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UK GUIDEBOOKS 'Scottish Canoe Classics' by Eddie Palmer
'Eddy has chosen his favourite twenty-five inland touring routes and
described them in loving detail. The routes are beautifully illustrated
with numerous colour photos and specially commissioned maps. 'Scottish White Water: The SCA Guidebook' Bridget Thomas (Editor)
The SCA have now released the second edition of their fantastic guidebook. Essential for boating north of the border. 'Scottish
Canoe Touring: An SCA Canoe and Kayak Guide' ed. Eddie Palmer
Excellent guide to easy paddling opportunities within Scotland. 'English Whitewater', edited by Franco Ferrero
The most thorough England guidebook yet, including the first proper guide to the rivers of the Southwest and the playspots of the Thames valley and Midlands. Essential for paddling in England. 'White Water Lake District' by Stuart Miller
Outstanding guide to the NW of England, essential for anyone heading there. 'The Welsh Rivers' by Chris Sladden The standard by which all future printed Guidebooks (and this Internet one) will be judged. We'll forgive him for not including an overall location map. 'British Whitewater' by Terry Storry With info on 100 UK rivers, it's the best printed overall UK guide, it's great value and probably indispensible. It's a bit dated now (known as 'Tall Stories' by some) but nothing printed has yet improved on it for the whole UK. 'Canoeists Guide to the Northeast' by Nick Doll
Truly indispensible if you are headed to the NE of England. It includes almost all whitewater rivers and some good sea kayaking advice but has an annoying prejudice against flatwater rivers. Great photos! 'Rivers of Yorkshire' by Mike Twiggs Another dated UK guidebook, but with plenty of useful info on the easier rivers of the area, complementing the above book nicely.
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EUROPE GUIDEBOOKS 'Norway the White Water Guide' by Jens Klatt and Olaf Obsommer
Exciting guidebook to Norway, with great A4 presentation and awesome photos. 'Rivers of an Unknown Land: A Whitewater Guide to the Former Soviet Union' by Vladimir Gavrilov
An amazingly comprehensive and weighty guidebook introducing the whitewater potential of the former USSR.
As the dodgy title suggests, this book is a departure from his previous guides. It's targetted at family touring on easy water. 'Fluffy' turns out to be a stuffed toy duck. There are even photos of (the horror, the horror...) small children on rivers. Anyone who has used one of Pete's guides before will only need to know that the book is up to the previous high standards; clearly explained and mapped guides, backed up by great photos and drawings. The region described looks gorgeous. 'WW Europe 1 - North Alps' by Pete Knowles and Pete Bandtock The best English language guidebook for paddling in the Austrian/ German Alps. Don't consider making the trip without it. Entertaining and inspiring. Now in it's second edition. 'WW Europe 2 - South Alps' by Pete Knowles
The best English language guidebook for paddling in the French and Italian Alps. Don't consider making the trip without it. Entertaining and inspiring. Now in its second edition. 'White Water Pyrenees' by Patrick Santal The best guidebook to the area, translated into English. Plenty of rivers included, with some scary photos!
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SEA GUIDES 'South West Sea Kayaking' by Mark Rainsley Hey, I wrote a book!* Here's the promotional blurb ... 'The south-west coast of England is described in 50 great sea kayaking voyages, from the Severn Estuary to the Isle of Wight. This book also presents all the navigational and tidal information a sea kayaker needs on this magnificent section of coast. This means that it can also be used as a kayaker's 'pilot' for any journey they might wish to undertake in this area.It follows the successful format of other Pesda Press sea kayaking guides, presenting the information in a user-friendly fashion and making lavish use of maps and colour photographs.' *'I' being the editor of this website. 'The Northern Isles – Orkney & Shetland Sea Kayaking' by Tom Smith and Chris Jex
'A sea kayaker’s guide to the Orkney and Shetland
Islands.
Their relative isolation, stunning scenery and Norse history make Orkney
and Shetland a very special place. For the sea kayaker island archipelagos
are particularly rewarding … none more so than these. 
