Nantahala Outdoor Center’s director of instruction Wayne Dickert won first place in the annual National Outdoor Book Awards’ instructional category this year for his new book Basic Kayaking: All the Skills and Gear You Need to Get Started.

It’s Dickert’s second win in the National Outdoor Book Awards. He won first place also in the instructional category in 2003 for his book Basic Canoeing: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started.

Both books have a heavy emphasis on photos, which is consequently their main selling point. The books feature page after page of pictorial sequences that walk a paddler through the steps of various techniques like the frames of a comic strip. Basic Kayaking is a 96-page, spiral-bound book.

Dickert’s strokes were captured with a motor-drive camera capable of firing off multiple shots a second. The photos were then arranged as a sequence so beginners can clearly see and attempt to duplicate the motion of the paddle through the water and the position of the body as it follows through with each stroke.

Another innovation in the instruction book genre, the book depicts two separate approaches to teaching, illustrating the correct paddling technique for two different kayak designs—an older boat style with a displacement hull that sits deeper in the water and a newer boat design, the planning hull, that floats closer to the top of the water.

In addition to teaching proper strokes, both books covering everything from the selection of paddling gear to carrying a boat properly and rescue need-to-knows.

Dickert, a former Olympian and 10-time qualifier for the U.S. Canoe and Kayak team, began instructing boaters at the NOC in 1986 and later introduced the innovative Rapid Progressions boating clinic, a method that guarantees beginners they will learn to paddle.

Jon Rounds was co-author of Basic Kayaking. Skip Brown was the photographer and illustrations are by Roberto Sabas.

The National Outdoor Book Awards is a non-profit, educational program. It is not associated with any publisher or publishing interest. The nonprofit program is sponsored by the National Outdoor Book Awards Foundation, Idaho State University and the Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education. The program honors books across ten individual categories.