Kayaking 101 tips or forum/site for newbie?

[Cupcake]

Well Six,

If you haven't kayaked before, take heed of the earlier warning here to stick to nice weather at first. I hit the lake yesterday with my wife and the wind was gusting pretty good. I think it was 15mph w/ gusts 20-25. That little glass-smooth lake turned pretty squirrely on us. You don't appreciate little waves until you're a noob in a kayak. The tailwind we enjoyed out was not so friendly coming back. My wife was going backward despite her efforts. Luckily there was a calm little bay where I could rig a tow line to her. It got us back. At least we had the smarts to stay pretty close to shore the whole time, figuring if we couldn't stay in the boats we could just walk back. During the tow in the headwind was also the time the difference between using my arms/shoulders to paddle and using my body with closer-to-proper technique was hugely obvious. It's good fun cheating death, and yes, we stayed in the boats.

[DefensiveCarry.com]