4 Star Leader Training - 13 day developmental programme

Have you ever wanted more time to develop your personal paddling, incident management, assisted/self rescue skills and leadership, in Moderate tidal water’s.  If so, from the 9^th November a 13 day course begins that will take you thorough the British Canoeing 4 Star Performance and Leadership award and much more.

Adriana Eyzaguirre of Explora Expeditions has organized an exciting extended 4 Star Leader training programme, with my self, here on Anglesey, North Wales. 

Currently 4 people have booked on, so the course will go ahead and they are looking for 2 more to join.
 The team will be training for 13 days with weekend breaks and the course includes the Coastal Navigation & Tidal planning award and Foundation Coaching the Mind award.

Additionally, I’m is also offering the option to come along for two weekends following the 13 days programme to assist/observe me with his groups (must have solid roll for this and only one person per weekend). 
I’m also offering an opportunity to join the coaching and mentoring programme offered by Coastal Spirit.

The team will be staying at Anglesey Outdoors bunk house, during the programme.

This is a unique opportunity to bring on further your skills, with a good mix of conditions and time to reflect over the 13 days.   You will also leave the programme with a detailed action plan.

Interested? Would you like more details then contact Adriana via email: exploralondon@gmail.com

Thanks, 

Roger

North Wales Sea Kayaking - 4 star leader training and development

Time to catch up on a couple of Blogs, after a busy couple of weeks.  The first is a sea kayaking course on Anglesey, with Tavi, Anita and Neil was on the 4 star leader training and we had mixed conditions.  The wind mainly never truly arrived, as forecast.  The Swellies on Sat working through various skills and rescues and some rough water with Rhoscolyn on Sunday.  The ebb current provided super conditions to transfer skills and surf, roll, self rescue and apply various assisted rescues.  Contact tows, with deciding to keep the water in the kayak, to get the person out of the situation quickly or no real rush and better to get the water out, perhaps because a rafted tow was required.  KISS - Keeping it simple short by using no tow line or connecting link was the start and when to use towlines or a link.

After a busy weekend and action planning finish.  Monday saw Tavi leave and David joins us for the Coastal Navigation and Tidal Planning theory course and a day to rest the body and push the mind ...

With the 4 star leader training course now completed, day 4 and 5 was based on addressing action plans and areas of development. Anita and Neil, had both mentioned, surf, tidal planning and relating it to the environment, plus leadership positioning.  The Stacks would push all of the above and with light winds and a 10 sec swell interval, it was likely  to be lively.

Pen rhyn mawr (inner channel) on the last hour of the flood and close to slack, with Neil leading through ...  there was to much swell to get really close to the cliffs but the various eddy streams were strong and the sun was out ..

  

Anita approaching South Stack race and about 100mt above the first wave ... 

and this monster rearing its head ... time to really get those kayaks moving!  Once through we turned and worked the smaller waves, before continuing our journey back to the start.

The final day saw Anita and my self getting out and into the wind on the North coast and considering positioning, and personal skills to get the best out of the boat and top tips for once students ..

Some close quartering and paddling close to the rocks, before lunch and a paddle out to middle mouse, wrapped up the day.  Hot chocolates and a recap of the last few days before Anita flew back to Switzerland.

Roger
www.coastalspirit.com
info@coastalspirit.com

4 star leader training sea
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4 star leader development course

4 Star Leader Training - S ea ... 2 places now available due to cancelation

4 star leader training course sea with currently two places available due to a joint cancellation. Options exist as a two day training course at £160 and 29/30th March, or with Coastal Navigation and Tidal Planning (CNTP) at £230 and on the 31st March.   Just attending the CNTP theory day cost £90. Or make it into a 5 day course at £330 and make the most of conditions and work on your action plan on days 4/5, from the 29/3 - 2/4.

This 4 star leader training course will cover the personal skills, leadership, improvised rescue and navigation skills.  While the CNTP is a theory based course on the third day.  The 4th and 5th days are called Development days and allow you to paddle your action plan and experience more of what Anglesey can offer.

The 4 star course, over three - five days aims to exceed the training requirements for this award and goes into more depth, allowing more time for reflection, discussion and being out on the sea, in various conditions. 

The aim of the CNTP course is to provide paddlers with the tools so as to be able to plan and navigate effectively on coastal journeys in moderate sea conditions, up to 2 nautical miles offshore in areas of tidal movement up to 2 knots.  
  
At the end of your 4 star sea training course you will also have opportunity to complete a personalised action plan.  Plus as part of our commitment to your development and progress we offer you the opportunity if your skills are up to speed to observe and assist on two Coastal Spirit sea kayaking course's, free. 

Previous experience and requirements for attending a training course, are the new 3 star sea award, or the old 4 star sea award or old level 3 coach training and a current 8 hour first aid certificate incl CPR. 

For the 4 star leader sea training, guidance notes and the syllabus have a look here.

What a couple of people have said ...

Thanks Roger, great week.  Feel like I've moved on so much in lots of ways.

