by Greg Hollingsworth and Brian Blankinship

The Chesapeake Paddler, the newsletter of the Chesapeake Paddlers Association

British Canoe Union (BCU) training has finally made it to the Chesapeake area! Thanks to Dana Chladek (owner of Rapidstyle in Kensington, MD), two BCU coaches (Bill Lozano and Scott Fairty) made their way from upstate New York and Front Royal, VA, respectively, to Sandy Point State Park to share their knowledge on kayaking.

Who is the BCU? Well, according to their Web page, The British Canoe Union (BCU) is the Governing Body for the sport and recreation of canoeing and kayaking in the UK. It represents the interests of canoeists at local, national and international level, and is a member of the International Canoe Federation. They are known for having high standards and excellent coaches. In my opinion, this proved true for our three days of instruction.

The three-day program began with 3 Star Training; designed to review and hone the skills required to pass the 3 Star Assessment. The second day of instruction was titled the Canoeing Safety Test and the third and final day was the 3 Star Test.

My primary goal in involving myself with the program was to improve my boat handling and safety skills and to have my overall kayaking skills assessed by experienced kayakers to determine the areas that I needed to improve upon. As a secondary goal, I wanted to begin the path into BCU coaching and certification in the safety program is a requirement for this course.

Sadly, I missed the first day (3 Star Training) of the 3-day program work gets in the way sometimes. I started on Friday, day 2, with the Safety Program. Throughout the morning we reviewed a series of safety skills including: rope tows, contact towing, Eskimo paddle and bow rescues, signaling others with a paddle and whistle, rescuing a disabled overturned paddler, all-in rescues, T (or X) and HI rescues, paddling with swimmers holding the bow and stern, paddling with swimmers on the bow and stern, safe entry and exit, proper boat carrying, and more. At the end of the day, our ability to execute the skills was assessed and where consistent success was shown, certificates were awarded.

Day 2 was a tough day; some aspects of the rescue instruction required a lot of physical exertion particularly the rescue that assisted with righting paddlers who were stuck upside down. In looking back on the day, I think I spent more time upside down acting as a crash-test dummy than I spent right side up. Given that the air temp was 90 degrees in the hot sun and I was dressed in a 3-mil wet suit, I was happy to spend so much time in the 65-degree water.

I learned several new rescue techniques, honed old skills, and significantly improved the speed at which I'm able to respond to a fellow paddler needing assistance. I also learned that the BCU takes a different approach on some things; for example, none of their training involves use of a paddle float. They stress paddling in groups of 3 or more and demonstrate techniques that negate the need for a paddle float. In the worst-case situation where all the members of a paddling group capsize, they have a very effective method for getting the group back into dry boats.

Day 3 was the 3 Star Test. I was a bit nervous given that I had missed the 3 Star training on day 1. In addition, I was a bit sore from the efforts of the previous day. My right elbow had turned a light shade of purple. as a result of using it to assist with the more difficult rescues, and my muscles were sore from performing so many rescues the previous day.

Given my lack of confidence, I arrived an hour early to study a few books that I had on technique. I had wanted to study them the night before, but exhaustion set in early and I fell asleep on the couch just after dinner. When I turned my car into the Sandy Point boat launching area, I noticed Brian Blankinship and one other of our group sitting at a nearby picnic table doing some last-minute reading.

Fortunately for me, our coaches took the time out in the morning to allow us to ask questions and to review our on-water skills prior to taking the test. I took every opportunity to learn the specific details about what they were looking for with each technique. For example, with the bow rudder technique, they looked for a strong sweep on the opposite side of the turn with a good lean into the sweep, followed by good placement of the paddle on the opposite side of the boat with a boat lean throughout the technique. Finally, they expected the boat to turn at least 90 degrees or 120 for a Pintail (they said jokingly).

After lunch, we paddled out to begin the test. We were a group of eight: Brian Blankinship, Dave Bliss, Lance Craven, Harry Schuber, Bob Gasser, Dave Mood, and Gar Robbins accompanied me. One by one, we individually demonstrated the different strokes and techniques. As we did, the coaches took notes on our performance. Some of the skills that they tested were:

· ruddering (bow, stern, and stern opposite side),

· draw strokes (standard, sculling

· hanging, on the move)

· bracing (low, low on the move, high, high on the move)

· support strokes (low brace scull, high brace scull)

· reverse paddling, figure eight

· sweep stroke

· rescues (of course)

· towing

All techniques had to be demonstrated on both sides.

We all seemed to do fairly well until we made it to the bracing portion of the test. The low brace went fine for nearly all, but the high brace made many stumble. The high brace on the move provided numerous opportunities for Eskimo rescue drills.

Once done with the on-water assessment, we took a brief break and each participant met individually with the pair of instructors to hear the results.

by Greg Hollingsworth