Re: [Paddlewise] AKT Skills Symposium (day 1)

At 09:32 AM 7/31/00 -0400, Mark Schoon wrote:
>The past 2 =BD days in Peekskill, NY were an incredible experience for =
>me.
>I had the incredible fortune to be one of the attendees at Atlantic
>Kayak Tours Skills Symposium.
>
>Not only were the skill sessions incredible, the logistics, the food,
>the presentations--all superb.=20

I had planed on writing a trip report about the AKT Symposium so rather
than starting a separate message I'm going to piggy back on this one.

I not only attended all three days of the symposium but also did the 3 Star
assessment on Thursday.  

For those not familiar with what the Atlantic Kayak Tours sysmposium was
all about it was essentially three days of training from 10 world class
kayakers with the assistance of several other top notch coaches.  

The Symposium was the brainchild of Bill Lozano from Atlantic Kayak Tours
and he had a large staff of people organizing, and making the entire long
weekend run extremely smooth (except for the directions to the Saturday
evening dinner..).  Perhaps, Zane (of AKT) summarized the weekend best. He
said,  "This is the first sea kayaking symposium for the art of kayaking,
rather than the sale of kayaks."

Due to a change in travel plans I arrived a day early and signed up for the
3 Star assessment, although I have never taken the formal 3 Star training.
 Scott Fairity, with the assisstance of Shawna (?) from the San Juan
Islands gave a review and training of the skill we would be tested on.  I
was unable to fit my boat on the car I came down in so I got into a Skerray
demo boat since I own one.  However, this particular boat had a slick
fiberglass seat, a back band that I never could get adjusted to that it was
confortable and little in the way of hip braces.  It felt like a different
boat and I never did get comfortable in it.  During the "review" I tried my
first hanging draw.  Because of the fit of the boat I just didn't feel
comfortable edging the boat and while I was usually able to get a decent
one on my right side the left side was really shakey.  I switched to a
Romany for the afternoon to finish up the review and then the assessment.

The last review skills we did were the recues, an assisted rescue after a
wet exit, and eskimo rescues done presenting the bow and presenting the
paddle.  I did the first with a friend of mine and we both were able to get
back in our boats in about a minute smoothly and safely.  After we did,
Scott said he'd use that as our assessment and that we had both passed.
Being in the Romany and having passed the first skill gave me more
confidence and I started to paddle much better.  

For the assessment of the eskimo rescues they have one person set up to the
side and the other in front or behind you when you go over.  Then, the
coach point to one person or the other to do the rescue so that the victim
doesn't know which is coming.  I got the bow rescue first, but didn't have
a very good hip snap coming up, so he had me go over and demonstrate a
couple more hipsnaps.  When we got set up and I went over again, I started
thinking.."let's see,  I kind of blew that first hip snap...I wonder if
he'll make me do the bow rescue again....nah,  he'll just check my hip snap
when I come up using the rescuers paddle...oh...I feel a
bow...whoops...where did it go?...then I felt a hand on my wrist and knew
it was a paddle rescue and came up with a solid snap.  Scott called another
assessment skill passed and we all grouped up.

We started off the formal assessment section with bow rudder turns.  I got
a good turning motion on both sides and felt pretty good even though I
didn't edge the boat as much as I do when I'm in my own boats (the Romany
wasn't a real good fit either).  We went through one skill to the next and
I was nailing every one of them.  Even the back paddling on and edge in a
figure eight went really well, something that I had never done before that
day.  Then I got to the hanging draw.   I paddled forward heading towards a
small piece of flotsam (or was it jetson) and did a hanging draw on the
right.  I had the paddle nice and tight and could see that the boat move
nicely to the right.  Then I did it on the left.  I got the paddle too
close and almost capsized.  I did another one that was marginal but it felt
better than others I had done earlier.

The rest of the skills progressed nicely.  I got in a couple of really good
high braces on the move with my face in the water on both sides and got a
"nice hip snap" comment from the coaches on my roll.

After coming back in I felt pretty good about the assessment considering
that I had never even tried a couple of the skills before and was not
familiar with the BCU standards on others.  After an hour or so I went in
for the result of my assessment.  They said that I was a tough case but
they were going to ask me to come back and try again in October.  I had met
the standard, exceeding it on several skills across the board, except for
two things.  On the bow rudder I was marked down for not edging the boat as
much as I should of.  I have no doubt whatsoever that if I had done the
skill in one of my own boats I would have easily passed it.  The other
skill I got marked down on was the hanging draw.  Specifically, I hadn't
met the 3 Star standard because I wasn't *looking* toward the side of the
draw, even though it was an  "effective" stroke on the right, the standard
dictated that one has to face in the direction of the draw.

Even though I hadn't passed I got some really good instruction and know
exactly what I need  to do to pass it next time.  

The 3 Star assessment is a tough test that requires proficiency in a wide
range of skills and every one of them has to be done well.  It was a bit of
a humbling experience.

Next, in a separate message,  I'll write about the first official day of
the symosium...

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