Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends – Greenday

After letting loose with another atrocious pun, Groucho looked right into the camera and said “hey, they can’t all be funny. . .” So with that in mind . . .

A fighter pilot has to keep track of every dot on the radar. If a warning light is coming on and garbled radio transmissions are also screaming for attention he can’t tell the enemy pilots to take a time out. Somehow you have to manage the mini-crisis’ while staying alive AND accomplishing your main objective all at the same time. This weekend some regional sea kayakers are going to jump into the cockpit for their 3 day ICE assessment culminating on Sunday with scenarios off the shores of Milwaukee on Lake Michigan. This year I will have the privilege of sitting in and watching the last day of the ICE from my own cockpit with the luxury of not being assessed. Having done my ACA assessment last year and seeing a few miles under my keel since then I really feel a lot of empathy for this year’s candidates. I was lucky enough to meet and work with a few of them over the summer and wish them all the best. I’m excited to be able to be there to watch them take this final step toward their certifications.

Personally I was bloody nervous the whole week before. The tough part of assesment is not really about skills, but more about pulling out those skills under watching eyes. If you can work under the spotlight you’ll be fine. On Sunday, the last day of the ICE you will be put through trial by scenario. Where situations are put upon you in such a way as to test your judgment more so than your skill level. For 99% of candidates this is not a hard thing, the anticipation is worse than the test. The balance of the scenarios tend to test to your inner skills and not your paddling prowess. It’s about the ability to baby sit a group and to keep them safe. If you can do this within a dynamic environment you’ll be fine. Keep in mind this is about “instructor” certification, which entails more than just your own personal paddling skills.

Instructors often use the phrase “herding cats” when they talk about group management. You as the lead instructor have to be aware of each individual. Often students, if not fully engaged in a particular moment in your class will begin to drift and fiddle. As an instructor you can manage this a bit. I always hated that teacher who would ask you a question just because they thought you were drifting. I’m not sure that is the right answer for kayaking classes, however you should be aware at least in the periphery of who is engaged and who may be getting distracted. A common “real world” scenario may be something like this;

You were working on low braces with the class and one student was having particular problems. You take a moment to go over to them to give them a few moments personal time. Another student starts playing with their forward stroke just because they feel board with the brace. Then while your talking you fail to notice that this student has drifted a distance from the group and out of your direct line of site. Then you hear the splash! You stop what your doing and look around to see them some 20 yards away. So then you quickly paddle over to see if they are ok. Half way there, someone else in the class is fussing and has their PFD half off when they suddenly go over as well. They are with the rest of the group now 15 yards behind you. . And now you???? What could you have done to avoided this little escapade?

The trick is often not to get so caught up in what you are doing that you don’t notice the world around you. When thinking about scenarios it’s easy to get caught up in the “big bomb”. However it’s often a death of a thousand cuts that gets you.

Good Luck!