IDW in Boothbay

I spent the last four days in the Boothbay area, taking part in another ACA Instructor Development Workshop. I did my first IDW a year ago, preparing me to instruct at level 3, and in the fall I assessed and became certified. I plan on teaching for awhile before assessing for level 4, but it was great to start the summer with four days of reinforcing personal paddling skills and teaching methods.

The course was taught by Todd Wright and Carl Ladd, who were joined on our last day by John Carmody.

(click on photos for bigger versions)

Boothbay is near a great variety of paddling environments, so, depending on the weather and conditions and what you hope to do, you could venture out to open ocean islands, rocky ledges or sandy beaches with good surf. We spent our time in tidal rivers, finding a bit more current each day until the last, when we played in the tidal race at the mouth of the Kennebec.

We also paddled on Knubble Bay, Lower Hell Gate and the Sheepscot River. We found calm stretches as well as places where the tide squeezes large volumes of ocean through narrow gaps between islands- good places to teach and be taught, but also just some really nice paddling.

I wasn't there to take pictures, and since we spent plenty of time in the water practicing rescues and such, I have a lot of blurry, water on the lens shots.

I also have pages and pages of notes that I wrote down each evening, trying to make sense of all we'd done. At the beginning of the class we talked about what kind of learners we are, and I half-jokingly said "slow." But I do seem to get things through layers of being taught, experience, and then reflecting upon it. Often enough I wonder why I keep this blog, and in a way I think it's become one layer of the process, forcing me to reflect upon things that might otherwise slip away.

I won't be offering much here in the way of reflection, but as with the trips we take, my kayaking learning process involves at least three stages. There's the anticipation beforehand, in which we prepare, try to get ourselves as ready as we can be. Maybe we brush-up on strokes, or study some of the more academic aspects like tidal or weather prediction or navigation. There's the class itself. It's a mix of fun and hard work. Some of it is instruction and feedback directed at us... and some of it is us directing instruction and feedback to others. Sometimes you get put on the spot and discover that your method needs a little work, or that you don't own the skill or subject as well as you could. Sometimes things go wrong, but it's the perfect time for that to happen. We probably learn the most when things don't go smoothly (like the husky tow in current, when one of the rescuers capsizes and we're all drifting in a tangle of ropes).

 

Then, after the class, you hope it comes together with the other layers of experience and instruction. We're given an action plan- an inventory of our strengths and weaknesses with suggestions for steps to improve. It can be overwhelming at times. A year ago I came home with a lot to improve, but ideally, every time you go paddling, you find yourself working on it. I can only wonder how, a year from now, I'll look back on what I'm doing now.

Guides Guiding Guides

For the last few weeks, much of our paddling was aimed at getting ready for last weekend’s three-day class. You could even say that the last few months of Sunday mornings at the pool at the Ellsworth Y were practice and reinforcement. Most evenings last week Rebecca and I watched our instructional DVDs, pausing every now and then to make sure we understood (and sometimes to wake up). So, in the same way that planning for a trip is part of the fun, so is getting ready for a class. Suddenly it became an emergency to get a new short tow figured-out so we could try it in class. 

 

We met Friday morning at Old Quarry. Nine students, all of us registered Maine Guides were there for the first ever MASKGI-sponsored, ACA L4 Open Water Trip Leader training program. I’ll spare you my diatribe about the exam process for Maine Sea Kayak Guides and how it is entirely possible get your license with little or no on-the-water experience -provided you can talk the talk. It’s great to talk the talk (that’s how you pass the exam) but this program is aimed at getting guides to walk the walk.

It isn’t always easy for experienced guides to be open to learning something new. I’m hardly experienced, but it helps to have some faith in your teachers, to accept that they know their stuff.  I’ve had a few classes with Todd Wright and John Carmody, and they are certainly on top of their game. John is one of the few BCU Level 5 Sea Coaches in North America, while Todd holds the highest ACA awards and  is fast on his way to being one of the next BCU Level 5 Sea Coaches. This translates to getting spot-on critique and suggestions. If I received just a few such nuggets over the weekend, my efforts would be well-spent.
 

We chose different locations each day, progressing from a milder excursion to Millet on Friday, to some rocks out around Ram and Hardwood on Saturday. On Sunday we drove over to Bagaduce Falls. It was a good progression. By the time we tried various tows and rescues in the current on Sunday, we’d already practiced in easier conditions, gradually increasing the complicating factors. Of course, we worked constantly on personal boat maneuvering skills.

 

We’ll have an assessment in the fall- a good goal. In the meantime, we all have points to work-on and improve- both while we’re guiding and on our own. Rebecca and I got out for a mid-day paddle yesterday just as the storm arrived. On one level, it felt good to decompress, to get out and just paddle. But after awhile, we started working on what we’d learned. Once again, I’m tweaking my forward stroke- I don’t expect this will ever end. And when I’d gone into a rocky chasm (trying to avoid that bow rudder until I really needed it) Rebecca came charging-in to contact-tow me out... just for fun. 

And in the end, that’s what it amounts to: fun. The first classes I took might not have been as fun- it felt like harder work then, and I learned that I had far to go. I didn’t get it all (still haven’t) in one go- I seem to require layers of instruction that overlap, spaced with plenty of time to try it all out on my own and see how it works. The pay-off is also multi-layered: confidence coupled with a perspective of where my abilities need work. But yesterday I saw a black and white change from just last week: Rebecca maneuvered into that narrow space between the rocks, and I followed her.