Saturday November - Bann

with Robin Ruddock, Steve Smith and Ray Rowe
River Bann below the Cutts

Split into two groups,
practised teaching techniques in open boats with Robin and Steve, then had lunch.


then practised kayak teaching with Ray.

Finally Ray gave us a lesson of his own -

Put new paddlers in a boat and give them 5 minutes to get used to it. They will turn when they don't want to, so then teach them how to sweep... gentle, whole body, see how few strokes you can get round 360 degrees
so they can now turn.
give them a task that involves turning to go in a straight line... build on what happens naturally to help them do what they can't do.

Friday - November pool session

pool session
practising rolls, braces and various strokes, culminating in a game of polo.

Kayak Saturday October

Same location and format as the open boat morning session.

Forward paddling, reverse paddling, draw strokes, bow rudder, stern rudder...

Bow rudder game was to play chicken with the quoins
Stern rudder was shoot through a narrow gap.
Also played tig with wet sponges.

Everybody was cold and tired so learning became a chore. The sea and wind affected our ability to get into a good position to teach, and stay in one place to even hear the instructions.  Teaching became repetitive and dull.

Brian changed tempo dramatically and this had an interesting effect.
He enthusiastically/loudly got us to circle and change stroke on command. Loud voice, him in the centre of the circle so he could see and be seen/heard.

Finished session with Paul taking us out to deeper water, bigger waves. From a distance it looked challenging, but turned out to be easy enough.
Again if i'd committed more fully i would have enjoyed it more.

Saturday october weekend

Task - teach each other basic strokes

Began with discussion on location.
Wind 8k from the west, tide low and falling.
Suggestion  was portballintrae harbour
My initial reaction was that the wind had nothing to disrupt it across the bay. Movanagher is much better sheltered.

We did eventually go to portballintrae. I was persuaded because John works there on the sups and he said ok.

It was too windy.
Open Boats
Can't remember who taught what.
Forward paddling, power strokes, and sweep strokes.

Sweep stroke, Maureen planned to do a clock face game which i think would have worked well even in the wind.

My turn,
fed up with the wind i got them all to paddle across to the west side of tue bay. My thinking was to gain the shelter of the quoins.

Tide was too far out to use those but there's a slipway and wall that did nearly as well.

Starting to teach when they were tired from paddling a quarter of a mile against the wind also isn't ideal.

Indian stroke was a good choice because it actually was new to most, so they were interested.
Gave a back story about indians hunting silently and mentioned it's good in the wind because the paddle never gets caught out of the water. Maybe didn't explain the wind part well enough because i got asked about "modern day use" later.

1 watch the blade - held the blade out of the water and demonstrated the j followed by the forward slice

2 asked if anybody noticed my top hand. Nobody had. Demonstrated again emphasising the top hand rotation.

Had to demonstrate on the other side because not everybody had a good view.
Should have demonstrated the canoe moving but apparently it was ok that i didn't.
Told them to practice for a minute
Then blindfolded Paul (Ray controlled their boat) everybody had to creep up on Paul and he pointed when he heard a paddle splash. Worked quite well. Maybe throwing wet sponges would have been better.

J-stroke and c-stroke, did a circuit of the rocks around coach so he could get a good view that's a good idea watching everybody pass in turn, watch them and give individual advice.

Numbered boat swapping game is a good one

Draw stroke in pairs to give confidence that you won't capsize works well. 

Used journey back to practise towing.

Sunday afternoon on sixmilewater

Me and the boy paddled an hour on the sixmilewater.
Taught him forward paddling,

Using the long beavertail practised indian and sculling draw.
Tried reverse sculling draw and paddling direct against flowing water, neither very successfully.

Saw several moorhens, a cormorant and a kingfisher.

Rolling

Video theory then pool session

Set up position is crucial,
Place your padddle on the surface of the water
Twist your body to that side
Push up with the leading knee
Flick hips
Don't be tempted to raise your head too soon.

Paddle should move across the surface of the water, not dig down into it.

My biggest issue is pushing down to tey and lever myself up. Results in boat lurching forward.

Paul guided my paddle and when i concentrate on that everything else goes out the window.

Need more practice.

Sunday September weekend, Portrush.

