thanks Clinic!

[The Pirate]

thanks to EVERYONE who made the Intro Clinic a success for my son & I!

I wish I could mention everyone involved in this great effort, but my memory isn't as good as it once was!
But I can remember 3 that had a huge hand in making our (my son & I) day successful!
Thank you Lupe (Heather) for organizing such a great & fun event!
Mr. Jim Krueger and Michael Strober for teaching our small group! Thank you for sharing tons of knowledge with us!
Mr. Strober, thank you for taking extra time with Noah! Hes been bit hard by the kayak bug, which is going to hit hard in the pocket book, but that's ok!

Again, I can't say thank you enough to all people involved!
We hope to see you all again on the water!

Don & Noah

[Cowper]

From the viewpoint of a volunteer, I found teaching this one day “intro” on flatwater was in some ways more challenging that a two-day course on moving water. First, there was a much wider variation in the experience level and expectations of the students; we had some who had literally never been in a boat before, up to one who had been sheparded down some Class III rapids by friends. Some just wanted to learn a bit more, to better enjoy their flatwater paddling, others clearly wanted to chase whitewater at some future date. So the resulting big challenge was, what to present? With a one-day course, it is easy to have “information overload”, where the student retains less, not more. But at the same time, I felt we would be doing a disservice if a student left the class, not knowing “keep your feet up if you swim”, never having heard the term “strainer”, or not knowing that low head dams and low water bridges are deadly hazards that might be encountered on even the easiest of rivers.

With a two-day format, you can often address the "what to cover" question by using day two to come back and cover any points you missed or feel you didn’t emphasize enough. In this one day format, I found myself resorting to “cheat sheets” during the “wrap-up” session – I reviewed some of the same outlines I would use for a whitewater course, and briefly touched on any “big hitters” not yet mentioned.

Nobody asked about this, but I would like for folks to know that everyone who participates in these events as an instructor or helper paid their own expenses to get there, and neither received (nor wants) any pay or other compensation. Some of the money collected is simply Club dues for a one-year membership; if there are any facilities rental expenses, then of course those types of expenses are covered out of funds collected. Anything left over goes back into the Club coffers, usually to the “Instructor Education” fund, which is used to pay a portion of the costs for those that take an Instructor Certification course and agree to teach at similar ACC events at least once per year.

I’m really glad if folks got something good out of this; I got to see first-hand the value of a one-day intro like this for giving our Club a broader outreach that ranges from flatwater intro, to easier moving water, to whitewater, up to swiftwater rescue courses.

[Lupe]

We had a wonderful day on Saturday at Lake Ouachita State Park! We had 45 new paddlers in 7 different classes (1 canoe, 4 recreational kayak and 2 whitewater kayak). The weather was just wonderful, the turnout was incredible (45 out of 46!), and the volunteers were terrific! Thanks to all the volunteers who gave their time to travel there and spend their Saturday helping introduce so many new paddlers to canoeing and kayaking. Thanks, too, to several who entrusted their boats and gear to us for the day for those who needed it (Karla and Gary Rowland, Kelly Hill, Susan Tinker), and, as is so often the case, Don Jackson of Ouachita Outdoor Outfitters who was also a tremendous help with extra boats and gear. Special thanks to Pat Crane for coming early and handling a very busy registration/check in table, and for everyone who just pitched in all day long with all the little things...you all made the day go so smoothly!

I think the new location worked very well as we had a long beach all to ourselves, a cove small enough to be protected from wind and waves, yet large enough to let all our classes spread out and have plenty of room. The Lake Ouachita State Park staff were also very accomodating to make us feel very welcome at their park. I think it was a great partnership!

Thanks again to everyone who came out and made it such a special day...

Also - special welcome to the 39 new club members from 29 new member households! I think we'll see a lot of these new faces again in September at Rendezous!

Cheers,
Heather