Archive for January, 2008

Always tease tease tease
Siempre – coqetiando y enganyando
Youre happy when Im on my knees
Me arrodilla y estas feliz
One day is fine, next is black
Un dias bien el otro negro
So if you want me off your back
Al rededar en tu espalda
Well come on and let me know
Me tienes que desir
Should I stay or should I go?
Me debo ir o que darme
- clash

Geoff Murray sent me this interesting bit of news from down under.  It seems a paddler from Canada got into a spot of trouble trying to circumnavigate Tasmania.  Derrick Crook (so many Derrick’s in kayaking ya know!) age 51 camped overnight near Conical Rocks on the west coast of Australia and launched out the next morning around 7am.  Apparently he got out about quite a way when he decided that conditions were bad and tried to head in.  In the process (according to the press) a large wave tore off his deck bags and the rear hatch cover of his kayak.   So floating with a half sunken kayak about 200m from shore Derrick decided it was time to fire off a flare and activate his distress beacon.  Police were notified around 10am and sent out a local rescue helicopter and police boat to search and rescue teams were called in  from Queenstown, and a Coastwarch flight was sent down from the Bass Strait.   While all this was going on some local folks described by the press as “shack owners”  took out a dinghy and rescued Mr. Crook.  He was then taken to a hospital where he was treated for hypothermia.  It’s worth noting that the water temperature was around 62F.

We have very little detail on this story so far so it’s pretty hard to make any assessments.  Geoff tells me that area around Conicle Rocks is quite treacherous.  You’d wonder why the paddler got out so far before deciding to turn back.  However there is a river flowing into the sea there as well so it’s hard to guess.  Maybe he got carried out before he knew what he was getting into.

I was reading a trip report by Tassie resident Steve Dineen who circumnavigated the island in 1998. In it  he writes;

“I had to be watchful of the large swells. Some would all of a sudden appear from nowhere and look like they were going to swallow you up. I would look straight down at the water below me and see if I could see the bottom. If it wasn’t that deep green colour I was out of there real fast because I was probably on a reef or a shallow bar. You are very low in the water in a kayak and you don’t always see a wave coming till it’s right on you and you can bet the one after is going to be bigger. I got to the Conical Rocks Point after about five hours paddling and was very weary with only a few hours sleep the night before. It was a great little hiding spot from the swell. I would like to have camped there but I wanted to do some more kilometres so I could make Strahan the next day. A fisherman sheltered inside the Conical Rocks said I wouldn’t be able to get into Granville Harbour because the swell was too big but I would be able to get just around the corner. I followed his craypot line around the reef where I knew I would be safe. Boy, was he wrong. When I got there the swell was too big and I couldn’t get onto the beach. These kayaks don’t handle surfing the waves too well. I did a bit of backtracking and found a great little camping spot just outside the Conicals but I had to scramble over some rocks to get there.” – steve dineen

Sounds like a tricky area for sure.  Large trips tend to weed out “weekenders”.  Normally you can assume that the folks taking on these big trips are pretty decent paddlers to have even have contemplated the journey. Once there, often the hardest decisions are when to go and when to call a “weather day”.  I mean, we really want to get moving and often we are under a time limit. We have faith in our talents, skills, and our kayaks.  It’s a judgment call.  We could always sit on shore and wait for the glassy days, it’s been done and in the end you can get there if you have the time and patience.  More realistically we take to the water as long as it’s within our abilities.  The problem lies in when we over-estimate our abilities or under-estimate the enviroment.  Then of course sometimes the enviroment just does a quick change on us after we get out there and we just have to cope.  Thankfully most of the time,  good judgment prevails. 

Read More:

Mercury News Report

* Anthony correctly poits out I should have said "Queenstown" and not "Queensland". That’s been corrected.

Sorry you couldn’t comment yesterday, silbs pointed that out and it’s fixed. I really couldn’t believe I would get away with these posts without some comments. LOL!  Anyway,  today I’m focusing on teaching the first time student.  Again, I’m certainly not an authority on this stuff. We’ll leave that to the Big Dogs.  But I can share what I’ve learned or at least what I think I’ve learned. 

The message of an introductory level coach is simply this; Have fun, be safe, learn more.