Surfing. Spent too much time trying to understand wave patterns and surf well rather than take every opportunity to push my limits and so learn, but good practice for bracing and steering strokes. Also, would have been good opportunity to practice rescues in rough water but I held back rather than diving in to gain experience.

Pool session, Friday September

Before the session we went over Eskimo rescues (staying in boat), x rescue and how to reenter the kayak.

In the pool, practised rescues also paddling in flooded kayak which was great for stability and brace strokes.

Finished with brief game of polo.

Sunday, September weekend

Portrush Harbour.
Taught each other strokes using
Introduce
Demonstrate
Explain
Activity
Summary

Then practice with throw ropes off the harbour wall.

Portballintrae September Saturday afternoon

Teaching strokes to each other. Playing tig and throwing sponge game then out to deeper water to practice deep water rescues, and carrying a victim.

Camus, alternative strokes and rescues

Practised goon stroke, paddling alternate sides, moving sideways. Towing, experimenting with different positions in the boat, moving to adjust trim, kneeling low, high kneeling, cross paddling.
Then self rescue and x rescues. Practising different methods reentry.

single boat recovery

2 boats, 3 paddlers (Malcolm, Gareth and me)
mouth of the sixmilewater

can we recover a single swamped boat?

first showed Malcolm X-rescue, and re-entry because he hadn't covered those.

swamped boat.
1. boat upside down, paddlers outside boat
two paddlers, one at each end; very difficult to break the seal, and when we did, couldn't lift the boat far enough to flip it over.
result was boat still upside down, even lower in the water than when we started.


2. boat upside down, paddlers under the boat
two paddlers, one each end; push and kick to lift the boat, then flip it over in the air. Once we'd communicated on which way to flip... broke the seal much easier, With a lot of effort we could partially flip the boat.
result was a lot of water in the boat, but much more successful than option 1.

3. boat on side.
one paddler reach over the middle of the upside down boat and pull the far gunwale up towards themselves. Move to one end, and with the boat on its side, lift and twist, allowing the boat to flop upright when it's as far out of the water as possible.
result, a lot of water in the boat, with less effort than option 2.

It is easy to get into a boat with a lot of water in it
but the boat is very unstable.
With care, it could be bailed.

Tried towing a full boat. very difficult.

still to cover:
kids with two boats
towing
throw lines
recover unconscious paddler.

moving water

family in Ranger. A&H in sevylor inflatable.

had hoped to make a bit of a journey on the Bann from Newferry into lough beg, but with jetskis and wind, and the flow on the water, decided to go to Portglenone and play.

paddled mostly in the Sevylor inflatable.

played with eddies, eddy lines, ferry glides.

also practiced paddling with double-blade paddle. It's been a while.

rescue practice - lower lough erne

Gareth & me:


Gareth in water
I X-Rescued Gareth's filled boat
Gareth climbed over the far side, me holding his boat down from my own

Me in the water
Gareth curled my boat to empty
I climbed up the middle using both boats

additional practice
I tried a curl,
Gareth tried an X-rescue
Gareth tried up the middle - prefers over the side
I tried over the side - prefer up the middle.

All-In.
we sat astride Gareth's upturned boat and X'd mine, recovered quite quickly, boat was about 1/3 full,
Gareth tried to climb in and capsized. might have been better if I'd counterbalanced the other side.

first-boat recovery took longer the second time (tired, but also spent time trying to get the boat emptier; never really succeeded in better than 1/3.)

I think I went in first this time, Gareth counterbalancing other side. successfully X'd Gareth's boat and he came in over the side.

for next time, should stay closer to shore in case something does go wrong.


paddled back to jetty

Rescuing children
S: swam from jetty to boat and came in over the side. needed very little assistance
R: Gareth helped her from jetty to boat - easy to pull aboard by BA shoulder straps
E: as R... better water confidence
C: panicked a bit in water, but came aboard as R&E


future scenarios:
kids with two boats
two paddlers climbing into one boat
towing
throw lines
can you recover and bail an upturned boat?
recover an injured/unconscious paddler

Lusty Beg

participants: 4 adults, 4 children (two boats) camped at LoanEden. a very good commercial campsite, half mile from lough shore. paddled from Kesh to Lusty Beg following the shoreline then straight back across open water.