Cold Cold Cold!

Its been raining cats and dogs the past few days and coaching in the rain, really is no fun. You're cold, wet and chest deep in water, keeping an eye on the students. But, the crummy weather did provide learning opportunities.

Knowledge isnt enough.
One of the students was showing mild signs of hypothermia, he was shivering and his fingertips were pale and turning bluish. I told them that cotton made you lose body heat abt 20 times faster than usual, thats why they feel cold, yet I didn't think of asking the guy with hypothermia to take off his shirt when we reached shelter.

Self Reliance.
As I started coaching with Water-Venture which provides stuff like towlines, aquapacs, and a first aid kit in the office, I have been dependent on the club supplying all the necessary equipment. To avoid being over dependent, I am currently developing my towline and have put together a simple First Aid Kit, using a sandwich sized waterproof Lock & Lock container.
It currently contains the following:

1. band aids
2. sterile gauze
3. tube of antiseptic cream
4. alcohol swabs
5. tweezers
6. forceps
7. 3M Transpore tape

I plan to include a pack of heating pads too.

Coaching Refinement

After conducting a KOP for Fajar Sec at MOE JBAC, I had coffee with Bernard at Lot 1. We discussed about coaching techniques while drinking coffee and eating Ya Kun toast.

Some things I've learnt after that day.

ALWAYS conduct dry paddling
And not just moving the paddle on land, move to knee depth water and let the students know how it feels like when they are paddling properly. If they were to slice the blade, it would be evident as they would feel a sudden lack of resistance.
Dry paddling also saves you the trouble of running all over the place herding the students after you set them loose in the water.

Gain attention
Pick the rowdy ones and sit them in the front, this lets everyone know you want their full attention and you'll have lesser distractions.

Avoid multi-tasking
It helps get work done quickly, but there I can only be at one place at a time.
Say I am washing the kayak, how can I ensure if the students are putting the kayaks on the rack safely? Instead, it would be prudent to let a more responsible student do the washing which is a low risk activity. While I watch over those carrying the kayaks and bringing them to the racks.

No sharp turns during expeditions
When bringing a group on an expedition, it is best to keep the last person in view. This is to prevent the group from splitting up and in the event of any capsize where rescue is needed, the expedition leader will know that there is a need to stop. Preventing the group from spreading farther apart.

Bernard also mentioned that my coaching style is more suitable for an adult group. I guess its because the principal considerations when I coach are to provide a non-threatening environment and to be as informal as possible. I feel that an informal and non-threatening environment encourages students to ask for help when they can't perform a skill. This beats having them sit quietly in their kayak, afraid to ask for guidance.

Bernard's coaching concept is to quickly run thru the entire syllabus on the first day, leaving the 2nd day for refinement. His method is to touch and go on all the strokes, spending more time on capsize drills and rescue techniques.
I think I'll adapt his concept, with a little tweaking because I think that rushing through everything on the first day might be a bit too taxing for the students. They'll probably forget the main points on the 2nd session.

BCU updates Star Awards

The British Canoe Union or BCU has updated its Star Award scheme for paddlesports. It is now requires paddlers to take up another paddle sport to gain more knowledge.
Their 2 Star Award has a new pre-requisite which is for the participant to have experienced 2 different kinds of paddle craft and go on 2 journeys of at least 2hrs duration.

New BCU Star Award Syllabus

Look, no hands!

Now that Im able to do the hand roll on both my left and right side, my next goal for kayaking would be to successfully perform a strait jacket roll. Which is essentially rolling up without the use of hands!
I give myself until the end of April to perform this incredible feat. I foresee lotsa "water time" for this one. If you get what I mean. Hehe.

Rovers in the water!

Organised a kayaking trip to the Merlion for Rovers in Singapore, however, only 2 Rovers from Mayflower showed up.
Other than them, 3 Ventures from Aquila, David and a friend of mine, Adeline turned up for this little day trip. Making it a total of 8 participants.

Here are some pics...

The rest of the photos are here

Showing off

Video of me doing hand rolls in a Turbo (:

Paddling with new friends

Paddled with the 2 new rockclimbing buddies today... Present on the water was the pretty Lydia, the spider-like Brian and the jelly belly Huan Da.
Didn't really do much, so I can't log it down as a practice session for myself. Mostly helping them try to do an Eskimo Roll. One successful student, so still quite worth it in the end. Otherwise a little dull.
Then again, I don't really do much, I just show them the set up and the ones with better motor skills end up getting it within that short period of time.

Here are a few choice pics.