When most of us take our very first kayaking class we know next to nothing about anything other than boats float and that kayaks often tip over.  At this point “Kayaking” is not a religion or a way of life.  It’s not even worth practicing much.  Beginning students are not “converts”. . . yet.  Just people who think they may like being on the water.  Some have bought their first boat and have no idea how to make it go straight, some have never been in a kayak before.  Some only took the class because their spouse did, some are afraid of the water but like the idea of paddling, others are bronze athletic types looking for a new gig in their later years and on and on.  There are many reasons to take a class and each class is a mix of people with varied goals.

As a coach you can’t possibly make them all great paddlers in a couple hours.  In fact most intro level coaches are not really qualified to assess skills or take take the student beyond pond conditions either.  Recognizing our own limitations will help us focus on what we can do well. I think many times we try to over teach.  Inside each new student’s head is a storm of questions, ideas and misconceptions and personal goals.  Looking around at each face in your class you are seeing not just a diversity in faces, but a diversity in concepts and questions.  We can’t  possibly come at this mix with a generic teaching style. We also can’t expect to have them all dancing through rock gardens by the end of the class. What we can do realistically is quite limited,  however if we understand those limits we can come away with success.

First and foremost we can show them how fun kayaking can be.  “Fun” is NOT a dirty word.  We paddle for fun.  I think sometimes we should stamp that on our foreheads.  We paddle for fun.  Our goal with new students should be in a large part to show our students what a great time it is to play on the water.  We want them going away thinking this kayaking thing is a blast.  Something they want to do more of. Now for you more serious types, there is a reason for this.  If your students are having fun, they are excited.  That excitement will lead them to practice more, play more and learn more.  They will be more apt to join clubs and take more classes.  We as introductory coaches then pass them on to higher level coaches who will then start working with them on more advanced skills.  The student who signs up for the next level class will be ready to take on more and of course want to be there doing it.  One measure of an introductory coaches success could be students who sign up for another class.  The bottom line is that it is the responsibility of an introductory coach to do what they can to be sure the student is still paddling a year from now.  The best way to do that is to make sure they are excited about paddling.

 Another thing we teach beginners is safety and confidence.  I put these two things together because I believe confidence is a major part of paddler safety.  Certainly we all know how to teach the “rules of the road”.  Never go out alone, have proper gear, watch the weather and all the rest.  I’m not belittling these things, just acknowledging that we know it already.  The confidence bit is a little more elusive.  In order for a paddler to perform a fast, efficient rescue they need to be well practiced.  They also need to be focused in real world situations.   That focus comes from confidence.  One of the strange things that gets in the way for early paddlers is just being IN the water.  It’s amazing how little time new paddlers spend getting wet.  When I work with a new class they can expect to spend a good amount of time not only on the water, but in it as well.  With the help and observation of some great coaches I’ve learned or copied a number of fun (see above) games that allow students to build up their confidence in the water as well as making their rescues go much more smoothly.  My experience has always been that students who play in the water regularly find learning rescues to go much more smoothly.

The 3rd bit of the triad is of course boat control.  We want our new students to walk out of the class feeling they either can or will have control of their kayak with some practice.  The issue I think comes when we confuse boat control with “names” and “moves”.   In time we come to know all the names; bow rudder, reverse sweep, forward stroke,  draw with in-water-recovery. .  blah, blah, blah.  The names have their place and eventually we all learn those names.  However, we should not make our new students confuse learning names & procedures with learning boat control.  In my BCU coach training last year we did not focus on names.  What we did do was something like this. .  “Let’s work on turning our kayaks.  It’s simple!  I’m just going to put my paddle in here, then I’ll push away from the boat.  See what happens?  Cool!  Give that a try. “  Now of course, that’s way simple and when you demo a “sweep” you demo it properly.  However, you don’t want to confuse the student with procedure when the goal is actually turning the boat.  My goal by the end of a class is that students can go forward and backward, turn, spin, stop and make their boat go sideways all in a safe way.  I’m not concerned that they are performing or describing what they are doing at an advanced level.

Now of course in among those 3 major points we teach the rest.   Boat types, materials, paddles, clothing, PFDs, gear. . . and so forth.  I’m not leaving the rest of the outline out, just not focusing on it for this post.

