KIX Newsletter Spring 2007

Newsletter Index:
Fall 06
Spring 06
September 05
June 05
March 05
October 04
June 04
March 04
January 04
November 03
September 03
August 03
July 03
June 03
May 03
April 03
February-March 03

Since the writing of the fall newsletter I've been to the Annual Whitewater Symposium which was held in California, and to the ACA annual meeting in D.C. (I stayed in a historic bed and breakfast the first night where paintings of male government officials look down on you while you sleep under canopied beds).

The October Whitewater Symposium was pretty good. The best clinic at the whitewater symposium (which mostly targets instructors) was the one on games. We played all kinds of goofy games led by Janet from Zoar Outdoors.

"Dead Fish" tag was a great warm up for the river.

My favorite on water game was one where each person picks an "enemy" and a "friend" and tries to always keep the friend between the enemy. At the word "go" total chaos ensued!

We had a very realistic Swiftwater Rescue update,

I filmed a course by Erik Jackson on playboating so that I have a good reference for practice this summer.

I also led two custom instructor workshops in November and February - despite being cold they were fun! The November whitewater course was in Spokane and our main guest was a woman from Notre Dame! Dustin Semb also came for an update and to show us his beginner playboating teaching sequence, as seen in the movie below:

The February Instructor Development Workshop was held in Port Townsend and we had great weather, as you can see by the sunrise!

It was so good I was worried that we wouldn't have any "bad" weather for our scenario day, but I was not to be disappointed! We went over to the Port Townsend Canal and had a wonderful venturi effect with current. This successfully blew all of our kayaks together during the rescue, giving us plenty to debrief later on.

Teaching skiing this winter has too fun - unlike kayaking, we get people from all over the world and of all ages for about three hours at a time.. With that many learning styles it's a fun challenge to see if we can ride the lift before the end of class!

With all of that, I have finally managed to post a preliminary schedule online. You can see it at this link: http://kayakinstructionexcellence.com/KIX/ClinicSchedule.html

If you took beginning classes last year and are ready for more intermediate work and coaching this year, I am scheduling some mid-week evenings just for that. Let's go to the lakes, the open water and to the Powerhouse run on the Snoqualamie!

As the northwest DIF (divisional instructional facilitator) I sponsored a Open Water Coastal Kayak Instructor Update at Deception Pass. After we instructors had hashed out all of our issues over a big breakfast, we went to play in upwards of 18 knots of wind against a four knot current. Some people felt uncomfortable launching at Bowman Bay where logs were getting pushed up the beach by the surf, so we moved to the southeast side of the pass. (See the opening surfing image at top)

Instructor Corner:

ACA Instructor Courses are here - with April 20th coming right up for coastal instructors and one in June for whitewater (dates by request).

I've recently had a few requests for instructor training which leads up to the ACA courses. These would follow more of a formula and focus on the how-to's of teaching and coaching. We do touch on that during the Instructor Development Workshops, but as there is so much to cover we don't have the time to be as in-depth as some would like. Please let me know if you would be interested in this.

Other requests have been for canoeing and I am trying to find a canoe instructor trainer.

The Puget Sound Symposium is coming up May 19-20 in Tacoma - visit me at my booth!

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