[Paddlewise] Than looong post about Poor Judgment

So, someone fell victim of anxiety and paddled forward at top
speed leaving the group behind and capsizing afterwards?
Then attempted an unsuccessful paddlefloat rescue that drained
out the last drop of self confidence, and possibly induced mild
hypothermia due to the long immersion?
A club outting where the group can not stay together?

That same story appears highlighted in the textbook of the
class "Why Club Trips Suck 101".  Maybe we can exchange some
thoughts around here about what can be done, if there really is
any hope, to avoid that classical club trip scenario.

IMO, the problem #1 of club trips is that there is no leader.
Club trips are made of a bunch of individualistic leaders and
captains of their own kayaks who show up for their own pleasure,
not to learn anything.

The second problem is definitely how hard it is to address the
skill level of a paddler. Asking a paddler to perform a 
paddlefloat rescue says nothing about his/her skill level.
Neither does rolling --many BCU instructors teach rolling
first thing before even taking a kayaker out to sea. 
Let us face it, it is near to impossible. 

A certification program _might_ help, or at least do the
effect of an aspirin on the trip organizer's head, but there
are serious problems about it.  One is that if a certified
paddler gets in trouble, he/she or a greedy lawyer can sue
the certification agency with the argument "you told Mr/x X
that he was competent for the kind of conditions that caused
his injury, and ... etc".  The other is that say, a BCU 3 star
paddler, might not be 3 star any longer after no paddling, or
only doing calm waters for the last 2 years.

Does anyone know the formula for leading club trips without
going to the scenario described in that looooooong post?

- Julio
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