A friend of mine took his first Kayak class this weekend and determined the sport was not for him . There were myriad reasons why he didn't like it but I think if his environment had been a little more controlled the outcome could have been much more positive.
I will never recommend that anyone take a class where the first day they are introduced to a kayak they are placed in a playboat on a cold river running at 2000 CFS .
I know there are exceptions, but the place for the beginner is a warm pool until they feel confident. I saw a video from expidiciones chile about how a warm pool is the place to start and after hearing my friends experiences I totally agree.
No need. We don't usually take beginners out of the pool until they can roll, and even then as soon as they are upside down in the cold water in a river its swim time.
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I think you should get on the river as soon as you can. Who wants to invest all that time in the pool, only to find out that you really don't like it once you get on the river?
Get your wet exit down, work on the roll in the pool or a lake, and then get out on something easy (Class II). Get out on your first day, just don't jump into something that you can't tube down. As you said, jumping into too much of a river may have been the problem for your buddy.
One thing I don't see too much of out here, but as a beginner was practiced quite a bit back east is the bow rescue. I know that I spent a good deal of my first few days on the water upside down waiting for someone to bow rescue me. This built confidence that nothing terrible was going to happen just b/c I was upside down.
No biggie. Maybe deciding not to paddle saved him some future misery. I wouldn't tell him to give it another shot because if swimming that stuff bothered him that much then he is really going to be bothered when he figures out how punishing kayaking really can be. There are a lot safer and less scary recreational pursuits to be had, that is for sure.
I agree Kevintee,
We dont take people on the river unless they can roll. We usually have a ten roll rule; if you can roll ten times in a roll without missing one then you are ready for the river. Then we dont have to do the silly class II trips, we can just take them on class III.
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I agree Kevintee,
We dont take people on the river unless they can roll. We usually have a ten roll rule; if you can roll ten times in a roll without missing one then you are ready for the river. Then we dont have to do the silly class II trips, we can just take them on class III.
Yeah, we are fortunate that we have Union Chutes right here, so that is where we usually take people for their first trip. It has some features that are intimidating for people, but when you make it, it is very rewarding for a first timer. Also With few exceptions it is a great place to swim right now, not too much danger and it has HUGE eddies.
This as opposed to Golden, we went their on saturday. There are just not enough or big enough eddies there for beginners, we had a swimmer to we parked the other 2 newbs in the eddie and went after the swimmer and gear. Well the 2 other ones got recirced into the current and ended up swimming, all I can say is thank god for Rescue Vests with teathers. We would never have gotten the boats out otherwise.
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I might come from an entirely different school of thought on all things, but I'm a jump in and try it kind of guy.
When I taught kayaking I made sure everyone knew how to wet exit, had the knowledge to look for the throwbag, how to grab it, which side to put it on, etc...and had a basic knowledge of eddies/currents and strokes-when in doubt, paddle hard out!
Then I'd put them in the river and we would go run some class II or III- drops. They would swim, I would play pick up, and everyone got the feel of how challenging it was. The return clients would start spending time with me working on rolls and then tackling bigger stuff, but you have to get them out.
Sometimes for beginners it's a long time before they can roll up...it's easy, but it's not, y'know? I had a point in my career, for example, where I was getting into some bigger stuff and, I don't know what happened, but I lost my roll unless I had a current to work with. My technique was lost and it took me a while to find. Does that mean I should stop running creeks? It means there's a bigger consequence if I F*&^ up is all. So, I have to take that into account!
I say get them on the river, see if they like it, let them spend some time getting used to boating with a heavy current and some rapids and then start teaching them *advanced* skills.
Oh yeah, and T-Rescues are great, but they don't work well for a boater that flipped in the rapids! Only in eddies/flatwater/easy rapids.
When I learned I did one wet exit and away we went! The guy that introduced me to kayaking was once ranked 8th in the world and his theory was if you learn to roll right away then you get lazy on the brace. I think swimming is a very important part of the learning process.
Of course I didn't believe him so I taught my self how to roll and as a result my brace still suffers today, Go figure!
I'm also in the "get out and try it" school of teaching.
I don't see the point in spending all that time in the pool, when most people are going to end up swimming their first few times on the river anyways. Pool time can't teach you how to catch eddies and stroke technique on a moving body of water. Teach them how to wet exit and get them on some class II. Being comfortable (not scared) swimming class II is going to be a great gage for whether the person is going to like the sport or not. If they can't handle swimming class II, then maybe the sport just isn't for them.
I also can't think of a better way to turn a person off to the sport, then to take them down some class III when they haven't even been on the river yet and only have pool roll.
My first kayak experience was a two hour session on a lake, to teach us how to wet exit properly and then we ran some class II on the Upper Colorado @ 1600cfs.
I say get them on the river, see if they like it, let them spend some time getting used to boating with a heavy current and some rapids and then start teaching them *advanced* skills.
I would not call the ability to roll and 'advanced' skill. I may be the exception to the rule, but it only took me 40 minutes to learn how to roll, another 45 to get the offside, and another hour to get the backdeck.
I feel like giving people the confidence of at least being able to roll in the pool gives them more confidence when they are getting in the river. Obviously I don't have much experience teaching, but in my limited experience, your actions aren't really going to change someones mind about kayaking as far as whether they like the sport but maybe it will save you some hassle if they know how to roll before they hit the river.
Also, I feel bad whenever I hear from someone that it took them 'months' or 'years' to get their roll. If it is taking that long then there is something wrong with the teaching methods.
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. There were myriad reasons why he didn't like it but I think if his environment had been a little more controlled the outcome could have been much more positive.
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