Liquid Logistics 2 Star Training

I’ve been quite busy on the weekends coaching in recent weeks. Working for/with Isle of Wight Sea Kayaking and Liquid Logistics. A couple of weekends ago I spent a very enjoyable, if rather wet, day working with Liquid Logistics coach Stuart Watson on a BCU 2 star training course.

The current BCU 2 Star award requires candidates to learn and demonstrate skills in both a kayak and a canoe. The type of kayak and canoe used is very flexible and often determined by the longer term aims of the candidates. On this particular course, all three paddlers were looking to develop their sea kayaking skills so we had a great day playing in sea kayaks and standard open canoes (paddled solo).

Practicing Skills

Having spent so much time in Sea Kayaks over the last few years, I’m always pleased to have the opportunity to get back in an Open boat, even if we had to battle some pretty stiff wind in the afternoon.

The folks attending the course were super-committed and had heaps of enthusiasm and self motivation which allowed us to push the skills during the day. It was also great to work with another coach for the day. I’ve been lucky to work with alongside a number of coaches over the last few months and always pick up new tricks and tips or different ways of approaching something. Having known Stuart for a while now, this was my first time coaching with him and I was very impressed with his style and approach to the day. We made the most of opportunities to try new ideas and discuss various skills and techniques and the various methods of introducing them to paddlers. Great stuff.

Starting A Session in Sea Kayaks

Unfortunately, family commitments prevented me from joining the group for the second day, although hearing the rain pounding on the roof when I woke up on the Sunday morning I was a little glad to be tucked up in the warm!

Liquid Logistics run a decent programme of intro, One, Two and Three star awards through the course of the year. You can find out more by checking out their website.

Intro To Sea Kayaking With Liquid Logistics

Liquid Logistics, based on the Beaulieu River, are running an open day on the 12th May. The day will combine the opportunity to join in various workshops, see and demo a range of kayaks from the Woodmill Mobile Shop, enjoy food and drink from the Master Builders Hotel and socialise/network with other paddlers.

Liquid Logistics Senior Instructor, Tom Foster offers the following summary of the day:

There will be loads going on during the day with competitions and information from Liquid Logistics. A local canoe store Woodmill will bring along their fleet of their newest demo boats to test. Enjoy a great range of sessions run by the Liquid Logistics Team to get you out on the water.

The sessions (and associated instructors) planned are as follows:

1. Flat Water Freestyle – Stuart Watson
2. Sea Kayaking Skills – Rich Pearsall
3. Canoe and Kayak Safety – Sam Sutton
4. First Aid Scenarios – Duncan Smith
5. Canoe Tour of the Beaulieu River with one of the Liquid Logistics River Guides

I’m looking forward to being involved, running the First Aid sessions but also to take to opportunity to meet and chat to paddlers.

The cost for two workshops is £20. For more details and to book onto the workshops, pop over to the Liquid Logistics Website.

Alternatively, for those wishing to simply pop down, see whats going on, take a look at the mobile shop and find out more about Liquid Logistics there is no charge.

Please Note: Parking for the event will be at the Master Builder Hotel Car Park – directions here.

View Larger Map

So I manage to get out and paddle a lot, particularly given the time commitment a young family brings. However, most of my sea kayaking in recent years has been confined to the Solent. I love it and never get bored of repeating paddling routes, however the time has come to spread my wings. I need to get out into new areas. I need to paddle unfamiliar territory and paddle in conditions that are not prevalent in the Solent. hit

Why? The most important reason is sheer enjoyment and that feeling of adventure that comes from paddling somewhere new. The secondary reason is to start the process of working towards my next long term goal of attaining 5*. The feedback from my 4* assessment was very positive with regards to moving on to 5* but clearly identified my need to build experience in other areas from a navigational planning and paddling experience point of view.

With this in mind, I grabbed the opportunity to assist Rich Pearsall from Liquid Logistics taking a group of 4 clients from Studland Bay to Anvil Point and back. This trip fitted in perfectly with a plan I have to work my away along the entire Dorset Coast as the first step in the process of spreading my wings. Whilst not a massive departure from the Solent, it’s part of a bigger plan which I look forward to sharing over time.

