Nigel Foster (born 17 October 1952) is an English sea kayaker, kayak designer, instructor and author. He is the first and youngest paddler to circle Iceland by kayak. Foster started paddling in Brighton, England when he was 15 in a skin-on-frame kayak. At Burwash Place Outdoor Activity Centre, Burwash, Sussex, England, Foster learned to handle whitewater, sea kayaking and surf kayaking. From 1971 to 1972 he was employed there as a "trainee instructor". He enjoyed the mix of Outdoor Activity instruction and Environmental Studies education and decided to pursue this as a career. He attended a three-year teachers training course at Redland College, Bristol, and gained classroom experience with two years teaching at a school in Buckinghamshire. In 1977, after his Iceland circumnavigation, Foster was employed by East Sussex County Council to teach as "instructor/teacher" at Burwash Place. Later in 1977 he was promoted to deputy warden. At the same time he continued his explorations with trips that included the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland and a voyage from the English Channel through France down to the Mediterranean. In 1981 when the center was closed as part of regional cutbacks to education spending, he was redeployed as a schoolteacher, but resigned in summer 1981 to attempt a major kayak expedition – a solo trip from Iqaluit at the SE end of Baffin Island along Frobisher Bay to Resolution Island . He had to cross the of open water in the Hudson Strait to reach Lacy Island , northernmost of the Button Islands and part of the Northern Coast of Labrador. The tidal range in this area may exceed while tidal streams may run at more than seven knots. After fighting the tidal streams in the dark near the Button Islands, suffering frostbitten fingers and loss of gear, Foster eventually gave up on this expedition. He was able to catch a ride on an oil tanker that happened to have taken shelter behind Killiniq Island . The trip was described by the editor of the BCU Canoeing Handbook in 1989 as "arguably the most impressive of any sea kayak adventure in the world." After his return to England – from 1982 to 1985 – he worked as an instructor at the Plas Menai, National Water Sports Centre, North Wales, primarily instructing kayaking, canoeing, boardsailing, mountaineering, with a little water-skiing, and sailing, gaining the following British Canoe Union (BCU) national qualifications in these