Responding to the 2nd Q first, you can't go wrong with Otter Bar or Nantahala Outdoor Center.
two common ways are:
1) you have a lot of friends that paddle ww and you have plenty of time to devote to it (2-3x wk) for the first season. It's a skill intensive sport that needs numerous sessions relatively close together to build one upon another. Otherwise, the learning curve gets way too drawn out and one can be a beginner forever.
2) take lessons. IMO, a weekend camp at a minimum, or week long camp at best.
I started paddling sea kayaks and immediately began working my way thru the BCU, becoming a 4 star paddler my first year . This means I learned an arsenal of strokes that enabled me to manipulate my kayak ieven in the most challenging of conditions, and learned to roll right away, which allowed me to better learn bracing techniques. I met a paddler who was very similar to me. I was the only one that he could get to paddle the Great Lakes in the snowstorms with him.:sombrero: We've been best friends ever since.
We'd go out a few times a week on the inland lakes and just practice strokes and rolls (everything in the BCU syllabus)After our first year of paddling and going out in all of the small craft advisories, we grabbed some white water boats and headed to West Virginia to paddle the New River. We figured we'd just follow the rafts down. We had good strokes, bombproof rolls, and good bracing skills, and the water was warm so...it was great.
We went almost every weekend after that...( I was averaging 32,000 miles of driving a year for about 5 years just driving to paddling destinations--so I finally moved to Washington state.)