Cheers, Gordon - Cheshire.

Thank you very much for the nice pictures and the course.  Three days proved to be really valuable for me and gave me extra motivation to continue in the BCU performance & leadership awards system.

All the best, Mikk - Estonia

To get a better feel for a course or see a brief account have a look and read a summary on my Blog here.

Email me if your interested or want more information.  

Thanks, Roger

UKCC BCU 3, 4 and 5* Leader Courses early 2014

Currently I have a few spaces on the following course's:

5 Star Leader Training 15/16th March 2014 - £160
Open Water Navigation and Tidal Planning (OWNTP) on the 17/3 - £90
Development days 18/19th March - 5 day package - £380

3 places left on the training and 6 on the OWNTP course.

4 Star Leader Training - 29/30th March 2014 - £160
Coastal Nav and Tidal Planning (CNTP) on the 31st - £90
Development days 1/2nd April - 5 day package  - £380

2 places on the training course and 6 on the CNTP.


3 Star Training and Assessment - 26/27th April 2014 - £140

2 places left













Have a super Christmas and a great New Year to all.

Cheers,
Roger

sea kayaking north wales
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Anglesey sea kayak courses

4 star leader training sea - North Wales, Anglesey

What super conditions at the weekend with a windy and blowy Saturday and a blue sky Sunday.   Judith, Katy, Tracy and Gareth were booked on the 4 star leader training and with the new syllabus it took me longer than expected, to work through.  

Moving and positioning in wind, contact tows and trimming the casualty to assist with direction, assisted rescues, towing, a short surf session and self rescues kept me busy and before i new it we were driving away in the dark!!   

On Sunday after reviewing pre prepared tidal and route plans, we headed out to Rhoscolyn to work in some current and swell, with leadership positioning based round the principles of CLAP - Communication, Line of Sight, Avoid/awareness/Anticipate and Position of max use.  An opportunity to lead the other 3, deal with a scenario, incident manage and then gain feedback then followed.  We finished back in the bay breaking down self rescues ...

Today (Monday) was Coastal Navigation & Tidal Planning (CNTP) the theory element of the course and due to the wind and rain I was pleased to be inside ...

Next 4 star leader training is 29/30th March, CNTP 31st March and additional two days possible on the 1/2nd April to make it a 5 day course with the potential of allowing the techniques to be well practised and experience a mixture of sew states, wind and venues.  See here for more details


Roger

www.coastalspirit.com
info@coastalspirit.com

4 star leader training - sea

Point Lynas on the first day after a couple of hours tidal planning and after moments of being on we saw two small pods of Dolphins 200mt out, slowly feeding in the last of the flood tide.  We moved past the point and work on contact tows, single in line, rafted tandem and rafted assisted.  before landing for some lunch.  

As the current had now turned we headed back talking about leadership positioning and a few set tasks in the flow were set.  Nubu, above having ago with a balance exercise, round the world before executing a smooth a re-entry and roll.

Tidal planning home work was given and the Sunday saw us driving to Porth Dafach to paddle the Stacks.  It could have been a good day in the summer ... a little fresher but a magic day.  We worked the central channel with eddy turns, rolling, self rescue and assisted rescues.  Then introduced towing someone out of the flow before assisting as an anchor, in holding an assisted rescue, from travelling further down the flow.

Bryan above paddling down the flow ...

Worked a fair bit about using the body to assist the turn, looking where you want to go, and not just with your head, using your shoulders as well.

Each person was then given a short navigation and leadership leg and some lovely rock hoping/close quartering was had ...

There was a super amount of razor bills and guillemot's, back on the rocks.  5 days previous there had only been a few, now they were rammed!

We ended up in Wen Zawn, a climbers paradise with a 90 mt slab, with classic rock climbs, such as the traverse called Dream of White Horses.  We did some arch and cave exploring and easy gully extraction tasks (paddler stuck at the back and needing to be contact towed or towed out) and then a rocky landing.   We were soon back on the water and  heading up to North Stack, for a couple of eddy turns and then jumping on the ebbing tide, our conveyor belt, to assist us back to our starting point.

Jon above and South Stack lighthouse ...

Monday was due to be a little windier and so Rhoscolyn was our location.  Again a couple of short leadership sections and this time each with a scenario to manage.  One of the main points was the aim of keeping out of the task and using other group members, where possible.

The race at the end was on max flow, with the top being clearly 5 star conditions (2mt steep and explosive).  But further down the race we had solid 4 star conditions,  as seen with Nubu below

Jon on his leadership section and managing the end of a ferry glide (flow from left to right).

Nubu above in the 5 star conditions, enjoying himself and setting up for a successful roll ... very well done!

Bryan in the one above moving out into the flow ...  we then paddled towards Rhoscolyn Head to look for a rocky landing.  Each paddler managed them selves and as seen below, having now left the rocky island and self rescuing ...  The White Eagle was open and the day finished off with some chart work and a journey plan before individual action planning ...

roger chandler
www.coastalspirit.com
info@coastalspirit.com