The Coastal Kayaker's Manual, 3rd: The Complete Guide to Skills, Gear, and Sea Sense

I have been kayaking for about 8 years now and have amassed a small library of kayak books. This (an earlier edition actually) was my first and it has, in my opinion, not been surpassed. I heartily endorse this book for the new kayaker. I still occasionally will pull it off the shelf to get Mr. Washburnes take on some issue. I particularly like his "4 concentric rings of defense" conceptualization for not becoming a kayak fatality. In short: avoid trouble, if this fails, stay upright, if this fails, know how to get back in your boat, if this fails have the equipment at hand to signal for help. Of course, he goes into this in more detail than that. I found the information content of the book to be quite high. It has a good mix of safety content, skills content, equipment content, and information about different types of paddling environments and the types of skills that are particularly important for such environments. Also, he paints a good portrait of the mystique of kayaking. Several other intro sea kayak survey books that I have seen also seem quite adequate, but from personal experience I can certainly reccomend this one.