Better paddler
"So the assessment was more than just a process of getting a peice of paper to say that you are a descent paddler, it actually did help me to become a better paddler"
That's what Bill Lazano says also.
"it seems that most people tend to over-estimate their abilities"
This is absolutely true.
Should in American English
"…the main function of SHOULD in modern American English is to express duty, necessity, etc."
from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/should
and from the Oxford American Dictionary:
“SHOULD 1) used to indicate obligation, duty, or correctness…”
Bottom line
for me is simply that I learned a hell of a lot in a very short period of time about kayaking skills and wisdom from joining the BCU, and that enabled me to get out and confidently paddle the world with a sound understanding of who I am as a paddler and what to expect from the sea.
Do I carry a thermos of hot tea with me? No. Some times I sure wish I had one, but more often than not my paddling campanions prefer a cold beer, hypothermic or not!
Do I have an effective bow rudder? Yes. Can I answer your question about BR technique? Not with any degree of real certainty. I prefer hand around forehead height…free advice, and keep in mind, ya get what ya pay for.
Glad I joined, got what I wanted out of it, gave a little back, let my membership lapse about 8 or 9 yrs ago.
Cheers
Riddle me this
The 4* Syllabus says an applicant “should be able to demonstrate a roll” (interestingly, only if kayak design appropriate) but clearly it is not a requirement for the award. I await confirmation by a BCU coach authorized to assess 4* applicants that the failure to have a means of providing a hot drink in conditions where it is not necessary for safety would automatically result in failure.
Not that it is of any importance to me. Personally I believe the new requirements for 4* are great and overdue as it accepts the fact that many want to go on their own journeys without being followers and this provides a valuable yardstick. Also, I believe testing a person’s roll or ability to perform certain skills at the end of long hard day is a very good idea. When else is one most likely to need to have those skills, but when tired and beat and up against it.
From the same source
"...the main function of SHOULD in modern American English is to express duty, necessity, etc."
"necessity" -is- "requirement".
From the same source:
2. will have to, is determined to, or definitely will: You shall do it. He shall do it.
3. (in laws, directives, etc.) must; is or are obliged to: The meetings of the council shall be public.
From the BCU 4 star requirements:
"All equipment should be both suitable and serviceable... Where equipment is found wanting then the candidate should not be assessed."
Do you really think "should" here means "optional"?
Rolling for 4 star.
"1. Rolling. Where the kayak is of appropriate design the candidate should be able to demonstrate a roll. It is permissible to allow the candidate to set him or herself up before capsizing. A roll on one side only is required. Provided the rest of the candidate's performance is sound, an inability to roll is not a fail factor in itself."
Again, they want to see the roll. How else can you interpret "A roll on one side only is required."? They explicitly allow an exception "provided the rest of the candidate's performance is sound".
Quite a thread
I think the best description of the bow rudder was given by Flatpick… he described what the body, boat and the blade should be doing. I think the best advice about the kayaking is provided by Salty… enjoy yourself… have fun… just my opinions.
American English?
So now we’re applying “American English” definitions to try and better understand the “British Canoe Union”?
hmmmmm…
BCU North America
BCUNA has its own sylabi defining requirements etc… There is great similarity between UK and NA but the descriptions and terminology are not always identical.
I think it is appropriate for guidelines etc… intended for Americans to be understood in terms of American English.
The ability to follow directions.
After reading this thread. I think we may have missed the big picture. In any assessment, a teacher must access critical skills. Perhaps the most important of which, is the ability to follow instructions. Its not about the tea or the thermos. Think about the last time you had a bad experience. Chances are that it started going bad after a series of little mistakes, by themselves meaningless, but when combined with other factors. They quickly become dangerous. Something to think about.
Michael
From the review of Fundamentals of
Kayak Navigation by Burch, Matt Broze writes:
“Information that took me years to piece together…is all here in one book…material you can trust from…a world renowned navigator.”
By inference he seems to say one can read a book and shave off a substantial amount of time, time that took him years to put together that which is in the book. BCU star tests are like that in many ways, they are dense clinics and assessments to put yourself in a broad category and preparation for advancement. Assessments are hard for some people to put their passion (and ego) in someone else’s hands to see whether or not they meet a standard and can go on to another level of trainings. I learned an enormous amount from my star clinics, however, don’t infer I did them to anything elses expense. Nope, did all kinds of cool trips, went to some amazing places, got others planned, hit up a symposium here and there. Took a weekend when an assessment was going on and did that. It’s not like you are getting sent away to reform school where the headmasters are like the ones in a Pink Floyd movie.
Sternsquirt nails it, I didn’t want to wait years to build up a knowledge base, either, especially given the fact that the old salts weren’t out as much and lots of really good paddlers were going to BCU clinics or Kayak Academy or other places.
Dogmaticus
What do Assessors Think It Means?
>Do you really think “should” here means “optional”?
It doesn’t matter what I or you think. You can provide all the logical explanations you wish for your view, but all that matters is how the BCU assessors currently interpret it. I suspect some are dogmatic and some are less so and will seek and accept a reasonable explanation if the applicant does not have a means to provide a hot drink.
Not all that matters
"but all that matters is how the BCU assessors currently interpret it"
Not quite.
What truly matters is the correspondance of the interpretation of the assessors and the preparation of the assessee (if the assessee is interested in winning the rating).
While it's possible that a given assessor will ignore the lack of a hot drink, it seems risky to rely on this happening. There is no risk in having the hot drink.
In a general sense, you can control whether or not you have the hot drink. You can't control whether or not you end up with a "dogmatic" assessor.
Unless one happens to know the assessor very well, the syllabus is the only guide as to how the assessor will interpret things. And, of course, the syllabus is being used by the assessors. Why would anybody choose to ignore random parts of it?
Sigh…Nevermind…NM