Upcoming Dates

Check the URL for the spring schedule: http://www.kayakinstructionexcellence.com/KIX/ClinicSchedule.html

The next Instructor Development Workshop will be February 16-18 in Florida and April 24-26 in Washington. I've had many requests so please get your deposit in early to reserve a spot.

I am also teaching beginning sea kayaking courses and stroke updates in Seattle, Poulsbo, Port Angeles, Port Townsend and Bellingham. Courses in Alaska are in the works. In March we have a beginning whitewater course through Aqua Sports in Redmond.

Instructor's Corner

I have been a member of the curriculum review committee for a few years now. The committee is comprised of instructors from various backgrounds and geographic locations. The idea is to improve the program to meet everyone's needs, including those of our home office.

The office found that handling all the endorsements (such as surf, currents) was too difficult and asked for some of them to be removed. Added on is a new level of instructor called Rough Water. This gives us four levels: Intro, Basic, Open and Rough.

I present the Open Water Instructor Development and Certification course. It is six days long and at the end one of three levels awarded can awarded: intro, basic or open. I can also give shorter courses for just intro or basic.

Ray Killian, the chair of the curriculum committee, created a great booklet which explains the the program. Imbedded in this is a graph delineating what is expected for each level. I converted it to HTML and it can be found at: http://kayakinstructionexcellence.com/KIX/ACA_IDW_OW_Booklet.html (it might not be perfect - please let me know if you find an error).

Due to different regions, not all conditions are expected to be present. For example, an open water candidate should be "Able to safely manage a learning experience in open water; waves less than 2 foot, winds less than 15 knots, within 1 mile from shore".

This same instructor should be "Competent up to 5 foot seas, 3 foot surf, 25 knot winds, tidal currents to 3 knots".

Again, not all conditions need to be present, but if none of the conditions are present, certification at that level cannot occur.

Thus - if one is tested at the coast, one will probably find three foot surf, but not much current. If tested at a place such as Deception Pass, one might find up to six knots of current (with eddy lines, convergence zones, boat wakes) and some wind (there is great fetch from the south and west), but not much surf (although with an ebb against a southerly there is a wonderful standing wave). Other popular places offering courses are the Great Lakes, Maine, Florida, Texas and California. Each comes with it's own conditions.

It's advisable for any candidate to get experience and be competent in each of these areas.

The bulk of the lessons across the United States are taught at the intro level (able to safely manage a learning experience in flat water) or basic (flat water; waves less than 1 foot, winds less than 10 knots).

The curriculum in this document is the accepted version at the office. While all trainers are allowed personal creativity (just like professors at any university), most of the curriculum segments (such as learning styles, team teaching, navigation, leadership, rescue, stroke modeling) should be present in every IDW.

Images/Movies

The On-line Store!

paddling.about.com. Check it out! (For one thing, I need the click-throughs!)

Brochure - Brochure

Andree Hurley

Kayak Instruction Excellence

211 Taylor Street, Suite Five

Port Townsend, WA 98368

(360) 379-4182

(206) 669-1622 cell