BCU-2 Training

Tim took BCU-2 training with Greg Paquin this spring. It was a last minute thing and I could not attend. But last weekend, with Tim’s encouragement, I got a second chance. Tom M, Linda S, Eric, Heather, Tim and I participated. We were joined by Heather and Sally from CT and coached by Greg and Paula of Kayak Waveology.

I think we all had a great time. Greg and Paula make an effective coaching pair. Greg has lots of upper body strength. Even though his form is clean and I know he is not using lots of muscle, it’s a lot more convincing when Paula shows the same stroke with finesse. I’m also a huge fan of having multiple people explain things to me. I often find that different people will explain things different ways. In hind sight I know both were describing the same thing but sometimes one explanation will click better than another. Over the course of the day each of them managed to say things that helped my strokes work better.

We reviewed all the basic strokes
Forward stroke, Reverse Stroke, forward sweep and reverse sweep.
We worked on edging and used it with our strokes.
Bow rudder, beam draws, sculling draws, hanging draws, and running draws.
Low braces, high braces, sculling for support, and low brace turns.
I don’t think we actually talked about the stern rudder but we used it.
Paddle rescue, Bow Recue, T-rescue, scoop rescue, and ladder rescue.
We also discussed hyper and hypothermia, tides and waves, and kayak citizen etiquette.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something but it was a great review and great fun.

The ladder rescue was new to me. I could see a clear advantage to it in that it keeps the cockpit dry while the swimmer re-enters. I’ll need to try it in rougher water to be sure it’s effective in the slop. Like most things there is a u-tube demo of it.

I had taken the Ocean Play 1-2 course with Peter Casson at the Kayak Center in the past. We covered all the same stuff again in this class but it was far from a waste of time. I think there is real value is spending some time focusing on technique and not just paddling.

8/8/09