['Hi there. Did you do anything fun for the 4th of July? I went kayaking and hit some pretty heavy rapids. I had trouble with them, but the friend I was with did not.', "That's awesome.  Do you go kayaking often?", "As often as I can. I don't get to enough. It's hard to get away from work.", 'Do you own your own kayak or do you rent?', 'I just bought one this Christmas. It was a good investment.', 'I want to get a sea kayak (I like to fish)', "I've never been ocean or sea kayaking before. I bet that would be very fun, especially if fishing were involved."]
Its also a lot cheaper than a boat and you can get into the shallow salt flats easy.
I was kayaking with friends over the 4th of July holiday. The river was very fast due to recent rains. My friend managed to make it through the rapids very smoothly without any trouble at all, to a degree which was very surprising.