At 07:05 PM 4/18/02 -0400, jfarrelly5_at_comcast.net wrote: > Sea Kayak Georgia offers a free 3 hr class with every boat > purchased. I learned more in that three hrs than I did the first two yrs > of floating around in my rec boat. My instructor was Mike Robinson and > he really had an innate ability to teach. By learning a high brace, low > brace, sweep turn, sculling, basic rescues and a calm wet exit I felt > much better able to handle challenging conditions. I had never seen or > heard of any of these techniques before the class. That sounds like a great service. However, I'm wondering about including instruction on a low brace, high brace, and sculling for what's basically an "Introduction to kayaking 101" class. I help teach with local outfitter quite a bit and, unless the students in the class are very quick learners, those are things that we don't teach until the follow-up class. He also gives a free lesson to first time buyers, but the follow-up class isn't free. Rather than teach the braces and sculling I think the time would be better spent on an efficient forward stroke and general safety issues. The class that you took sounds like it was more focused on skills rather than education. I'm not sure what kinds of kayaks they sell but I know that there are quite a few people buying "recreational" kayaks that have little interest in bracing and sculling, but would certainly benefit by learning about hypothermia (which includes how to dress for paddling), how to deal with other boat traffic (which includes outfitter yourself for visibility), towing, etc. I guess this brings up a question for the list. If you were to design a three hour "Intro to kayaking" class that would be including with the purchase of a new kayak, what should it include? *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Apr 19 2002 - 10:04:04 PDT
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