At 10:11 AM -0700 10/4/98, Dave Kruger wrote: >Where this lands for me is that "skills-oriented" certification can >never assess "judgement." Being way past the youth and strength >category, I'll vote for old age and treachery any day as good things for >my paddling companions to have. I am currently persuing getting a Maine Guide Certification to lead kayak trips. Maine is one of the few places that requires certification to lead others out onto the water in a sea kayak. One disturbing thing that is evident from what I have learned so far is that I could probably become certified without ever actually getting in a sea kayak. There is a written test and no need to demonstrate skill or judgement in a kayak. I would be more comfortable with this if they made BCU or ACA certification a prerequisite even if those training schemes are somewhat wrong headed. At least they require you get in a kayak and have someone show you how to do a few things in the boat. As a customer to a Maine Guide I would be more comfortable knowing they had as many skills in their bag of tricks as possible. While a good guide should never get their customers in a situation where the guide needs to roll, s**t happens and I would rather have them be up to the challenge than otherwise. However, as a practical matter, I am not a big believer in certification. How can a day or two of training and possibly a test at the end ever hope to quantify if a paddler is going to be able to pull off the skill when it really counts. It is my impression that most certification schemes do not include a test that people have a good chance of failing (I could be wrong in that). And if they do include that test it is usually not in the best interest of the teacher to fail anyone because that says more about the quality of the teacher than it does the skills of the testee. I would suggest that any certification include an on-the-water test given by a 3rd party and the test should be held 6 months to a year after the class. This tests to see if the skills learned in class actually were retained by the student. This would also give those who think they are good enough the ability to skip the class and go right to the test. Tests would involve dealing with different conditions. If the certification is for rough water paddling, the testee paddles in rough water. The tester observes how the testee deals with the conditions and asks the testee to get in and out of certain situations that are reasonable to expect given the conditions. The ability to perform some sort of self rescue is appropriate for any conditions, calm or rough. The tester grades on how successfully the testee deals with the conditions. Grades should not be based on style, but success. Some evaluation of judgement can be made by observing choices made in dealing with conditions, but this would tend to be more subjective. Obviously this is not ideal as conditions will vary making it hard to standardize, but it could have some use. Classes are worthwhile, but successful completion of a skills class is not the same as possessing the skill. Amoung my friends we have 3 facitious classifications of ability: the first time you do it is Luck, the second time is Coincidence, the third time is Skill. If you can perform a skill immediately after learning how to do it, it could just be luck, you need to be able to perform the skill consistently before it can actually be considered learned. Nick Schade Guillemot Kayaks c/o Newfound Woodworks, 67 Danforth Brook Rd, Bristol, NH 03222 (603) 744-6167 Schade_at_guillemot-kayaks.com http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/ >>>>"It's not just Art, It's a Craft!"<<<< *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Oct 06 1998 - 14:46:20 PDT
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