A manual for intermediate and advanced paddlers.
Gordon Brown is a eminent Bcu Level 5 sea coach and Level 5 inland, based on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. The manual covers topics of kayaking history, physiology, boat and paddle dynamics, seamanship and navigation, safety and rescue, weather forecasting, caves, rockhopping and tidal races, expeditions and overnighting, as well as a wealth of tips and resources for the sea paddler. Over seventy photographs and illustrations help to achieve an excellent visual explanation of advanced kayak strokes, and the performance skills and judgement expected at the highest level of the Bcu, and over.
The most essential manual for the committed sea kayaker.

Editorial Reviews.
From the Back Cover.
“For many of us a kayak is the means by which we can take in the full measure of the rich coastal environment. But the environment where air, water, and land meet is notoriously variable, and the intimate connection a kayak provides with that environment leaves us exposed and vulnerable to forces that can easily overpower us… . Paddlers who invest time and effort and fully engage their senses not only have a greater degree of safety -they discover more of the subtle textures of the waterways they travel.”
Preface by Christopher Cunningham.
Sea Kayaker’s Deep Trouble offers more than twenty harrowing, real-life accounts of sea kayaking accidents that will both keep you on the edge of your seat and instruct you with potentially life-saving lessons. These tales, drawn from Sea Kayaker magazine, are the result of interviews with accident survivors, witnesses, and rescuers. From capsizes and hypothermia to brushes with sharks and entrapment in sea caves, the situations are described in chilling detail and then subjected to expert analysis. Sea Kayaker’s Deep Trouble is rounded out by a comprehensive introduction to sea kayaking safety and three dozen sidebars offering tips on equipment, techniques, and improving your skills.
Sea Kayaker magazine reports on accidents and near accidents so its readers might learn from the experience of others rather than having to learn the hard way. Sea Kayaker’s Deep Trouble gathers more than twenty of the most compelling and instructive of these reports, outlining the circumstances of each accident and providing detailed analyses: What did the paddlers do wrong? What did they do right? Most importantly, how might the accident have been prevented? With a comprehensive introduction to kayaking safety and three dozen sidebars on gear, skills, and techniques, this book is a must for any sea kayaker who wants to paddle safely.
Product Description:
This riveting book offers 20 harrowing, real-life tales of sea kayaking accidents that will not only keep readers on the edge of their seats, but also instruct them with potentially life-saving lessons.

Editorial Reviews.
From Publishers Weekly.
“There is no greater terror or joy than to take the whole sum of who you are and express it in four minutes,” writes Hall of racing a single-shell boat. In spring of 1995 Hall, a Long Island housewife with three children, experienced an epiphany when she observed a single shell moving on the water through the window of her car. This elegant and moving memoir recounts how she simultaneously fell in love with rowing and began moving away from a suffocating marriage wherein she was relentlessly belittled. Initially rowing before dawn in order to meet her husband’s demands that she be available when he and their children awoke, Hall’s love and talent for the sport caused her submissive attitude to wane. Offering lyrical descriptions of rowing, Hall details how she competed in and won master events (she is the 1998 World Masters Champion in the women’s single shell). As she gained the approbation of fellow rowers, and her children (although not her husband) expressed pride in her ability, she discovered parts of herself previously hidden beneath the facade of dutiful wife. A move to Boston, because of her husband’s job, led her to part-time work with a racing shell company and close contact with a rowing community. When Hall told her husband she was divorcing him, he launched a legal and emotional campaign of intimidation to dissuade her; she eventually moved out. Hall now shares child custody with her former husband and continues to find joy and freedom in competitive rowing. B&w photos. National radio/TV interviews.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Product Description:
The inspiring story of one woman’s journey of healing and transformation.
Sara Hall’s life seemed perfect: a wealthy husband, a big house in an affluent suburb, three healthy children. But the surface of Hall’s life hid a marriage filled with sorrow and pain. One day, at age forty-two, Hall sees a lone figure rowing in the harbor, and that image becomes her holy grail.
In this richly layered memoir, the author tells how her determination to master rowing a single shell gave her the courage to free herself from the dark forces of abuse in her childhood and the failure of her marriage. In lyrical prose, Hall describes the rigors of rowing, the elation of winning, the joy of total engagement in passionate enterprise, and the triumph of breaking free. Ultimately, she declares sovereignty over her life and wins a world championship gold medal. Drawn to the Rhythm is a brave and soulful book, written for all women who seek to find their strength and voice. 16 pages of b/w photographs. Reading group guide included.

Editorial Reviews.
From Publishers Weekly.
In this lyrical look at rowing some of the world’s most isolated and pristine coasts, Fredston focuses as much on her personal experience and her relationship with her husband, Doug Fesler, as she does on their actual journeys. The two avalanche experts, researchers and rescue trainers canoe the Arctic and sub-Arctic coastlines of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway and Sweden for three months out of each year. They travel together but in separate canoes: an apt metaphor for their marriage. An avid rower since childhood, Fredston ultimately landed in Alaska, drawn by its possibility and wildness. There she met Fesler, the state’s leading avalanche authority. They worked and rowed together, and eventually fell in love. Fredston ably describes both the big picture the coastline, encounters with polar bears, the high-stakes game of second-guessing storms and tides and the details of their travels. Her description of the physical act of rowing is rapturous, even sensual: “Sculling is the closest I’ll ever come to being a ballerina, to creating visual music.” Fredston seems less at ease relating her mother’s battle with cancer, near the book’s end. Still, the book soars. “Wilderness rowing is far more than sport to me; it has been a conduit to know and trust myself,” Fredston explains. “It is my way of being, of thinking, of seeing. In the process, rowing has evolved from something I do to some way that I am. Figuratively and literally I have spent years rowing to latitude.” A must-read for armchair travelers, as well as a close and loving look at an intimate relationship.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Product Description:
Jill Fredston has traveled more than twenty thousand miles of the Arctic and sub-Arctic-backwards. With her ocean-going rowing shell and her husband, Doug Fesler, in a small boat of his own, she has disappeared every summer for years, exploring the rugged shorelines of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Spitsbergen, and Norway. Carrying what they need to be self-sufficient, the two of them have battled mountainous seas and hurricane-force winds, dragged their boats across jumbles of ice, fended off grizzlies and polar bears, been serenaded by humpback whales and scrutinized by puffins, and reveled in moments of calm.
