Open boating & Coach Education programmes

Over the past few weeks I have been either delivering coach education courses for Totnes Kayak Academy and winter professional instructor programmes. These courses comprised of examining the coaching process, use and importance of demonstrations, feedback and much more. In between these programmes I have found time to enjoy the recent good water levels and get out in the canoe and brush up skills on the River Dart.

Making the most of the good weather

With all this good weather over the October period, river levels super low,it has been a chance to get out and climb and boulder, so in between work there has been lots of playing either climbing at the Dewerstone, or bouldering into the early evenings on Dartmoor.

Coach Education Programmes

The last few weeks I have been running BCU/UKCC Level 2 Coach Education programmes for outdoor education centres up and down the country. These courses comprise of enhancing existing skills and introducing new concepts to the coaches delivery such as experiementing with learning styles and coach delivery, structures of practice, learning curves and memory management. I have been fortunate to run these courses with some really talented tutors such as Robert Bazeley & Gavin Lewis. It hasnt been all work I have been able to find time to climb at the Warehouse Climbing Wall, a few training paddles and climb at the Dewerstone.

The Winter season looks busy with some really fun and exciting projects.

Motor Cruising

Brixham was the venue for this course enabling the proud owners of this new motor cruiser to be able to control and manoeuvre the vessel in confined spaces, coming along side, anchoring and the picking up of moorings. A great day out on the water and maybe the last of the good weather!!!!

Rolling Clinics

At last and after popular request ICG are now delivering rolling clinics. With our own private indoor heated pool we provide either introduction to rolling, or a rolling reconstruction for paddlers either wanting to develop their roll or have seemed to have lost the ability to roll.

The rolling sessions are held twice a month on a Thursday evening (7-9), maximum of two clients. For information either visit our website or email to book your place.

Sea Kayaking on the Isles of Scilly

Well the run up to this trip was a busy one and worrying, whilst looking at the weather forecasts and low pressures that seemed to dominate the SW of England. As always the weather was not the best accurate and we had a week of good weather with sun and light winds on most days and when it rained it was during the evenings whilst tucked up in our sleeping bags and under canvas. The trip was led by good friend Nick Arding and myself taking seven clients out to discover the wonders of the Scillies. Over the week we visited a host of islands including Tresco, St Martins, Bryher, Samson, Agnes, the Eastern Isles and St Marys.

This week we witnessed big tides, even enabling some brave souls to walk from island to island. These tides provided great playspots for rock hopping, tide races and even some interesting swell on the fringes. During our stay on these magical islands we joined in with the relaxed way of life and whilst out on the Eastern Isles a couple of clients swam with the seals.

My thanks to Nick for joining the trip and helping out in the coaching and guiding and thanks to all the group for being such a great bunch to share such a fantastic environment to sea kayak.

Staff Training

A busy run up this week before the Scillies trip, with staff training for several companies. The first outdoor company wanted their staff to have an introduction to sea kayaking and after the inital concerns they developed a good skill level landing and launching in rough conditions and rock hopping around the South Devon coastline.

Today I found myself at Looe, I realised it is a great place to coach and go for a paddle with a beautiful back drop you can discover the island and enjoy being surrounded by seals. A great learning environment for the staff to look at contextualisation of their coaching, leadership and safety and rescue skills.