June 18, 2000

BCU Weekend

16 June 2000

BCU Canoe Safety Course

Widewater (on the C&O canal)

I'm not certain why I took the BCU canoe safety course. I knew most of everything taught, but since it is a prerequisite for coach 2 enrollment I figured that I might as well take it in case I decide to take that track.

Our instructor, Scott Fairty, was a friendly and extremely talented fellow. I saw him move a kayak like I have *never* seen anyone do before. That alone was worth the price of admission. One maneuver I witnessed was him stick his paddle in the water off to the side, swirl it around like stirring a pot of soup, and spin his kayak 180 degrees in place.

On shore before launching Scott went over the various star, coach and assessor levels in the BCU. After the chalk talk, the morning was spent going over Eskimo rescues, assisted rescues, and bow and stern carries. The stern carry was the only thing new to me, and it was an interesting experience feeling that off balance while carrying someone lying on the stern of my kayak.

Nancy and I volunteered to demonstrate an Eskimo bow rescue, with Nancy as the rescuee. I don't think I was yet awake enough and just sort of leisurely paddled over to her upturned boat. Nancy was obviously out of breath when I finally showed up on the scene, but she popped up without any problem. I need to be much more aggressive in my approach.

As a rescuer on one of the Eskimo rescues, Frank reached up and grabbed my bow and flipped me over. I certainly wasn't prepared for that sudden flip, but I managed to roll back up. The high bow on the Gulfstream makes it fairly easy to flip upside down. For the rest of the practice I went in sculling as the person pulled up on my bow.

Eskimo rescues with the paddle went pretty easily except once I went in at too much of an angle and the person grabbed my bow instead of my paddle.

Assisted rescues went pretty well also. I think everyone did those pretty well except for remembering to stay in contact with one of the boats. The all in rescue was fun and I want to practice that a few more times.

Assisted rescues were done with the rescuee coming in from over the outside. (*this subject will come up again a little later) I asked about 'between' the boats and Scott indicated he didn't think much of it, especially in rough conditions.

During lunch we talked about towing in both the V and double I configuration and explored the pluses and minus of each of each one. The double I being Scott's preferred method, as the V was easy to get the lines fouled and difficult to coordinate turns.

After lunch we practiced towing and a few other things, then went into the assessment. Nancy and I had little problem because of our past practice with these rescues. Nancy and I were also paired for the assessment and she certainly made me look good. As I did an assisted rescue with Nancy as victim, we were taking our time and as Nancy was putting her spray skirt on I remembered (and noticed) Scott was timing us. Time? One minute flat - the 'expected' time. Now realizing we were being timed when Nancy rescued me she had me back in my kayak with spray skirt attached in 40 seconds. Scott had told us earlier that the record was 28 seconds. When him and I demonstrated the rescue he had me back in my kayak with spray skirt on in 34 seconds. This is a quick rescue.

After the assessment Scott kindly offered to go over several strokes with us. Bow rudders and hanging draws were not too difficult, but my high brace wasn't at all working.

18 June 2000

Widewater

BCU 3 Star training

I arrived early to get a parking spot closer to the put in. But despite this I ended up schlepping 2 other boats to the water from the upper parking lot.

It was a full morning as Todd Leigh introduced us to forward paddling. I have crummy forward paddling skills but Todd's excellent description and demonstration had me in perfect form in just a few minutes.

Reverse paddling over a figure of 8 course: I need to slow down. I swung wide around the ends because of speed and the concentration of paddlers was a little thick for efficient maneuvering.

Low brace turn: No problems here. Easy to do if you sweep on the opposite side first.

Bow Rudder: I could do this pretty easily, but I also seemed to bleed off speed quickly. I think I could have passed assessment on this, but a little practice may also help me keep from bleeding speed so quickly.

Sculling draw, draw on the move, and hanging draw: All went well as I have practiced this many times in the last 6 months.

Sculling for support: I probably pushed myself further than in practice, but both high and low sculling worked pretty well. I think I could have passed assessment on these.

High Brace: Ugh. Maybe ok on the right side before I got tired. A lot of improvement needed on the left side. On the move was a total disaster. I could not have passed the 3 star assessment because of the high brace requirements.

Eskimo rescues: Just practiced the heck out of them 2 days before. Piece of cake.

Towing: Todd preferred the V. I agreed with Scott and preferred the double I. Scott also showed a better way to clip in the support and rescuee kayaks to keep them from wanting to split apart.

Deep Water Rescue: Here was my biggest rift with the material being taught. Todd taught the 'between the boat' rescue as the BCU gospel. He said it was faster (we didn't time it). Scott taught that the rescuee could come up to the rescuer's cockpit and help get the boat up and over the coaming - Todd taught the rescuee should be on the rescuer's bow.

The between the boat rescue puts a LOT of strain on my shoulders. Readers of my trip reports know I've often complained about shoulder pain. Todd did show me what I was doing wrong as the rescuer and causing the strain, but as the rescuee I really hurt my shoulder pretty bad. Once getting through this rescue I pretty much backed off of the other skills taught (such as high braces) that involved potential strain on the shoulder. I didn't deem this method any faster and also question its applicability in pitching seas. The over the side method keeps your body low, while the between the boats method has you looking at sky and then sitting upright on your rear deck, and I think it would be more disorienting than the over the side.

I was pretty bummed after injuring my shoulder (It is a 20 year old injury that keeps coming back) as I know this will take weeks to heal and prevent me from practicing the high brace. It will most likely prevent me from ever being able to do a high brace on my left side correctly and prevent me from passing a 3 star assessment. I know it is poor technique that is reinjuring the shoulder, but there is just no way to improve the technique without practicing (which will involve poor technique until it is perfected). Damned if I do and damned if I don't. I'm not that far from getting a high brace working on my right side.

So that was my BCU training over the last few days. The 3 star training was excellent despite some obvious conflicts with what was taught in the canoe safety class. Several people expressed an interest to take their assessment in the fall. I believe the high brace will prevent me from ever taking it.