As Fredston writes, these trips are “neither a vacation nor an escape, they are a way of life.” Rowing to Latitude is a lyrical, vivid celebration of these northern journeys and the insights they inspired. It is a passionate testimonial to the extraordinary grace and fragility of wild places, the power of companionship, the harsh but liberating reality of risk, the lure of discovery, and the challenges and joys of living an unconventional life.

Editorial Reviews.
Amazon.com’s Best of 2001.
From the acclaimed chronicler of open spaces, Gretel Ehrlich, comes a stunning and lyrical evocation of a practically unknown place and people. Beginning in 1993, Ehrlich traveled to Greenland, the northernmost country in the world, in every season—the four months of perpetual dark in which the average temperature is 25 degrees below zero, the four months of constant daylight, and the twilight seasons in between—traveling up the west coast, often by dogsled, and befriending the resilient and generous Inuits along the way. Greenland, unlike its name, is 95 percent ice—a landscape of deep rock-walled fjords, glaciers, narwhal whales swimming among icebergs the size of football fields, walruses busting through oceans of shifting ice. In the far north, the polar Inuit—the “real heroes”—still dress in bear and seal skins, and hunt walrus, polar bears, and whales with harpoons. The only constant is weather and the perilous movements of ice, the only transport is dogsled, and the closest village may be a month and a half-long dogsled journey away. The people share an austere and harsh life, lightened with humor and the fantastic stories of Sila, the god of weather, Nerrivik, the goddess of waters, of humans transforming themselves into animals, and interspecies marriages. Interwoven with Ehrlich’s journey is the even more remarkable story of Knud Rasmussen, the founder of Eskimology, an Inuit-Danish explorer and ethnographer who took some of the most hazardous and brilliant expeditions ever, including a three and a half-year, 20,000-mile adventure by dogsled across the polar north to Alaska. Like Rasmussen, Ehrlich learns that the landscape of Greenland is “less a description of desolation than an ode to the beauty of impermanence.” Alternately mind-expanding, gripping, and dreamlike, This Cold Heaven is a revelation. —Lesley Reed—This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description:
For the last decade, Gretel Ehrlich has been obsessed by an island, a terrain, a culture, and the treacherous beauty of a world that is defined by ice. In This Cold Heaven she combines the story of her travels with history and cultural anthropology to reveal a Greenland that few of us could otherwise imagine.
Ehrlich unlocks the secrets of this severe land and those who live there; a hardy people who still travel by dogsled and kayak and prefer the mystical four months a year of endless darkness to the gentler summers without night. She discovers the twenty-three words the Inuit have for ice, befriends a polar bear hunter, and comes to agree with the great Danish-Inuit explorer Knud Rasmussen that “all true wisdom is only to be found far from the dwellings of man, in great solitudes.” This Cold Heaven is at once a thrilling adventure story and a meditation on the clarity of life at the extreme edge of the world.

Editorial Reviews.
Amazon.com
In an era of testosterone-charged adventure tales, Byron Ricks’s Homelands: Kayaking the Inside Passage is a wonderfully introspective adventure-travel memoir. In 1996 Ricks and his wife, Maren van Nostrand, came close to making an offer on their first house, but instead decided to undertake an adventure of a different kind together—kayaking from Alaska’s Glacier Bay down the coast of Western Canada to southern Puget Sound, near their Seattle home. They had no set schedule to keep and for five months lived by nautical charts and the rhythms of the tides, wind, and weather. Their plan was to paddle from the glaciers to the city, exploring a coast in flux and the ways of native peoples such as the Tlinglit, Tsimshian, and Haida—whose ancestors paddled the passage for centuries. The driving question of Homelands is this: how does the act of making a very long journey home, in this case by paddle—at an average velocity of a mere three knots—affect one’s concept of home? This ocean-size question is fed by smaller tributaries: Do overcoming peril and danger make the rewards of coming home greater? How do native inhabitants encountered along the way relate to their homeland? What do you do when you’re camped in a bear’s back yard? And what are the issues facing a husband and wife setting out across vast expanses of open water to confront—in the most literal sense—what lies beyond?
A journalist with a background in history and anthropology, Ricks is gifted with both a keen eye and a poetic ear. The tale is written in diary form, and its voice originates in the pace of the kayak: tranquil, steady, respectful. An easygoing and astute companion, Ricks is clearly an old soul—with questions well worth asking and some lovely observations to share.
Kimberly Brown.
Product Description:
“For five months in the spring and summer of 1996, Maren and I traveled the Inside Passage…It was a long and beautiful journey, a season of bright sun and dark cloud, above-average rainfall, and broad shoulders…It was a time before home ownership, before children, an open window and all we had to do was leap through. And we did…The very name, Inside Passage, seemed to carry an intimacy, a knowing. It would be a personal voyage. As much as anything, it would be a journey home.”

Editorial Reviews.