At the end of that first class my goals are simple.  I want my students to feel excited about kayaking.  I want them to practice, learn more and play.  I want them to feel in control of their kayak.  I want the student to be safety conscious and be aware of how to rescue themselves and others.   I want to build their confidence and give them some tools to properly self-evaluate.  And yeah, I really want them to know when to stay OFF the water as well.   The thing to keep in mind is our place on the coaching ladder,  what we do as an introductory instructor and how it fits into the learning process.  If there is one thing we can do on that first rung it should be to encourage students to stay with it and move on to the next.  Simply,  have fun, be safe, learn more.

What did you dream? It’s alright we told you what to dream.
You dreamed of a big star, he played a mean guitar,
He always ate in the Steak Bar. He loved to drive in his Jaguar.
So welcome to the machine.
- pink floyd

Every so often I get into discussions with other coaches about teaching styles.  Certainly the coaching style I’ve grown into has come from plagiarizing all the wonderful coaches I’ve worked with over the years.  Still, most would agree that my methods are a bit “out there” sometimes.  I’ll take that.  I’m more a “method in the madness” type than a method type teacher.   Over a short series of posts I’m going to try to explain my path to coaching weirdness.  Keep in mind that I’m not any sort of Uber coach either, so everything I say can be total rot.  But it can’t hurt to discuss it. . .

When I first took coaching classes a few years back it was well, what I expected;  Methodical, bookish, & bathed in acronyms.  Certainly normal and not “bad”.  But on the other hand not a good learning enviroment for my brain. In a class room I’m going to stare out the window.  I still can’t remember all those coaching acronyms.  I just know there is a “do” in there somewhere.  The point of course is that even though the coaches were talented and knowledgeable I was not easily following along. What I’m describing in coach-speak is how the teaching method interacted with my personal learning style.  Other students of course thrive in paperwork, outlines and abbreviations.  That’s their learning style.   For the moment though, let’s note that most of the formal education we have in life is of the “whiteboard and textbook” variety.  Even if this is not an ideal learning style for some, they will learn and most will succeed.  (Even though I lost half my notes, I still passed my course) What this tells us about students is that they will adapt their learning style to get the most they can from the coach’s method. This is important to note for later on.  Students can adapt to the method of the coach much more easily than the coach can adapt to the learning methods of the student.   You see, the downside of students ability to adapt, is that it’s not easy for a coach to assess their teaching method. Even feedback from other coaches can be jaded if they share the same method. I have a hunch that although many coaches may be able to quote the learning styles “list”, they don’t really find ways to address different learners and they have little valuable feedback one way or the other.  The student will learn even if the coach does not address their learning style.    Another way to look at it is this;  If you plant a seed  it will usually grow with little effort.  If you stop there, you may think you did ok.   However  a good gardner knows it takes more than just planting the seed to make the plant flourish.

Another thing that hinders us as coaches sometimes is the fact that we see ourselves as “coaches”.  What is a coach?  The guy in shorts with sunglasses and a nice whistle?  The High school physical education teacher?  The woman in black neo with the hyper-reflective Ray Bans? The only guy in the room with a tie?  My point is that we have a preconception about what we should be as coaches.  That internal vision has the tenancy of making us pull out the chalk and start talking like Vince Lombardi.  Coaches point to things and orate.  When we become coaches we tend to emulate that vision.  After all we are learning to be coaches and emulation is one way we learn.  The risk is of course that we get too deep into the mold and don’t spend enough time considering if this is really the best way to teach or if it brings out our best coaching abilities.  Again, we see students looking at us, just as we did with our coaches. We tell them what to do and they do it.  Everything seems copasetic. 

Another limiting factor in the standard coaching tool kit is the Outline. Outlines can overpower when used incorrectly. Coaching by outline is the most simple method. It works. The further you stray from that outline the higher the chances that you will forget something or get caught up in student questions and lose control of the class organization. The outline can be used as a law book of sorts.  It keeps us on task and makes sure we cover each point within that particular curriculum.  There are good reasons for an outline.  The downside is that an over developed outline can create rigidity and complacency in our teaching style.  We can be blinded by outlines and deaden our observational skills.  To truly recognize class needs and best serve our students I think we have to see past our outlines.   As we know our students are effected by their own learning styles, fitness, talent, class dynamics, environmental factors and various distractions throughout the class.  We can’t let our outline blind us to what’s going on around us or stop us from taking dynamic shifts to address the needs of our class.