jgeada

Thanks everyone for this discussion and advice. Absolutely, training needs to go hand in hand with time in the water to practice skills and experience varied conditions. Yin and yang. Mostly I want the training and the assessments as a meter how of I am progressing, what I need to improve and/or learn and what I am doing right. It is easy to acquire bad habits over time and I believe instruction is one of the best ways of identifying those and correcting them. - Joao

Thanks for the info David. I hadn't read up on this years changes to the BCU training program and requirements. If I am a sea kayaker, why would I want or need to learn to paddle a canoe? I'm completely not interested in canoes, don't have one, don't plan on getting one and don't know how it is relevant to my sea kayaking skills to know how to paddle a canoe :-( Anyone know if it is possible to skip BCU 2 entirely and go straight to training/assessing BCU 3? Also, the BCU 3 pre-requisites state that evidence must be provided for 3 different 3hr sea trips plus evidence of 1 session in an alternate discipline. What constitutes evidence? And what are these alternate disciplines? How rigorous is this alternate disciplines requirement?

Hi all, I've decided to put some structure to my kayaking skills and have choosen to take the BCU approach. It was either BCU or ACA and from the comments here and elsewhere it appears to me that the BCU is more focused and more recognized for sea kayaking. Given that, which instructors/schools would you recommend and what is the best approach to eventually getting to a BCU 4 qualification? My end goal is to eventually get the coaching qualifications too, though I realize there is a lot of paddling yet to go to get there :-) From what I gather the BCU training seems to be organized as a training session followed by a skills assessment that, if you pass, then gives you that rating. And you acquire each rating in order, as the lower ones are the prereqs for the next one in the chain 2->3->4. So, any recommendations or guidance ? If it matters, I consider myself an intermediate kayaker, though still have lots to learn. And I am in reasonable shape. Many thanks, Joao

Thanks for everyone there last Wednesday. It was great to finally get back in the water after a long winter and it was a great group of people.

Rick, what times ? And where is the parking/put-in for the lake? I'm quite interested (though next Wednesday (April 16) I'll be out of town) Thanks, Joao

Once in a previous life my hobby used to be hang-gliding. The group I used to fly with was unusually safety conscious but even then there we had some accidents and a friend died. At the time we blamed him for making some bad decisions, and, to some extent that was true, but not useful. Some time later there was a very good article in the "HangGlide" magazine re "creeping risks and safety" that fundamentally changed how I perceived risks in that sport and in all other activities (and yes, I did quit hang-gliding). The summary: it wasn't just him, it was all of us that were pushing the odds. The basic premise is that: 1- human beings in general understand relative risk better than absolute risks 2- most of us tend to push our limits but just to a particular point where we still feel safe and in control (our personal risk tolerance) The catch is that those two interplay: say you do an activity that statistically has 20% accident rate. But you're careful, etc and you do this activity 20 times with no problem. *Your* perception of relative risk changes. Not the activity itself, but your perception of its risk! And because you now perceive that as safe (say 0% risk) you can easily find yourself pushing the risk boundary to activities with 40% risk (providing you again with a perceived relative 20% risk level). But the *absolute* risks have not changed, just your relative perception. - accept 20% risk -> undertake 20% risk activities - over time (and by taking due care) nothing harmful happens - -> *perceived* relative risk drops to 0% - since you still accept 20% risk -> you start accepting 40% conditions (as to your perception the risk level for these is now 20%) - Repeat until accident happens I have observed this same dynamic in many other sports. Sure, the baseline risk with kayaking starts much lower and we are inherently a safer sport. But this fundamental dynamic is still at play. If you enjoy taking some risks you have to be particularly careful to make sure that you are making decisions based on *absolute* risk, rather than your perception of *relative* risk.

Kevin, I can make the 6/10 demo day (the one in Woburn). Don't mind being in the water and/or helping out on land. Joao Any day in the water is a good day :-)

I am sure that there are other sea-kayakers here like me: - out of practice from not kayaking in winter - somewhat apprehensive about how our skills/fitness would hold up vs people that clearly have been going out regularly - concerned about water temperatures (weather may have turned nice and warm recently, but the ocean lags significantly) - not wanting to hold up other people with more confidence and better skills And yes, I have seen these trips being posted and, to be honest, am finding them harder & harder to resist as the weather keeps staying warm. And thank you to all of you who do post them. I certainly hope you keep doing so & hope to see you on the water :-)