We had a cracking day on the water and enjoyed a mixture of beautiful conditions along with some decent flow and waves in the two tide races on route. Frustratingly, I forgot to charge up the batteries for my camera however Rich carries a waterproof point and shoot so provided the following pictures.

Route

Studland To Anvil Point (And Return)

Gallery:

I’ve just had one of those days when you fall into bed but no matter how tired you are sleep does come easily as your head is buzzing. After a successful day on the water with students from my school (courtesy of Liquid Logisitics) I shot down to another Venue to meet up with Owen Burson for a short coaching/assessment session on the water going through personal skills and rescue/self-rescues.

I spend a lot of time on the Sea paddling but very little of that time is spent practising isolated strokes and techniques. Last nights session gave me the opportunity to look in detail at some of the key strokes and skills on flat water under not only the watchful eye of Owen but also Richard Pearsall joint Director of Liquid Logistics, and boy did I pick up a lot in a short period of time.

First off, watching paddler’s with such high levels of technical skill is just fantastic. The ease at which they controlled and moved their boats was staggering whilst at the same time reminding me of just how much I have to learn.

Owen used a nice blend of discovery and guided learning, posing questions and tasks to make me think through individual aspects of each stroke, then discussing my current technique and possible changes before gradually combining these element together to create an improved stroke.

Following the stroke specific work, we concentrated on rescue and self rescue technique with Owen providing text book demonstrations for me to emulate. This produced a couple of surprises for me particularly with the self rescue (see the ‘Action Points’ at the end of this post.

Once all was done, I was able to spend an enjoyable hour or so at a nearby pub with Owen and Rich chatting about all things Sea kayaking before tiredness took a hold and I had to admit defeat and head for home. Probably a good thing, as they were busy discussing plans for a 3 stage paddle around Ireland which had me beginning to work out how to get time off work and domestic duties!

Action Points

In an effort to consolidate the evenings efforts, I sat and jotted down a list of findings and action points to work on in the near future. I thought I would share – please be aware these are ‘rough’ notes and may not make total sense!!

Paddle Length
I’ve just switched from 220 paddle length to 210 paddle length and boy is that a good move – the 220′s have served me well but are just too long for me, particularly doing more technical stroke work.

Edging

At times I am trying to apply too much edge too early in a stroke leading to instability. I need to work on setting up/starting some strokes with less edge so I am in a more stable position, then add more edge or use better trunk rotation to automatically apply more edge during a stroke.

Sweep Strokes (Forward and reverse)

I need to shorten the length of my sweep and add more of a push away from the stern of the kayak – I currently maintain the sweep past the point where it loses efficiency. My current sweeps were producing too much forward or reverse movement so the kayak ends up travelling in a largish circle rather than carving a tight turn or in the case of combined sweeps spin on the spot.

I also need to work on body position, leaning further forward to aid stability and ensure more trunk rotation which aided the amount of edge I was able to apply to the stroke.

Bow Rudder

I tend to use more of a slalom style bow rudder, applying too much angle to the blade and trying to pull the bow around which stalls the turn slightly. Seeing the blade as more of a ‘dagger-board’ and keeping it more aligned with the edge of the kayak allowed me to keep up the momentum of the turn with the kayak edge being responsible for the turn whilst the blade had more of a ‘supporting’ effect on the stroke. I also need to ensure I am looking to future water and adding enough trunk rotation – I am currently tending to look out to about 1 O’Clock rather than 3 O’Clock which means I am not rotating enough.

Self Rescue (Straddle Method)

This is something I do practice and although never elegant, I have yet to fail with however during the session I failed twice before finally managing to clamber onto the back of the boat and into my seat. Initially I was feeling very annoyed not to pull this off more effectively and very concerned. However, two reasons, both kit related became obvious.

Firstly, trying to climb up onto the stern the first time was hindered by wearing the Throwtow system clipped across my chest. Having not tried a self rescue whilst wearing this kit, I was unaware of how much the, albeit quite small, extra bulk on the front of the PFD would affect my ability to get back up on the stern. Releasing the throwtow prior to getting back up on the stern was the key to eliminating this particular problem.