Amazon.com
When Jonathan Waterman set out to cross the Arctic Circle by way of kayak, cross-country skis, and a dogsled, he was less interested in conquering the 2,200 miles between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans than in learning to live as the Inuit had before him (Inuit, for The People, is the name Canadian Eskimos prefer). Good thing, for the Arctic, as revealed in this candid and engrossing travelogue, is no place for jock-style adventure. Over the course of three summers, Waterman paddled through storms, capsized in 39-degree water, blacked out, and was bitten by thousands of mosquitoes, smoked out by exploding underground seams of coal, and chased by a grizzly bear. The land was so vast and empty that swans and bears vanished before him, ice chunks appeared as kayaks, and driftwood morphed into people in a disorienting series of mirages. Perhaps most challenging of all for Waterman was spending weeks at a time in this setting without seeing another soul. Under these circumstances, he had no choice but to draw on remnant instincts to avoid disaster, forget about time and goals, and to connect deeply to “the Earth and Its Great Weather,” as the Inuit say. “Any committed adventurer eventually learns that equipment and performance are just a means to that greater end of finding your place in the natural world,” writes Waterman, who proves he is willing to go the extra thousand miles for a moment of insight.
Of course, he also experiences moments of unparalleled serenity—caribou trotting out to his boat, belugas spouting around him, grizzlies on the shore—and creates warm friendships with the Inuit themselves, who have changed radically since their own days of traveling by kayak and dogsled. Waterman works admirably to understand The People without judging them, though he is discouraged by what he finds left of the culture he emulates—communities caught in a “depraved limbo, somewhere between paradise and tuberculosis.” As with the Arctic itself, the Inuit turn out to be more complex in reality—and ultimately more appealing—than in mythology. Waterman’s stark and satisfying account excels in its ability to grapple with the human condition while illuminating a mystical world inaccessible to the rest of us.
Lesley Reed.
Product Description:
Jonathan Waterman’s 2,200-mile journey across the roof of North America took him through Inuit communities in Alaska to Nunavut, Canada’s new, self-governed territory. His story offers firsthand observations of Inuit life, language, and beliefs; records their reactions to modernization; documents their centuries of unjust treatment at the hands of Kabloona (bushy-eyebrowed whites); and witnesses unemployment, teen suicide, spousal violence, and substance abuse. From the perspective of his 1997 - 1999 voyage - as the Inuit stand on the brink of a more hopeful, independent future - he also looks into a past marked by famous (or infamous) Arctic explorers, governement cover-ups, and environmental destruction. This beautifully written work reveals the perils of crossing the Northwest Passage. Utterly alone for weeks at a time, struggling against freezing conditions, tricks played on him by his own mind, aggresive bears, stormy seas, and mosquito blizzards, Waterman arrives at a profound understanding of environment and culture. (6 x 9, 368 pages, color photos, b&w photos) Jonathan Waterman has worked as a naturalist, Outward Bound instructor, park ranger, boatman, mountain guide, freelance writer, magazine editor, and director of a small press. He developed the television documentaries The Logan Challenge for PBS; Surviving Denali (which won an Emmy), for ESPN; and Odyssey Among the Inuit for the Outdoor Life Network. He began traveling to the Arctic twenty years ago.

Editorial Reviews.
Amazon.com
It sounds like a pilot for a new Fox network live broadcast: a self-searching Manhattan kayak salesman teams up with a rowdy Australian male model to circumnavigate Australia by kayak. Thankfully, though, chest beating and contrived conflict are absent in Eric Stiller’s true account of his attempt to kayak the 10,000 miles around Australia with Aussie Tony Brown. What we get instead is a look at the tedium, death-defying stamina, and hilarious blunderings of two men with little experience to prepare them for their chosen expedition. “The Australian coastline is a nightmare of tightly coiled inlets and rocky coves and sheer rock cliff faces and bays as huge and forbidding as Saharan deserts,” Stiller muses while he kicks off his training with Brown by paddling around Manhattan. Raised in a family that sells Klepper kayaks, the German-made folding expedition kayaks known for their resilience in violent conditions, Stiller is an expert on the technical details of the equipment. He is not, he admits, accustomed to spending more than three months in a 17-foot-long kayak with anyone, much less Brown, a natural athlete filled with joie de vivre whose navigational strategy is simply, “Just keep Australia on your left, mate.”
The curious pair encounters an impressive variety of harrowing sea conditions. The first month is a daily battle against capsizing during beach landings amid Australia’s legendary skyscraper-high waves. Marathon paddling sessions through maddening back-eddies rip open their hands and scrape their torsos. The inhospitable Tasman Sea is rife with deadly creatures, including crocodiles, sharks, and sea wasps, a toxic jellyfish with tentacles several meters long. At one point the two must cross the Gulf of Carpenteria, the most arduous leg of the trip, requiring seven days on the water with no land in sight. For all their travails, however, there is relief in the form of friendly hosts (nearly everyone they meet is happy to have a smelly kayak team at the dinner table), striking scenery, wild nights in isolated cities, and the personal reckoning that comes with an effort of this magnitude.
Lolly Merrell.
