Encounters from a Kayak

Credit: Nigel Foster

and http://www.nigelkayaks.com/857.html

 

Encounters From a Kayak: Native People, Sacred Places, and Hungry Polar Bears, by Nigel Foster (Pub. By Falcon Press, USA, 2012, 247pp.)

If you don’t know his history, you certainly recognize Nigel Foster’s name. Born in 1952, he started kayaking off Brighton, England, in a skin-on-frame at the age of 15. He was the first and youngest paddler to circumnavigate Iceland. While checking off one exploit after another, his paddling life has been mainly devoted to training and education through 13 books, countless articles, and a six-part DVD training program on sea kayaking.

The advantage of taking the time to enjoy this book is having the chance to recount unusual experiences with the author from spots around the world, from the Florida Keys, to Sitka and Newfoundland, France, the Faeroes, and throughout Europe. He meets an impressive range of wildlife up close and personal from polar bears and whales to peregrines and manatees. There is just too much to list them all, but with full color photographs to illustrate his stories, the experiences are what every paddler will at least enjoy if not marvel at.