>> Does anyone have a suggestion as to how to rate trips, paddler skills, and equipment? I would like to present this to the club so that we can place people and equipment on the right trip. I am aware that the BCU rates skill level by their One Star, Two Star, etc... Are there any clubs out there that use this system or something similar now? If so do you rate trips in the same manner? Looking for any suggestion and trying not to reinvent the wheel, last time it came out square! Thanks Jeffrey Bingham >> I'm acting president of a new sea kayaking club in the Twin Cities called Inland Sea Kayakers, which is a chapter of the Minnesota Canoe Association. ISK is so new that we do not yet have a rating system and official trips policies; however, I like the rating system developed on the West Coast by George Gronseth and others, not because it is necessarily the best possible rating system, but because it is at least a standard rating system used in whole or in part by several clubs. The system rates trip difficulty from SK-1 to SK-VI based on distance, currents, sea state, and other factors, something like the whitewater class scheme, and also lists the skills and experience required for each category. Though the SK rating chart looks complicated (see http://students.washington.edu/~ukc/sea/UKCSea.html#searating), the bottom line for most people is literally the bottom line on the chart, where the required skills for each trip category are listed. The rest of the chart is mostly for the use of the trip leader. One or more clubs have modified the SK ratings by adding letter grades to indicate the anticipated degree of exertion, so you know whether it will be a fast or a leisurely trip. See http://members.tripod.com/~SKABC/tripclass.htm for example. I like the idea of the BCU star rating system, because if you know what level a paddler is at, you pretty much know what his or her minimum skills are. It also gives the individual paddler a more objective scale to rate himself against than the beginner- intermediate-advanced scale. However, though I would like to encourage ISK members to participate in the BCU Star program, I don't forsee making it mandatory in ISK. A large number of sea kayaking clubs have posted their trip rules and classification schemes on the Web. A good place to start your research is the list of clubs on the BASK Web site at http://www.bask.org/clubs.htm. Hope this helps. Chuck Holst *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
> > > >> > Does anyone have a suggestion as to how to rate trips, paddler skills, and > equipment? I would like to present this to the club so that we can place > people and equipment on the right trip. > I am aware that the BCU rates skill level by their One Star, Two Star, > etc... Are there any clubs out there that use this system or something > similar now? If so do you rate trips in the same manner? > > Looking for any suggestion and trying not to reinvent the wheel, last time > it came out square! One of the better examples of what you're looking for can be found at the Atlantic Kayak Tours site at http://members.aol.com/KayakTours/ The do BCU assessment and training and use the star ratings as prerequistes for some of their trips. They group the trips into Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced and require certain levels for the upper level trips. Someone else mentioned allowing "level 2" paddlers to go on level 3 trips and balancing it out by getting some level 4 paddlers to go and that a level 2 paddler should be allowed to go on a higher level tour because it promotes improvement. I disagree with that notion. In the case of the AKT trips the advanced level trips *require* advanced skills and are not the place to learn them. They're primarily long crossings in demanding conditions. Someone taking one of those tours that doesn't have the necessary skills might not only be dangerous it could also ruin a trip for someone that has those skills. If the trip leaders are nursing people along in some cases the tour might not ever be completed (ie. the circumnavigation of Manhatten, a 10 hour paddle). If someone wants to practice advanced skills in advanced conditions a tour where other people are paying for it is not the place to do it. -- John Fereira jaf30_at_cornell.edu *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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