Paddlewisers, I had a great time at the Northern California BCU Skills Symposium this week. My 4 Star training was on Monday and Tuesday. I just shut-up and listened, and I made some improvements in my skills and learned some great tips. The coaching was excellent. The 4 Star testing lasted all day on Wednesday and was actually a lot of fun. Topping it off was passing. One of the highlights was meeting a fellow Paddlewiser, Rob Gibbert, from Gig Harbor, WA. Around the group campfire one night, he scared a lot people with stories of great white sharks. He used to live and dive in the symposium area and had a lot of shark stories to tell. Thanks to him a lot of people were jittery when doing rescues. He is a really nice guy, and when I left on Thursday, he was having a lot of fun doing the 5 Star training. I can't wait to go back for more training next year. Duane Strosaker Southern California *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
> From: "Strosaker" <strosaker_at_cox.net> > I had a great time at the Northern California BCU Skills Symposium this week. My 4 > Star training was on Monday and Tuesday. ... I made some improvements in my skills > and learned some great tips. The coaching was excellent. I was there, too. It was a terrific experience, even inspirational. I've been paddling about 4 years, but that single weekend increased my boat handling abilities astronomically. Participating in so many classes so close together allowed me to pick and choose skills from each class that were particularly useful to me, and to begin to put them together. Now I'm also much more serious about enhancing my skills and plan on doing some BCU training. It was also great fun. The coaches were outstanding with just that edge of insanity... perhaps someone who participated in it could describe the Nigel Dennis cliff rescue first hand. Thanks to Jim Westcott of Riptides and Rapids, Mt. View, CA, and his volunteers and assistant coaches for making this work. Thanks very much to my on-water coaches Chris Duff, Bryan Smith (who kindly pulled me out of the drink and showed me a new recovery), Shawna Franklin, Justine Curgenven and Rowland Woolven. And thanks to Yoshiko for shooing the seagulls. Sally Driscoll *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
In a message dated 10/27/2003 12:23:37 PM Central Standard Time, sjdriscoll_at_prodigy.net writes: > The coaches were outstanding with just that edge of insanity... perhaps > someone who participated in it could describe the Nigel Dennis cliff rescue > first hand. > > This is my interpretation of the difficult landing procedure: In an area with accessible terrain but no perceived landing zones a group of kayakers determine the best place to land possible. Kayaker 1 clips tow line into his kayak. Kayaker 2 clips into 1's kayak. Kayaker 3 clips into 2's kayak, etc. Kayaker 1 wet exits and times swell with a swim to rocks. Climbs rocks and pulls kayak up to perch and releases tow line. Kayaker 1 detaches kayaker 2's tow line from kayaker 1's boat and pulls boat in slightly, careful to time swell. At most advantagious time kayaker 2 wet exits, swims to rocks while kayaker 1 pulls in boat. Repeat for kayaker 3. Rob G *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Thanks. That's a good bare-bones outline. It's quite a feat even in outline form. Now add real people, their abilities and emotions, the end of a long day, crashing surf and an extraordinary Kayaker 1. It's good to know your limitations. Sally Driscoll Rcgibbert_at_aol.com wrote: sjdriscoll_at_prodigy.net writes:... the Nigel Dennis cliff rescue This is my interpretation of the difficult landing procedure: In an area with accessible terrain but no perceived landing zones a group of kayakers determine the best place to land possible. Kayaker 1 clips tow line into his kayak. Kayaker 2 clips into 1's kayak. Kayaker 3 clips into 2's kayak, etc. [...] *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:35 PDT