I meant something that would suffice if you had an unexpected failure of a gasket on the dry suit halfway through. . It can happen. Water and air could be cool. Maybe look for a good deal on dry separates that you could put over some neo layers, which combination could take a swim and still keep you warm.
@tvcrider I am pretty sure the first woman thing with the BCU was someone from CA. Shawna is excellent from all I have heard, though I have only ever had any experience with Leon as a coach. I am glad you had a good experience at the Rendezvous. It is in a region where I like to paddle, though the event is not one that works for me.
@tvcrider I just realized we could be mixing apples abnd oranges. There is a diff between 5 Star and 5 Leader in the BCU system. Might be that Shawna got the Star and Knepper the leader, something like that.
@celia From Andrea’s website:
“In October of 2015 she eared her 5 Star Sea Leader Award, becoming one of 7 women in the country to hold the award. In August of 2016 she became the second American to earn the UKCC Level 3 Coach Award. She also holds a 3 Star in Open Canoe and her ACA L3 Instructor Certification.”
She’s a gallant woman, operating Chicago Adventure Therapy which works with at-risk Chicago kids.
http://2011.chicagoadventuretherapy.org/about-us/meet-the-cat-staff/
@Rookie and tvcerider OK, I am still all wet about that first woman from the US to get BCU 5 leader. Nonetheless, it is not a big club and she is a great paddler and enthusiast.
The person everyone is thinking about from California that has a 5 star is Jen Kleck. Got it in 2007.
Excellent coach as is Shawna and also Andrea…can’t go wrong doing some lessons with any of them.
They have all done Symposiums.
Don’t forget Bonnie Perry…another 5 star that does symposiums and is Excellent.
Best Wishes
Roy
Perhaps meandering a bit off topic but why such an emphasis on certs? It almost seems like certain people in the kayak instruction sphere are given celebrity status just because of their credentials. Deserved, or not?
Really just a passing thought… hopefully doesn’t start a huge argument. 
@roym I realized it was Jen Kleck while driving around today. I am so bad on names… thanks.
@Sparky OK, on credentials/certs. When they work right they do a lot of good things. Certs for individual skills can let other paddlers know that you have a certain assured level of competence and likely experience. That matters a lot when a group is planning a trip and needs to decide what kind of conditions they want to take on. For example, can they try a route with an open crossing where things might be bigger, or do they need to stay in more sheltered areas because folks have no experience in bigger stuff.
Certs for coaches let you know what kind of competence in teaching and safety practices you can expect from a coach, ideally also that they have had some guidance in methods of coaching.
You wouldn’t pay money to take courses at a college from someone who was not trained in their subject matter, and you would hope that their still being employed meant the student evaluations indicated the person was an effective teacher. You also would not want to pay over $100 a day, and I have heard up to $400 from some individuals, for a kayaking coach that did not assuredly have decent skills themselves and was able to transmit useful information to students. And you want that coach to be experienced enough that they know how to take students into situations that are challenging but still safe for their skill level. That is, everyone in a class may end up capsizing but everyone gets rescued and no broken limbs or other major injuries occur as a result.
So IMO, when someone has a cert and teaches to the level of that cert, I wouldn’t say it makes them a celebrity. It DOES mean that they deserve full credit for the work they have done and their talent as coaches. For the higher levels of coaching, where the investment level involved in getting that status is huge, they deserve huge credit. I have no argument with that.
Where it gets funky is when it seems that a coach is infallible, or when the coach starts believing it themselves. It affects both their own work and the clarity of their judgement about others. That is why I tend to look for mixed backgrounds, it reduces the tendency to be self-referential.
And note, I am not at all saying that those without certs can’t be effective coaches or good paddlers. Quite the opposite is often true. But without the certs, you need more information about someone’s background and experience to make that judgement. With a cert, you can pretty much just go online and find out what you should be able to expect.
@celia. I’m a bit confused. I thought ACA instructors were certified and can teach to their level of certification. Individual students can attend ACA assessment courses for particular skills and if they pass, receive an ACA assessment card.
Not sure if I’m being too literal or if maybe you were referring to the BCU star system.
Great analogy about the college courses.
There are actually two tracks in both the ACA and the BCU. The delivery is different and people get confused. I meant someone teaching to the level to which they are certified as a coach. Hopefully an individual paddles to the level of their individual certification as a paddler, but time and age and other things can can affect that.
But the delivery diff’s - in ACA courses they tend to combine the two in a four (or is it five?) day session. So at the end of say four days, paddlers have actually done both a couple of days demonstrating what their personal skill award should be and demonstrating competence for the possibility of their coaching. A paddler can go back, rinse and repeat, and gradually move each of these two award levels up but in the same session. One is the IDW, I think that is the individual, the other is the IC-something part of the few day session.
ACA at some point develops specialized tracks - as the level of paddler achievement get higher they have to choose whether to go for Open Water (think sea kayaking) or whitewater etc. There are a few. At the beginning levels it is just about basic paddling competence and safety practices. Of course it is normal for a paddler to leave one of these sessions with a higher individual award than a coach rating.
BCU has a much more segregated approach. At a symposium someone is EITHER in a class for an individual competence award (that is a star award) OR a coaching training (I think Leader but it is at least close to that). You are never in a class for both things. As far as I know it is also true for the ACA - a pre-requisite to get a given coach level is that the individual paddling level has to be within a defined range of the coach status. Again as the levels increase a paddler will be tracked into a given type of paddling, though the revamp to the BCU system in 2007 made changes that greatly increased the individual awards needed to get to the higher coach levels. And did similarly for the individual awards, but the changes for coach status were (even) more expensive to pursue than for the individual star award.
Got it. Thanks, Celia. Your depth of knowledge always amazes me.
Good stuff in this thread. Helped me answer my own question: the classes offered and how they’re scheduled are No. 1. Not much I can do about instructors except hope that whoever teaches the class is an effective communicator.
I’m impressed with the 2016 GLSKS schedule because they offer more than one session of the same class. The five of interest all could have been taken over the three days. If 2017’s schedule will be similar, then maybe I’ve found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. For now I’ll just keep watching all the local symposium websites and see what pops up.