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

Advanced Sea Kayaking - Anglesey, North Wales

This course is aimed at those paddlers who have completed the 4 star leader sea training and want coaching, the opportunity to work in rough conditions, with either specific performance skills, incident management and rescues and leadership scenarios.  

Each person came with a skill, incident management scenario, leadership task which we would address over the weekend and a plan where to paddle.  The course aims to assist and bridge the gap that some paddlers find if they don't belong to a club or have friends that are paddlers.  So it was great to see Gary, Andy, Tavi and Zoe again and catch up with the last few months paddling, over a coffee and create a plan.

Due to a strong SW winds forecast, the North coast was our discussed and chosen venue and the blue sky and sunshine eased the water exposure ... 

The edge of Borthwen Bay provide a great into and down wind area to work a number of tows and rescues.  Tavi leading Andy with a contact tow, and keeping it simple ..

Gary with Zoe and experimenting with the casualty up or down wind ... rolling, self rescues and tow line capsize and release were also worked through.  I also took some video to share the feedback latter, when off the water, of a couple of rolls.

Sunday and Trearddour Bay provided some swell, small surf and more incident management stuff ... Gary below catching a wave ..

Rocky landings and this exercise was swimming your boat in on your tow line ... Zoe below ...

Working in pairs both capsized and worked through an all in rescue ... then more self rescues, rolling, and an unconscious casualty, recovered with the scoop rescue ...

Then time to generate heat and warm up, with close quartering and moving in and out of the rocks and channels ...

This also provided a good opportunity to look at leadership positioning ...

It was a super weekends paddling and great seeing each person having progressed and hearing plans about when they will be meeting up next to paddle.  Happy days  ....

Roger

advanced sea  kayaking course
+
rough water handling