Helping out on an introductory course

I volunteered to help with an Intro Course, run by Alan. He selected a few boats to use, I just had to help people fit the seat pegs and put on a cag and buoyancy aid. Note to self, the spray deck goes inside the cag. I also tried fitting people to paddles, I need to think about that again a bit harder, I think I got in the habit of using a shorter paddle as it kept me straight, but recently I’ve been using a longer paddle for the sea kayak.

We did a good few hours of skills (forwards, sweep, sideways, stopping), played a game, ate cake and then did a paddle to Turnchapel and played under the marina.

We had a couple of capsizes during the game, I found it harder than I thought to empty the boats. I think I tried lifting the first boat the wrong way round (need to lift the boat out the water with the bow higher as it has no airbags). However, second time round, there was still a lot of weight despite the air bags. I need to rethink this a little. We used to practice all the time and a lot of things became automatic but I’ve forgotten over time.

All in all, I enjoyed the day, and I really do like this set up. I do miss the regular skills sessions on a Tuesday, I need a lot of repetition.