The second issue came when I was straddled across the stern and moving back into the cockpit. I successfully got my backside above the seat, but when I tried to hook my legs in and slide back into the boat I couldn’t do it and became very unstable before capsizing, something that has never happened when I’ve practiced this self rescue before.

Trying this again I became stuck again but this time kept my balance. The culprit was the elastic lines that my newer spraydeck has running across the spray deck for hooking maps and other small items under. These elastics caught both times on the rear day hatch as I straddle over the boat with the deck between my legs. As I slid forward over the cockpit they were pulling the deck taught under my crotch preventing me from sliding far enough forward to get back into the cockpit.

I will certainly be returning to a deck without elastics after this experience or as Richard suggested, hold the release cord of the deck in my teeth so the deck is held up as I climb up onto the stern!

Practice, Practice, Practice

I need to practice specific stroke work more often as well as try out new equipment in safe conditions before venturing out with it. My plan now is to have a regular ‘strokes’ session, using a sheltered launch point close to home as well as increase the frequency with which I practice my self rescue particularly if I am trying out new equipment that could interfere with this.

I am also keen to draw on the services of coaches like Owen and Richard more often. Spending quality time with such a high calibre of coach provided a wealth of useful feedback. Both Owen (Isle of Wight Sea kayaking) and Richard (Liquid Logistics) offer one to one or small group ‘bespoke’ coaching and after last nights session I would seriously recommend both of these guys.

Conclusions

Would the imperfections in my strokes prevent me from paddling in a range of conditions? Obviously not as I am regularly paddling in conditions up to F6, occasionally F7, in a range of sea states. However, would sessions like these and ‘stroke specific’ practice improve my paddling – certainly, particularly as I would like to convert my paddling experience into BCU qualifications.

More important than all of this, for me, is that I found the whole experience really enjoyable stuff. I find the mechanics aspect of the strokes hugely interesting, and seeing how effortlessly a sea kayak can be moved left me with a desire to learn more.

Useful Links

Isle of Wight Sea Kayaking Website
Liquid Logistics Website

Local Sea Kayak course provider Liquid Logistics have just posted a nice little video from their recent bespoke course to Anglesey, North Wales. Looks like a fantastic course, would love to have been there! There is a gallery of images from the trip as well as more videos from other trips and courses on their Youtube Channel. You can also find out more about Liquid Logisitics in our course provider listings.

NFKCC Logo

1. Provide regular evening sessions throughout the year
2. Create a network of local paddlers to share trips and equipment
3. Provide a wide and varied programme of events from flat water to sea kayaking to white water

They meet regularly on a Wednesday evening thoughout the year. In the winter, pool sessions are available to practice in the warm at
Hounsdown School Pool, in the spring and summer sessions move outside with dates and venues published on their calendar.

NFKCC have an established trip calender put together by various members of the club, topped up by official courses provided by Liquid Logistics at discounted rates.

Club trips extend into many disciplines including touring, sea kayaking, white water & surfing.

More details can be found in this information leaflet or via the NFKCC website. Email contact can be made via info@nfkcc.org.uk

Tel. 01590 612377

Email. info@liquidlogistics.co.uk

Liquid Logistics
Queens Mead Dairy,
Beaulieu,
Hampshire.
SO42 7YE

Liquid Logistics

Sea Kayaking courses starting with a 3 Hour Introduction to Sea Kayaking on the Beaulieu River Hampshire and Studland Bay Dorset, progressing from these to Sea Kayaking day trips along the Dorset and Hampshire Coast lines.

BCU Star Courses offer training and the chance to gain nationally recognised Awards. With the One Star being ideal for those just getting into Canoeing and Kayaking, up to the Four Star awards to excel in your discipline.

White Water Kayaking courses and trips available throughout the winter, with 3 hour introductions now available from August onwards.

Private and mentored coaching available for one to one tuition with their highly qualified instructors.

For more information or to book a course visit:
www.liquidlogistics.co.uk
or call: 01590 612377.

Twitter users can follow Liquid Logistics at twitter.com/LiquidLogistics

Liquid Logistics
Queens Mead Dairy,
Beaulieu,
Hampshire.
SO42 7YE