From Publishers Weekly
Idea meets action in this remarkable, though overlong, story of an attempt to paddle around Australia in a two-man kayak. Although ostensibly incompatible teammates, professional New York fitness trainer Stiller and his Australian companion, fashion model Tony Brown, seize the challenge of moving from dream to reality and discover the vertiginous abyss that often separates the two. In their grueling expedition around what many consider one of the most beautiful and treacherous coastlines on the planet, Stiller and Brown are blasted by 12-foot waves, pelted and waterlogged by heavy rain, roasted by the glaring and ubiquitous sun, assailed by sharks, blown off course and benumbed by dank, frigid temperatures. Loneliness, exhaustion, frustration and bickering are finally compounded by the ultimate realization that no amount of rigorous training could have prepared them for this endeavor. Stiller and Brown undergo the most demanding emotional and physical experience of their lives. More than 20 years of kayaking experience shine through in Stiller’s myriad detailed, technical descriptions of the physical and mental priming needed for the journey and of the unpredictable imbroglios that arise when maneuvering a two-man kayak on rough seas. However, at times Stiller’s hyped descriptions of pinnacle moments and near-calamitous situations fall short of their intended impact. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
What a hell of a movie this drama-packed journey would make! Stiller is a kayak salesman in New York City who has helped the likes of JFK Jr., David Lee Roth, and a few Navy SEALs master the art of this ungainly yet sturdy craft. Little did he realize how much his life would change when a handsome Australian named Tony Brown wandered into his store, said “G’day, mate,” and told him in a matter-of-fact tone that he wanted to kayak around the whole bloody continent of Australia. His plan was not as wacky as it sounds. The feat had been accomplished before by a New Zealander, but it was still a highly dangerous, physically punishing undertaking that would eventually bring Tony and Eric to the brink of disaster. Do they succeed in their journey? Hey, finding out the answer is the best part of this book. Will readers soon get tired of the Aussie term mate? Definitely. Do all the inhabitants of Oz come off as Paul Hogans or Nicole Kidmans? Not on your tucker, bloke; some of the people Tony and Eric encounter are straight out of a David Lynch screenplay. This book provides readers with one heck of an adventure. Recommended for all public libraries. Joseph L. Carlson, Lompoc P.L., CA.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
“I have the highest regard for Eric Stiller’s courage as a traveler, and skill and imagination as a writer.” Paul Theroux.
Product Description:
Two men as different as night and day. One kayak. And 10,000 miles of the most beautiful but treacherous coastline in the world. You’d have to be crazy to think you could kayak around an entire continent, right?
But Eric Stiller admits: “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Editorial Reviews.
From the Back Cover.
Enticed by that bay just around the point? Need to figure out how to pack your boat for that first overnight trip? This guide is a must. Complete Sea Kayak Touring is a how-to guide for paddlers who have a working knowledge of the basics and are looking to expand and build on their experience. Written by a former kayak touring guide who has paddled everywhere from the Arctic to Baja California, Complete Sea Kayak Touring will teach you everything from seamanship, navigation, and camping to getting in shape, provisioning and cooking, cold-weather and nighttime paddling, assisted and solo rescues, maintenance, first-aid, safety, and much more.
Expand your frontiers.
Raise your sea kayaking to the next level. Here is the perfect book for a new sea kayaker thinking about a first weekend outing or for the seasoned paddler planning an extended trip to a remote coast.
Boats and Gear
Paddling Techniques
Rescues and Recoveries
Seamanship
Navigation and Piloting
Planning, Provisioning, and Packing
Camping
Traveling with a Kayak
Maintenance, Repair, and Modification
About the Author.
Author and writer Jonathan Hanson has been a kayaking pro since the 1980s. He has operated his own kayak touring company, guiding clients to many locations in the Sea of Cortez, both on the mainland and Baja coasts. His own trips have taken him from Central America to the Arctic Ocean and many places in between. His many articles on sea kayaking have appeared in Outside, Sea Kayaker, and other publications. A biologist by training, Jonathan lives in Tucson, Arizona, with his wife, Roseann. Together, they wrote The Ragged Mountain Press Guide to Outdoor Sports, which won the National Outdoor Book Award in 1997.
Product Description:
If you’re a sea kayaker who dreams of heading over the far horizon, this guide is a must. It is the comprehensive manual for planning the ideal sea kayaking expedition, covering everything from provisioning, gear, navigation, and bivouacking, to kayak sailing. Included: sidebars for fabulous destinations from Baja to Newfoundland.

Editorial Reviews.
From Library Journal.
Part of the Canadian Northwest Territories, Ellesmere is the tenth largest island in the world and lies west of northern Greenland. Canadian journalist-photographer Kobalenko has extensively explored the Arctic island on foot pulling a sledge filled with provisions, and he here documents his findings. After describing why he was drawn to such a desolate place, he examines the motives of historical and contemporary explorers, from those seeking the fame of discovering new lands to those extreme adventurers seeking a challenge for the record books. As he journeys from place to place, he discovers evidence of earlier journeys, which he describes and documents, including the failed attempt of Adolphus Greely to find the lost Franklin expedition, Frederick Cook’s false North Pole claim, and Robert Peary’s success. In a touching passage, Kobalenko describes a long wait in the snow for the first-ever picture of arctic hares nursing their young. Also included is a modern discussion of scurvy and a contemporary observation of the typical Victorian British explorer as the “ultimate gentlemen amateurs… No dogs, no Inuit helpers, no skis or snowshoes, only ponies, manpower, thousand-pound sleds, and naval issue clothing.” Good insights from a writer who has a gift for storytelling. For public libraries. John Kenny, San Francisco P.L.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist.
Ellesmere Island is desolate and inhospitable even by Arctic standards. The site of horrific suffering by many a shipwrecked polar explorer, Ellesmere seems to capture victims more than it attracts voluntary visitors. Kobalenko goes there for fun. Walking endless miles a day, dragging a sled loaded with equipment behind him, he finds purity and beauty in extreme trials that have cracked the resolve of more than one former partner. Trekking around the island and hopping to others nearby, he pays tribute to those who came before him, recounting stories and details from disastrous polar exploration efforts, which began over 150 years ago. A photographer as well as an athlete, Kobalenko shares his knowledge (and photos) of the native wildlife, providing humorous anecdotes of tricks he has used to get close enough to the animals for a good shot. The pages are filled with history, adventure, and an almost spiritual reverence of the Arctic. This is an exciting read and a vicarious thrill. Gavin Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved.
