Paddlers who are looking for a different kind of adventure can explore the oceans. The Southern African coastline stretches over three thousand kilometres round the southern-most point of Africa at Cape Agulhas, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. These have distinctive characters, with the Benguela Current sweeping up the west coast of Africa and the warm Agulhas sweeping along the east coast down south from Mozambique.
It is one of the most active coastlines in the world, offering exposed paddling behind the breakers, but a few natural bays such as Table Bay, False Bay, Walker Bay, Mossel Bay, Plettenberg Bay and Algoa Bay and large lagoons at Langebaan, Knysna and St Lucia make sea kayaking in more protected waters possible too.
Kayak paddlers taking to the sea need to learn appropriate skills and get used to nautical terms like port and starboard, reef knot and rudder yoke, chart and transit points. There are certain standards that sea kayakers should adhere to regarding their equipment and rules of the sea to obey; most of all, paddlers who go on the sea should not be ignorant of its dangers. Training courses for recreational and commercial sea kayakers are offered by APA, as well as RECSKASA (Recreational and Commercial Sea Kayaking Association of South Africa).