rest on a meadow
Author: Admin Page 39 of 78
Haoin the new Cetus under a Cherry tree
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After returning from a hectic weekend of non-stop input & thought provocation, I am now filled with ideas and questions.
The European paddle pass systaem, has been adopted here in Denmark as in many other mainland european countries. After passing the L2 seakayak instructor exam last year, I have been waiting to find out how the coach training here in Denmark would be compared to coach training under the new BCU system. Well I arrived Friday evening to find five other trainees and three coaches, so from the very start it was an intensive process with such a high trainer to trainee ratio. Denmark has more than its fair share of top instructors with a diverse background. Over the course of the weekend we worked on:
- The 5 B’s
- VAK
- Coaching
- Levels (What seperates a level 2 paddler from a level 3 paddler etc.)
- Assessment
- Feedback
During Sunday morning the 6 trainees delivered a 20 minute session that we had prepared before arriving on the course, it was great fun and really exciting, it is not that often that you get to teach 5 other coaches & 3 top trainers.
It was great to see two other trainees in matching Bahiyas (The Bahiya boys….. :-).)
I will post more about the weekend and the VAKs, Bs and other starnge sounding subjects on my own site as time allows.
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After reading kellys post about sticker placement, maybe it could be a good idea to free-up some of that valuable front-deck realestate: 🙂
A pump, a sponge & a paddlefloat, are items carried by many seakayakers, these are used during and after a rescue in many circumstances. Keeping the pump & paddlefloat close at hand is important, many people store them on the frontdeck, or next to the dayhatch behind the cockpit. I do the same if I am teaching self-rescue. The problem with storing these items on the front deck is that it takes space away from the seakayakers all-important chart table…. Over the last few years I have been storing these three items under my frontdeck. I have a system that allows me to quickly retrieve these items if I am in the water beside the kayak, or if I am in my boat and want to use the pump.
In this image, you can see that I have used epoxy and fiberglass tape to construct a simple system to hold the equipment under the frontdeck. The elastic is passed through plastic tubing that is secured to the sides and the middle of the underside of the cockpit.
In the second image, you can see the pump, paddlefloat & sponge neatly stored out of the way, but easily at hand.
Of course, kayaks with a cockpit hatch have a built-in storage area for other essentials like VHF radio, flares & snacks 🙂