Review.
“The Horizontal Everest is refreshingly free of the hubris that marks much of adventure writing, and the reader never feels assaulted by Kobalenko’s daring, only inspired by it.”
The New York Times Book Review.
About the Author.
Jerry Kobalenko is the recognized authority on Ellesmere, having trekked over 4,000 of its miles. He lives in Banff, Canada.
Product Description:
For more than a decade, author-photographer Jerry Kobalenko has traced the roots of explorers, Inuits, and famous Mounties, and broken many new trails across the amazing frozen terrain of the Arctic’s Ellesmere Island. He recounts the rivalries, the challenges, and the disasters that befell his predecessors in the 1800s, from starvation to ration thefts, executions to cannibalism.

Editorial Reviews.
Amazon.com
What do you do after you canoe from Winnipeg, Canada to the Amazon? Paddle a kayak from Hudson Bay 3,000 miles through the Northwest Passage, of course. The author of Paddle to the Amazon sets out on another epic and crazy adventure.—This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews.
From Publishers Weekly.
Bowermaster (The Adventures and Misadventures of Peter Beard in Africa) admits that he is known “more as a `writer’ than as an `adventurer.’ ” And indeed, his superb reporting and storytelling abilities animate and intensify this account of his 25-day kayaking and mountaineering trip through Alaska’s Aleutian Islands with four other trekkers. In the glut of Alaskan adventure books of the last few years, this one stands out not just because of the remote Islands of Four Mountains. Bowermaster’s clear vision and clean prose make for many pleasing, writerly moments: his honest catalogue of his own fear (“A certain amount of fear is good, makes you cautious. But how much is too much, before it becomes crippling?”), his interest in the Aleut inhabitants (though they invented the kayak, “the Aleuts shared little boat-building knowledge from island to island… because they were usually at war”) and his ambiguous response to the land (“From a distance, it doesn’t seem all bad, especially if you like extremes including lousy weather, tidal waves, earthquakes, and volcanoes”). After exploring each island by land and sea and climbing the tallest Aleutian volcano, Bowermaster has produced a remarkable narrative that captures the intense history and beauty of a place most of the world will never visit. 16 pages of photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal.
This engrossing book tells the story of a 25-day kayaker’s adventure in the largely uncharted and unforgiving waters of the Alaskan Islands of the Four Mountains. Part of the Aleutian chain, this remote area of the world promised to provide a unique and challenging experience for Bowermaster and his three companions, with no chance of rescue should the four men become lost, injured, or, as described in the most riveting passage of the book (which turns out to be a dream), roll over in their kayak and suffer hypothermia. Bowermaster, author of numerous books and articles on his adventure travels, has written a detailed, if somewhat repetitive, account of his adventures in Alaska. Replete with fascinating information about the history and society of the Aleuts who once inhabited these abandoned volcanic islands, this energetic travel narrative will appeal to both armchair and active adventurers. Recommended for public libraries. (Photographs not seen.) Linda M. Kaufmann, Massachusetts Coll. of Liberal Arts Lib., North Adams
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist.
The Islands of Four Mountains aren’t a locale dreamt up for a fantasy novel; the name denotes a group of conical, Mount Fuji-like volcanic islands in the Aleutian archipelago. Uninhabited, fog-enshrouded, and rarely photographed, they struck Bowermaster as a fit destination for a National Geo assignment, of which this lively chronicle is the result. To make this expedition of Xtreme tourism more authentic (or perilous), he and his three partners traveled in the vessel invented by the original Aleuts: the kayak. Over a recent month-long sojourn only occasionally interrupted by sunshine, the four paddled across the dangerous currents swirling about the islands, struggles Bowermaster relates in dramatic tones, paralleled by evocative and meditative moods that infuse his observations of the rocky, treeless, sulfurous scenery. Throughout, he threads descriptions of Aleut customs set down by Russian explorers and fur traders in the 1700s. The narrative mix of past and present works splendidly and creates a vivid verbal picture of a place nature and weather determinedly conceal from civilization. A cinch to attract the adventure reading set. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved.
Product Description:
In journeying to the Alaskan Islands of the Four Mountains, the author and his fellow adventurers had their work cut out for them. Their mission: to test their kayaking skills against fierce currents and ten-foot tidal rips and then, in the face of gales often exceeding 100 mph, climb the region’s storied group of volcano-crowned islands. In this unforgiving realm where the Pacific meets the Bering Seaãominously dubbed “the birthplace of the winds” by natives—success was far from assured.
Here is the thrilling, vividly photographed account of the group’s 25-day expedition. Enriching the impact and historical significance of the adventure, Bowermaster’s narrative is seamlessly combined with an in-depth and fascinating chronicle of the ancient and mysterious history of this remote and mostly uninhabited region, where bewildering evidence of elaborate, Egyptian-style death rituals from centuries ago stand alongside recently discovered remains of World War II warplanes. Written in a dramatic, you-are-there style that recalls the best of David Breashears and Sebastian Junger, Birthplace of the Winds is true adventure writing at its best.

Editorial Reviews.
