayak suddenly rolls over, dunking you into the water. That’s what happens all too often to me, breaking the spell and reminding me what a klutz I am.

Still, I love sea kayaking, which provides a good workout, a challenge and a quick getaway out onto the water, away from the city.

Best of all, sometimes you can quietly ease your way for a close-up of sea lions sunning themselves on a buoy or get surprised by dolphins breaking the surface of the water nearby.

And although kayaking used to be an endeavor that required expensive boats and fairly extensive training, recent developments in the sport mean that just about anyone can get at least a taste of it (as well as an occasional mouthful of saltwater).

“Twenty years ago kayaking was only for skill-based outdoors people,” says Joanne Schwartz, co-owner of Southwind Kayak Center, an Irvine-based operation that offers classes, sales, rentals and tours. “No one back then would think of taking a group of untrained friends out kayaking. And putting a child in a kayak would have been looked upon as insane.

“Now we do kayak birthday parties for 8-year-olds.”

The major difference is in the boats. The majority of kayaks used to be long, slim vessels that could slice quickly through the water. But the shape of these graceful boats -- although ideal for long-distance travel and advanced paddlers -- also made them unstable, especially in rough seas.

In the last few years, the trend has been toward shorter, wider and heavier boats, usually made of relatively indestructible plastic compounds. They’re not as fast or as elegant, but they’re a good deal more stable.

Unlike traditional kayaks that seat the user inside the boat under a hatch, the recreational boats are usually so-called sit-on-tops with open cockpits that allow more room.

“They are popular with many of our customers because they can use them just about the first time they get in them,” says Anders Nottrott, who leads tours for Paddle Sports of Santa Barbara.

“Pretty much all our rentals are now sit-on-tops.”

These recreational kayaks are especially good on lakes (it’s wonderful to be able to paddle away from the crowded shores of Lake Arrowhead, for example), bays, and ocean areas calmed by breakwaters.

Sit-on-tops are also used by the somewhat more adventurous for paddling fairly near to shore on the ocean or even for kayak surfing.

If you want to get into sea kayaking in a serious way, you can move onto the more seaworthy sit-in boats that require some instruction and more advanced gear (which is usually provided by the various schools).

These include a light wetsuit for our chilly Pacific Ocean waters and, most importantly, a personal flotation device (PFD), a streamlined, inflatable lifejacket that even the most experienced paddlers wear when out on the open ocean.

Both Southwind and Paddle Sports offer public classes, as does UCLA at its aquatic center in Marina del Rey.

UCLA offers four levels of classes, starting with safety skills. In that class you purposely roll the boat over (as if I needed help) and then drop out of the kayak to get to the surface.

Getting back into the kayak in the presence of a group is fairly easy because a fellow paddler can steady the boat for you. Getting back in when you’re alone is a far greater challenge, but also one that provides a sense of accomplishment.

UCLA sponsors the Captain Kayak club for group trips, bird-watching tours and advanced instruction. There are also informal early morning paddles in small groups up the coast, which is a wonderful way to start the day.

For those of us who love gear, kayaking can be especially rewarding -- and expensive. The boats themselves can range from a few hundred bucks for a used plastic kayak to several thousand dollars for a state-of-the-art, lightweight Kevlar model. Then there are the paddles, PFDs (my favorites are models from Lotus Designs that come in cool colors), watertight cameras and, for those of us who are especially geeky (and/or cautious), an emergency radio that can be used to call the Coast Guard.

You can even build an especially beautiful, sleek wooden kayak from kits offered by companies such as Pigmy Boats.

But my favorite kayaks are of the “folding” variety, perhaps because I associate them with my most beloved kayaking adventure. Several years ago I took a vacation with friends on the relatively tourist-free Caribbean island of St. Lucia.

There were no kayak rentals there, so I took along a rented folding model that is so called because it uses a series of cleverly deployed thin metal poles to support an outer skin of a waterproof, canvas material.

Made by the Canadian Feathercraft company, these high-performance kayaks fold into their own backpacks that are perfect as checked airline luggage.

While my friends mostly spent time on the beach, I had a mini-adventure every day, paddling to remote parts of the island accessible only by boat for a bit of snorkeling or just private contemplation.

One of my paddles was to a beautiful beach on which tourists and locals alike sunned and played with their children, without need of radios. I bought a soft drink from a woman who had a stand on the beach and asked what the faint rumbling sound was in the distance.

“They are building a Hyatt,” she said.

It reminded me that one of the best things about kayaking is that it’s so portable.

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What floats your boat

How to start: Like any ocean sport involving boats, kayaking is A) not cheap and B) safer and much more fun if you take lessons. If you do eventually decide to buy a kayak, they’re available from about $350 to $3,200, depending on the materials used and configuration of the boat. And whether you buy or rent, it’s nice to have your own PFD (personal flotation device) and light wetsuit. Lesson fees vary, but generally cost $75 to $125 for an introductory class, including equipment. Lessons are available at the following locations:

* Southwind Kayak Center, Irvine, (949) 261-0200. Lessons, equipment sales, rentals, group events and trips.

* UCLA Marina Aquatic Center, (310) 823-0048. Lessons, rentals and home of the Captain Kayak Club for group paddles.

* Paddle Sports of Santa Barbara, (805) 899-4925. Lessons, sales, rentals, group events.

In addition, the California Kayak Friends club maintains a list of businesses or groups offering kayak rentals at www.ckf.org/Links/Rentals.htm.