'Welsh Sea Kayaking' by Andy Biggs and Jim Krawiecki
Excellent well presented guide to paddling Welsh shores. An improvement on the Scottish guide (below) as it covers the coast more thoroughly, with more tidal and pilotage information. Lovely pics too. Essential! 'Scottish Sea Kayaking: Fifty Great Sea Kayak Voyages ' by Doug Cooper and George Reid
Describes fifty trips in Scotland, gorgeous photos. Essential for UK sea kayakers, whether or not you are into following other peoples' directions on the sea. 'The Scottish Islands' by Hamish Haswell-Smith
Wonderful book full of extensive info on all the Scottish Islands, with maps and lovely drawings. Essential for Scots sea paddlers. Only glitch is that the author seems to have a problem with Skye and doesn't really do it justice. 'Oileain' by David Walsh
Gorgeous and lavishly illustrated guide to Ireland's islands. Recommended, it'll make you want to go there. Click to buy ...
'Lighthouses of the Atlantic' by Phillip Plisson
Photo-study of all the west facing lighthouses from Shetland to Gibraltar. Awesome photography. 'Inshore Along the Dorset Coast' By Peter Bruce The best guide to exploring my local coast, written for sailors and small craft like kayaks. Great aerial photography. 'The Stormrider Guide to Europe'
A fantastic book which covers the UK thoroughly as well as Europe (from N. Africa to Norway). The design and photos are worth buying it for alone. We had a surf trip to Morocco inspired by this book! 'Outside Adventure Travel: Sea Kayaking' by Jonathon Hansen
Great coffee table book with glorious photos of dream destinations worldwide. |
WORLDWIDE GUIDEBOOKS
Not so much a guidebook as a coffee table summary of the USA's best trips. The river stuff is useful but rritatingly, the book is clogged full of biographies of American paddlers, as often as not very old obscure ones. Nothing wrong with that, except that it's not what the title implies. 'Appalachian Whitewater: The Southern Mountains' by various
'Appalachian Whitewater: The Northern Mountains' by various
Good intros to the two Eastern US areas, but with truely laughable overgrading in some cases. 'A Canoeing and Kayaking Guide to West Virginia' by Charlie Walbridge
A great up to date guidebook with everything from easy classics to hairy creeks in this classic area. 'Carolina White Water' by Bob and David Benner
A detailed and essential guide to the whitewater possibilities of Hicksville USA.
Surprisingly attractive coffee table guide to touring paddle locations in the USA. 'Canadian Rockies Whitewater - Central' by Stuart Smith Indispensible guidebook to rivers around Banff and Jasper; don't expect 'soft' grading, the author is a bit of a hardman. 'Canadian Rockies Whitewater - South' by Stuart Smith Companion to the above, covering rivers down to the US border.
Plenty of nasty steep ditches in the NE States. I've had the pleasure of swimming one particular page in this book.
The friendlier equivalent to the above book, covering rivers up to Grade 4 in the NE States. Mostly easy rivers covered. 'Washington Whitewater' by Douglass North
This mostly gives info on grade 2 and 3 runs in the USA's Pacific Northwest. Helpful for internediate paddlers. 'The Great Whitewater Rivers of the World' by Graeme Addison
Great coffee table book for annoying your friends and scaring your mother. Pretty good coverage worldwide, along with some splendid photos. 'Soggy Sneakers' - A Guide to Oregon Rivers by Williamette Kayak Club
This book is pretty detailed and has guides to a huge number of trips. Also includes rivers just over the border in California and Washington. Tends to miss out or overgrade the harder runs, though. 'Paddling Oregon' by Robb Keller
Pretty much the same as the above book in coverage. Seems better organised and easier to follow than the above book; has great maps too. Anybody wanting to paddle in Oregon will want both books, anyway. Now in it's second edition, this book has probably singlehandedly inspired holiday paddling to take off there. Read it even if you think you'll never go. It dispels a lot of rough-tough expedition notions about Nepal and actually suggests many easy rivers to paddle as well as whitewater. 'The Rivers of Costa Rica' by Rafael Gallo
Very dated and inaccurate - but has useful info on climate and conditions as well as rivers. This is the book you really want. 'New Zealand Whitewater' by Graham Charles An excellent and inspiring guidebook, it certainly persuaded us to make the journey downunder. Excellent pictures' 'World Whitewater' by Jim Cassady and Dan Dunlap
An ambitious Guidebook (heavily biased to North America) which includes info on 250 rivers in six continents. It has plenty of useful contact addresses for further research. I'm in the credits (about no.799)...cool! |
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