Amazon.com
On May 16, 1997, adventurer Lonnie Dupre and his Australian exploration partner, John Hoelscher, set off from Paamiut, Greenland, to circumnavigate the world’s largest island using only the traditional methods of kayak and dog sledge. “Do we have all our ducks in a row?” Dupre wondered. “Or is this a suicide mission? Can our kayaks handle the long journey and seas ahead of us?” These worries were certainly justified; by the third day fatigue began to set in from negotiating heavy ice caps. By day nine, Hoelscher was experiencing symptoms of mild hypothermia. With perseverance, however, the courageous duo traveled some 3,200 miles of Greenland, a country roughly 14 times the size of England. Students followed the expedition’s progress on the Internet and learned about the indigenous Inuit culture of Greenland: “Kiviaq,” the explorers reported, “is a bird caught and fermented for six months in sealskin, feathers and all. When the sealskin is opened, the smell and taste is similar to that of bleu cheese.”
Fashioned in the tradition of both the photo-essay and travel journal, Greenland Expedition provides the best of both worlds. The reader can view the immense, raw beauty of Greenland from the safety of a warm living room, without risking life and limb dodging house-sized chunks of icebergs in a sea kayak. Moreover, the pictures and narration open a window onto a land little known to the rest of the world. Author Dupre suffered the worst of towering sea swells, minus-57-degree weather, and 100-mile-an-hour winds to transport the land “where ice is born” into the homes of students and readers. He does so in a beautifully unadorned way, in no small part influenced by the Inuit way of life that he so admires. David Rhoades
From Publishers Weekly.
A 15-month-long attempt to circle Greenland by canoe, backpack, sea kayak and dogsled may not be the average person’s idea of a vacation, but for Dupre it was the culmination of a lifelong fascination with the Arctic. Having ventured through northern Canada, Lapland and the Russian Far East, Dupre and his Australian copilot, John Hoelscher, planned the “mind-numbing logistics of attempting a contiguous 4,700 mile clockwise circumnavigation of the island.” Leaving friends and family behind, the pair experienced the best and worst that a hard-core endurance test like this can present: exhilarating highs through the rarely seen, surreal ice world of Greenland’s shores and the immense challenges of logistical problems, fatigue, sudden storms and the ever-present threat of being buried alive in a sudden avalanche. Dupre’s day-to-day journal is a taut, carefully worded narrative that honestly presents both the joys and pains of the trip and his partnership with Hoelscher (“It’s hard to be patient at 50 below”). The oversize book is amply illustrated with Dupre’s wonderful photographs from all parts of the adventure, and the narrative is cleverly broken up by one-page background essays on subjects ranging from kayaks, dog teams, icebergs and polar bear hunters; these allow Dupre to give the reader a greater sense of Arctic exploration and Greenland’s culture without slowing down the survival narrative. The book reveals Dupre and his partner to be extraordinary individuals; their desire to explore Greenland has produced not only a testament to human endurance but also a remarkable view of a part of the planet most people will never see, much less visit. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
About the Author.
Ever since his first adventure to the Arctic of Alaska in 1983, Lonnie Dupre has been hooked on the Arctic - the people, the wildlife, the experience of it. Today he lives in far northern Minnesota with his family, his ever-eager team of dogs, and a kayak paddle close at hand.
Product Description:
Author, adventurer Lonnie Dupre readily confesses that the spirit of adventure lives strong within his soul. And over the years he has answered its beckoning call many times. But none of those adventures compare to the 15 months he and fellow explorer, John Hoelscher spent kayaking and dog sledding their way around the unexplored wilderness of Greenland. From cover to cover, this book is filled with breathtaking photographs that tell the visual story and help bring to life this extraordinary and dramatic real-world adventure. Highlights:
- The foreword was written by fellow explorer and friend Will Steger.
- Dramatic photos and text paint a true-life picture of the trials and tribulations of this awesome undertaking.
- Offers insights into the lives of the people who call this harsh land home, and gives readers a feel of what life on this island is like on a day-to-day basis.
- Includes sidebars that discuss the culture of Greenland, the schools, the villages and the importance of sledge dogs as the most recognized form of transportation.
- Features maps that detail the route traveled by Dupre and Hoelscher.

Editorial Reviews.
Amazon.com
Although it’s not advisable to judge a book by its cover, the photographs gracing the cover of Travels with a Kayak make it hard not to be intrigued, even without reading a word. A cowboy, a Buddhist monk, an English bobby, and an Indian holy man stare out from separate photos, each holding a well-used kayak paddle. Even if you’ve never remotely considered whitewater kayaking, Whit Deschner sure makes it clear that you are missing an awful lot of fun if you don’t give it a try. Travels with a Kayak follows the death-defying author around the world as he drags his kayak from country to country in search of life. Readers won’t be disappointed as they join Deschner for a humorous ride through New Zealand, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, the U.S., India, Japan, and all over the rest of the world.
Heather Gunn, Playboating (Great Britain - spring 98).
Whit Deschner, possibly canoeings most entertaining writer, has written a book about his `Travels with a Kayak. Its packed full of hiiarious and sometimes horrific paddling stories, many of which seem way too far fetched to be true, even though we have it on good authority that such unbelievable things did really happen. If you think youve got great stories to tell. dont open your mouth until youve read this book. You might well find your little escapades pale into insignificance compared to this mans. There are some great old school photos in the book and plenty of useful information it you fancy doing a bit of travelling yourself. Travels with a Kayak had us laughing out loud all the way through. Its superb.
Jan Nesset, Canoe & Kayak Dec 98.
If you think or want to believe that there truly may be something funny about nearly everything, then you must view the world of kayaking through the eyes of Whit Deschner in his new book, Travels With a Kayak. His hilarious stories are actually stories where fiction and fact live recklessly in sin together. Its Whits way, we like it. Even the copyright page is funny.
Bob Gedekoh,American Whitewater Journal May/June 1998.
