Defensive
What’s really interesting is how defensive many paddlers without certificates get whenever this topic is discussed(here and elsewhere).
Kayaking isn’t a zero sum game. Just because someone gets/wins a star, doesn’t mean the rest of us are losing one. Whatever it takes to get people motivated.
And no - commercial classes and certificates aren’t my game either. Reminds me too much of work and studies.
/Peter
BCU and Roll
3 star requires visible progress towards a roll and, as mentioned above, the rest of the requirements involve so much off-balance work that we have never encountered anyone who could pass a 3 star and didn’t have at least a roll on one side. Most of our group knocked off their rolling requirement by going over on one of the braces in the 3 star assessment.
4 star wants a roll - any read of the requirements that doesn’t find that has been a bit cursory. You get three tries I think, but since the 4 star assessment has to happen in at least a couple of feet of waves, and assessors just about always ask candidates to do this in at least 3 ft of waves or surf at the end of the day when the paddler is tired, I think a couple of tries is fair.
The other aspect, that Greenland paddlers might appreciate, is that the BCU requires a pretty darned good scull for a 3 star pass on both sides. And as anyone with a good scull has discovered, you can scull up from being fully over as well as perform a formal roll. In fact my offside roll as it is coming on is nothing more than a one-stroke scull up.
There seems a tendency to focus on “the roll” which, when you look at the sculling and bracing requirements, can be viewed as just part of the package. After this last year’s progress, I would personally put a really solid ability to scull up from any position well ahead of a roll for a “first skill” because while a sculling motion will get you to a roll, the opposite is not necessarily so.
self-worth
>commercial classes and certificates aren’t my game either. Reminds me too much of work and studies.<
Some people NEED that “chip on the shoulder”. Even more important if they don’t get that at work/school.
Like boat reviews, there’s ALWAYS something good about a boat or a class. So we don’t hear much negative about them, which is fine.
As for the certification? That’s more controversal. Those who don’t need it simply aren’t going to pay for it in the first place. The “defensiveness” comes less from insecurity than from fear that (a piece of paper) become mandatory and everyone else is forced to pay to get one in order to rent boats or go on trips. (anyone scuba dives? – you can’t buy air without that peice of paper!)