Oct 31 2012
Coaches at Work
I’m back in sunny California from 2 weeks of rainy travels in Oregon. It was a great trip where I got to meet lots of great folks, reconnect with some good friends, and paddle in some neat places. The reason for the Oregon road trip was Alder Creek Kayak and Canoe‘s BCU Week and Lumpy Waters Symposium.
One of the highlights of the trip was getting to work (and play) with other kayak coaches. It is fun to work with others and see how their style works for students as well as to learn new ideas.
Karl Andersson tosses the tennis ball in a warm-up drill in the 4 Star Sea Leader Training.
Alex Stoeffl coaches a student on bracing in the soup.
Amanda Cantel directs traffic in the surf zone.
Chris Bensch runs his students through dynamic surf turns on the beach.
Cindy Scherrer coaches a student into the surf zone.
Malcolm Kelly demonstrates a bow assist.
Theresa Flodin goes vertical practicing her surf zone skills.
Matt Nelson emphasizes the paddler’s box.
Jeff Laxier takes his class for a swim.
As a coach, my highlight of the week was at the end of Sunday’s Fun & Feedback Class. After progressing through bracing, launching and landing drills in the soup zone, the students each had their chance to put all the pieces together and launch and land on their own. They had to launch themselves, paddle out into the soup zone, turn their kayaks around to face shore (not an easy task in lumpy waters), paddle back to shore, and land with their kayak in control.
They did great!!! I still get warm fuzzing feelings picturing them smiling and landing their kayaks.
