Spring course's with Coastal Spirit, Anglesey, North Wales

The following courses currently have places on them this Spring and into early Summer.  All are all based in North Wales, Anglesey:

Surf & Tide-race's - Intermediate Plus (4* leader trained) to Advanced with maximum of four paddlers and with one place left.  Cost £160 on the 11/12th March.  Follow this link

Sea Kayak Leader Training (4*) on the 27th-30th March with Coastal Navigation & Tidal Planning (CNTP) theory.  Three places left and at a cost of £270.  Follow this link

Advanced Sea Kayak Leader training (5*) on the 3-6th April, with Open water Navigation theory and night navigation.  One place left at £270.  Follow this link

Intermediate sea kayaking - working on 3 star performance skills, 4 places left at £160 20/21st May.  Follow this link

For any further information on any of the above follow the links above or email roger@coastalspirit.com.

I look forward to sharing the stunning Anglesey coastline with you.

Thanks,

Roger

www.coastalspirit.com

Storms and Winter Sea Kayaking, a Reflection ...

Nine Storms have impacted the UK this Winter, with three of those in 2016 - Gertrude, Henry and Imogen.  Yet in between these storms theres been time and space for some super Winter Sea Kayaking this January 2016.

The course I want to draw attention to is the Advanced course and this one in particular was the 2nd, 5* Leader preparation course I had run over the Winter.  The course was aimed at those who had done the 5* Leader training and wanted to work in 5* assessment conditions.  This was in a work shop format on specific skills and tasks or areas each person felt supported their individual action plan.  

From the forecast we had the perfect weekend with Penrhyn Mawr working for some tide race action, some swell, wind picking up from the NW for the night navigation in Trearddur Bay and then a Skerries open water crossing on the Sunday with remnants of the wind.  It had been a long weekend with conformations, further learning and further action plans created ...

A Leadership model I have used over the years which I feel really works and may help to provide a useful structure is by John Adair and is called Action Centred Leadership (ACL) and works around three circles - Task, Team and Individual.  You may have a main Task for example of leading an Advanced journey involving a couple of tide races and then sub tasks.  A sub task could be getting the team of the beach, through the surf at the start of the day.  If we consider the Task: Whats the strategy to achieve the task most effectively? How are you going to work the team, team functions, giving purpose, buddy system, sub leader/No2?  and do any of the individuals need specific attention, encouragement, how can I use individuals so there work contributes over all to the team objective?  

Generally its difficult, if not imposable to manage all three areas at once, so time is given to one of the three areas and once thats been achieved, attention needs to be given to the other areas.  If for example only the Task is focused on, one can probably see the job gets down, at the expense of the Team and the Individual!

So why not explore and experiment using the model below and enhance your leadership abilities and skills, as well as surfing that tide race wave!

Action Centred Leadership - John Adair

Tavi getting a good hit and looking solid ...

Zoe working with Debs in Buddy Leadership

The main race, with Zoe up flow, Julie centre and just the head of Debs (on the right)

Leaving The Skerries on a flood tide

Thanks to Tavi Murray for originally contacting me about the weekends and the idea.  And Julie Jones, Debs Heldon and Zoe Robinson for making the weekend work.  As for me, my personal learning was when you get a new paddle, remember to put reflective tape on it, just like you have on the other one.  So if you ever loose a black paddle at night it may then just have a greater chance of seeing it!!

Roger

PS:  Thanks to Zoe for finding my paddle, some 30+ minutes later!

www.coastalspirit.com

info@coastalspirit.com

explore. dream. discover

5 Star Leader Training Sea - Sunny South Devon!

Its the 2nd 5 star leader training Ive now run in sunny summer conditions and Ive got to say its fantastic!!  

South Devon and working with Lee Pooley and with a forecast of F4/5 over the weekend and 1.5-2.1 mt swell running from the W/SW was always going to bring a smile to my face.  We headed for Salcombe and South Sands and Bo's cafe.  

After some discussions and comparisons of tidal plans we headed out ... tricky as it was just after 1200 and I'd been snacking so i needed to keep a close watch on the time so we could have a proper lunch!!  We had decided after last year to start at 1100, due to having to wait for darkness to arrive. 

Gully rescues with contact tows and towlines ... building up too

 .... rocky landings and surf launch swim back out ...

At Bolt Head and some super confused conditions  ....

Outside Bolt Head and a good wind and swell against tide ...  ;)

We did a couple of loops, and then came back in and discussed top tips and handy hints .... and assessing individuals before deciding to run down into the race ... which was significant!!

Back towards south sands The Bar was working really well ...

We did a few short navigation sections from 2030 onwards after a super warm dinner in the fading sun, up towards South Pool and as the darkness fell upon us, the nigh nav began!

The following day we headed back to this super venue.  Leadership sections with or without a scenario were worked through and as we came across a new venue between Lee and my self short work shops were delivered.

Landing an incapacitated a paddler in a raft and through some small surf - a rescue that needs good practice and in my opinion other options need to be explored before deciding on this scenario ...

After a short lunch, the surf was calling us back out and a few nice waves, were rolling in ...

Debriefs over ice cream (well at least for me any way) ... with another top group of guys, wrapped up another fab 5 star leader training. Note to self,  run more 5 star leader trainings in the summer  .. ;)

Thanks to Lee and Jo for putting me up - it was great to work with Lee again.

Roger

roger chandler
www.coastalspirit.com