[Paddlewise] ACA meetings: Greenland skills

A lot of speculation has been going on about the proposed ACA Greenland Kayak
Skills workshop.  I would like to give you a general idea of the situation as
it now stands.  This is not yet official by any means.

My name is Ray Killen and I am on the ACA CKC (Coastal Kayaking Committee).
This committee consists of 3 Co-Chairmen who are Instructor Trainer Educators
(ITE's); Randy Carlson (Performance Sea Kayaking video), Matthew Levin (Maine
Sport Outfitters) and John Lull (California Canoe and Kayak) and 15
Instructors and Instructor Trainers throughout the United States.  In general,
the purpose of the working meetings were to:

1. Develop a Flatwater sea kayak certification. This is intended to be for
those people wishing to get an ACA certification who do not need the full
blown Coastal Kayaking certification i.e. those who don't even live near the
coast.
2. Further define the parameters for the Coastal Kayaking certification to
ensure a high standard of Instructor qualifications
3. Define the curriculum for 5 proposed new classes to be sanctioned by the
ACA.  These are:

A. Rolling
B. Surf
C. Tidal Currents
D. Expeditions
E. Greenland skills

The intent of these courses will be to learn new skills in a safe, controlled
setting.  By signing up for an ACA sanctioned course you can be sure that the
content will be similar whether it is taken in Maine, Florida or the West
Coast and that the Instructors will meet the minimum standards required of
them.  Hopefully we can have Instructors gain the Endorsements needed to teach
these classes before the next season starts.

In the short duration since being notified that I was accepted on the CKC and
the dates of the working meetings, I have contacted several well-known
Greenland instructors and practitioners.  I wished to gain their valuable
input for what they deemed important enough to be included in a Greenland
skills workshop and how they conducted their own classes.  I intend to
incorporate these ideas as well as my own into the curriculum. 

The goal of the class will be to introduce Greenland paddle skills to those
never having experienced them and to refine existing and/or learn new skills
for people who are familiar with the use of the paddle.  It will be offered as
an 8-hour class.  Obviously no course can satisfy everyone but the Greenland
workshop will focus on the following:

Greenland kayak history and respect for the culture
Use of the different hunting tools and equipment
General Greenland boat design
Introduction to the Greenland paddle, Storm paddle and throwing stick
Using the paddle
Using the sliding stroke
Bow rescues and side paddle rescue
Different sculling strokes
Balance brace
Greenland Rolling Demonstration (to whet one's appetite) 

Different methods of paddle strokes will be demonstrated and the students
encouraged trying them out.  For those students with a solid roll, a different
Greenland roll can be taught depending on time and what the make-up of each
class is.  No one will make you an expert.  You will not come out of this
workshop with the knowledge of John Heath nor the skills of Maligiaq Padilla,
Doug Van Doren, Charlie or Cindy Cole, Steve Burkhardt or Greg Stamer.  We can
only offer the tools for you to build your own masterpiece.

Now as an aside I wish to address some previous discussions on the net.
Normally I don't get involved in this for there seems to be no point to it. 
There was talk going around that it is too easy to become a certified ACA
Instructor as compared to a BCU Instructor.  What you must remember is that
the ACA like the BCU have different levels of certification.  The lowest level
in the ACA is to become an Introduction to Paddling (IP) instructor.  Many
outfitters get their employees certified for this.  All they need is to get
someone certified to teach the very basics to newcomers who buy or rent.  When
these people say they are certified Instructors (which they are) they leave
out the fact that they can only teach the basics.  The average person hearing
this assumes they are in fact Coastal Kayak Instructors which is much more
difficult than the IP level.  The equivalent of an IP in the BCU is Coach 1.

The two systems have both their good and bad points.  (I am an ACA Instructor
and a BCU Coach 3 as well as a Greenland paddler.)  Some people will like one
system over another.  Some people don't like any form of certification.
Whatever!  It is too easy to degrade something when one does not have all the
facts.  The Coastal Kayak Instructor had to take an intensive training program
and certification exam and in the future we are raising the bar even higher to
maintain quality standards.

Ray Killen
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