In writing the book, Deschner clearly had one purpose in mind: To make his readers laugh. He succeeds admirably! Travels With a Kayak is one of the funniest adventure travel books I have ever read.
Stuart Fisher - Canoeist, Great Britain, Jan 1998.
Travels With a Kayak is in a class of its own humour. Every last word needs to be read. Indeed, every first word, too, for it opens with a copyright which bans memorizing of the book and goes on with a list of exclusions of which a house insurance policy would be proud. The whole book is so full of twisted lateral thinking and word play that it is unwise to read more than a chapter at a time. Look forward to three weeks of zany entertainment.
From the Inside Flap.
As the model for Edvard Munch’s famous Scream, Whit Deschner is probably someone you already know and don’t realize it. Now join him as he drags his kayak from country to country, through an insane world of whitewater! From sheep-infested New Zealand, to the body-filled waters of Nepal; from Guinness-rich Britain to alcohol-poor Utah and Pakistan; from running amuck on the creeks of Bali to Private Purtz’s long-lost diary of the Grand Canyon’s first descent; from the biblical Turkish Euphrates to the radiated, mutated wildlife of the Everglades. And that’s not all! There’s: Sex! The lipstick on the mirror read: John, you were the greatest last night. Love, Bob. Violence! She was a Jain, a strict vegetarian like me. But she kept putting ketchup on her steaks. I couldn’t stand it. I went ga ga. I used an axe. Bullets are so expensive these days. Insight! Inside it was dark. Near death experiences: I know my life passed before my eyes but Ted was blocking my vision. And, of course, kayaking! Evidence of hypothermia was easy to ascertain: the blue lips, the glazed eyes, rigor mortis setting in quickly followed by those accompanying the victim going through his wallet and divvying up his boating gear.
Tag along with Deschner’s zany and devil-may-care escapades of questionable facts and unleashed humor (along with unleashed facts and questionable humor) as he paddles down some of the world’s most renowned and obscure rivers (and across a couple of its swamps).

Editorial Reviews.
From Library Journal.
Released in 1951 and 1957, respectively, these titles offer little-known chapters in the history of World War II. Sledge Patrol tells how a handful of Danes and Norwegians on dog sleds patrolled a 500-mile perimeter of the Greenland coast to keep watch for Nazi invaders. When the day came, the men eluded the Germans using their hunting skills and knowledge of the Arctic terrain and managed to get back to base by walking the 56 miles without any equipment in some cases not even coats to bring word of the German presence. The “Shetland Bus” was the nickname given to the Norwegian fishing fleet, which was used to shuttle refugees secretly to freedom and bring supplies and intelligence to the Allied forces. Howarth, a British naval officer, was among the leaders of the Shetland Bus operation, so this history is based on firsthand experience.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The Chicago Tribune.
“An amazing tale of perilous adventure … vibrant with life and fear and the sense of momentous events in the making.
Christian Science Monitor.
The Sledge Patrol is the story of one of the great adventures of World War II.
From the Back Cover.
In 1943, a group of brave Danish and Norwegian hunters carried out one of the most dramatic operations of World War II. Using dogsleds to patrol a stark 500-mile stretch of the Greenland coast, their wartime mission was to guard against Nazi interlopers - an unlikely scenario given the cruel climate. But one day, a footprint was spotted on desolate Sabine Island, along with other obvious signs of the enemy. Not expecting to find the trouble they did, the three Sledge Patrol members escaped to the nearest hunting hut only to have the Germans pursue on foot. In the dead of the Arctic night, the men escaped capture at the last instant and, without their coats or sled dogs, walked fifty-six miles to get back to base. While the Sledge Patrol had only hunting rifles, resilience, and their knowledge of outdoor survival, the Germans were armed with machine guns and grenades and greatly outnumbered them. David Howarth skillfully relates the tensely exciting true tale of how the men of the Sledge Patrol fought capture or death in desolation by outwitting and outlasting the enemy. This is a saga of human skill, faith, and endurance - and one of the most remarkable Allied victories ever recorded. (5 1/2 X 8 1/4, 248 pages, b&w photos, maps).
About the Author.
David Howarth is the author of many books, including the bestselling book of war and survival We Die Alone and The Shetland Bus.
Product Description:
In 1943, a group of brave Danish and Norwegian hunters carried out one of the most dramatic operations of World War II. Using dogsleds to patrol a stark 500-mile stretch of the Greenland coast, their wartime mission was to guard against Nazi interlopers - an unlikely scenario given the cruel climate. But one day, a footprint was spotted on desolate Sabine Island, along with other obvious signs of the enemy. Not expecting to find the trouble they did, the three Sledge Patrol members escaped to the nearest hunting hut only to have the Germans pursue on foot. In the dead of the Arctic night, the men escaped capture at the last instant and, without their coats or sled dogs, walked fifty-six miles to get back to base.
While the Sledge Patrol had only hunting rifles, resilience, and their knowledge of outdoor survival, the Germans were armed with machine guns and grenades and greatly outnumbered them. David Howarth skillfully relates the tensely exciting true tale of how the men of the Sledge Patrol fought capture or death in desolation by outwitting and outlasting the enemy. This is a saga of human skill, faith, and endurance - and one of the most remarkable Allied victories ever recorded.

Editorial Reviews.
Product Description:
The Arctic is a place of rapid change. Governments, mineral development, improved transportation, and the media have all had modernizing influences on the peoples of the North, causing their traditional life-styles and beliefs to disappear at an alarming rate.
Focusing on some of the main ethnic groups, The Vanishing Arctic captures the simple beauty of the people, the landscape, and the wildlife of the North. Elegant, full-color photographsnearly one or more on every page and many breathtaking spreadsand anecdotal text combine to present an intimate portrait of the pristine beauty and daily life of this vast region.
The expressive and highly personable text is based on the firsthand experience of the authors who spent over twenty years photographing and writing about the people from the North.

Editorial Reviews.
Midwest Book Review.
Small town physician relates his solo kayak journey down a remote river in Canada and Alaska, revealing his challenging journey down some of the most treacherous whitewater rapids in the world. Enjoy a story which is packed with action and real-life adventure.
Doug Ammons, American Whitewater.
“Watters captures a surprising tenderness and depth to Blackadar. I guarantee you’ll come away from reading this book with a lot of smiles and laughter and a contagious feeling that life is worth living to the fullest.”
Eugene Buchanan, Editor, Paddler Magazine.
“Watters has created a book that reads more like a novel than a biography.”
Eric Evans, Writer, Book Critic & National Whitewater Kayak Champion, Putney, Vermont.
“Uncommonly well-written and well edited.”
Diane Donovan, The Bookwatch, Midwest Book Reviews.
“Packed with action and real life adventure.”
Barb Wright, 1967 World Whitewater Champion, Missoula, Montana.
“A work of art. It almost reads like fiction, yet it is all fact.”
Jerry Dixon, river guide, author, teacher, and Alaska’s Christa McAuliffe Fellow from Seward, Alaska.
“A triumph! I couldn’t put it down.”
Liam Guilar, Out There, Australia’s Premier Outdoor Magazine.
“This is a rare book, intelligently and honestly written, an entertaining and thought-provoking biography of a hero.”
William Bushnell, Eclectic Book Reviews of the Library Research Associates, New York.
“Magnificent … told with sparkling clarity … truly inspirational.”
Brett Pauly, LA Daily News.
Los Angeles Daily News gives Never Turn Back their highest rating for a book: Four Stars. “It’s the best thing to come across this reviewer’s desk in recent memory”
From the Publisher.
This is the true-life story of one of the outdoor world’s most famous individuals. Told with consummate skill by author Ron Watters, it is a powerful and unforgettable story. It has been enthusiastically received by reviewers and readers, nationally and internationally. It’s simply a good story of adventure, excitement, and the power of the human spirit.
Brief synopsis of the book:
On August 25, 1971, Walter Lloyd Blackadar paddled his kayak into the unknown waters of Turnback Canyon on the Alsek River. He was 49 years old and all alone in the vast, glaciated St. Elias wilderness of Canada and Alaska.
That night while trying to repair his damaged kayak, he wrote: “In the gorge and stranded. This has been a day! I want any kayaker to read my words well. The Alsek gorge is unpaddleable!” He described the rapids in the canyon as “a frothy mess that was far worse than anything I have ever seen. I am sure it was 20 degrees down with the most gigantic waves and foam and holes on all sides of me. Very narrow—like trying to run down a coiled rattler’s back, the rattler striking me from all sides.”
Blackadar survived his frightening run through Turnback Canyon, and in doing so, he became whitewater sport’s most famous figure. His extraordinary journey down the Alsek is only one part of the story. He was a doctor. Trained at Dartmouth and Columbia, he moved west to a small town in Idaho to be near good fishing and hunting. But in time, the wilderness around him shrank in size and the once great salmon runs dwindled. Alarmed, he began to speak out for the protection of rivers and wild lands and took increasingly unpopular stands in a community whose economy was tied closely to resource extraction.
He was also a man with faults and failings. Never Turn Back is not a one-sided story. It is a carefully researched and objective look at all of Blackadar’s life. Casting aside the subject-as-hero approach, Never Turn Back is a refreshing departure from most outdoor literature, telling Blackadar’s story the way it happened. It is this honest portrayal that makes the book such a captivating one. From the first page through the unforgettable last chapter, it is a fascinating and candid account of a remarkable individual.
From the Author.
Never Turn Back is the story of Walt Blackadar, the river running world’s most famous personality. At the time of his death, there were dozens of other writers who could have written the book about Walt Blackadar—all of them far more widely known and more talented than I.
When the Blackadar family came to me, after being approached by other authors, and asked if I would take on the project, I just stood there with my mouth open and said “Me?”
Ten years later when I was still working on Never Turn Back, some folks had come up with their own version of the title: Never Get Finished. Fortunately, it did get finished.
The research took me to Alaska twice, including a magnificient journey down the Alsek River, the river that made Blackadar famous. On that trip, we climbed Mt. Blackadar which Canada had named in honor of Blackadar’s kayaking achievements. As we neared the summit, Bob Blackadar, Walt’s son, went ahead and became the first to stand on top of his father’s mountain.
Reviewers and readers have been generous to me, but it was Blackadar who really wrote his own book by the life he led. I simply retold the story of his life—and what an incredible life it was.
Product Description:
Never Turn Back is the gripping and compelling life story of Dr. Walt Blackadar, a physician from a small town in Idaho. At the age of 49, he shocked the outdoor world when he made a solo kayak journey down the treacherous rapids of Turnback Canyon on the remote and wild Alsek River in Canada and Alaska.
Blackadar’s accomplishment on Turnback Canyon was the river equivalent of the first ascent of Everest, and when excerpts from his Alsek journal were published in Sports Illustrated, he became an instant sensation. He was at the top of his sport at an age when most athletes are long retired.
Then suddenly, his spectacular rise veered wildly off course when a young woman tragically died on one of his kayaking expeditions. Heartbroken over her death and plagued with mounting physical problems, his kayaking technique began to deteriorate.
Yet he had a spirit that was irrepressible, and pitting himself in a race against his body’s clock, he sought out and faced off against the world’s most formidable whitewater.