I am freshly returned from WMCKA ’09. It was quite splendid.
Things really started the day before the symposium when the guest presenter Jeff Allen put on a day class on incident management. The general progression started with off the water organization and communication, on the water assessment of a situation and formulation of a fitting rescue plan, and practice of various skills. It’s always fun to take classes with new people who have fresh ideas and methods, and Jeff did. He also was very open to discussion of those ideas and was always ready with the logic behind his choices as well as the potential claims for the other options.
This happened on Lake Michigan, which it should be noted is especially cold right now and gave me the first opportunity to use my dry suit which I’ve owned for over a year now. Dry suit = awesome.
I should preface the rest of this with the note that this was my fifth year going to WMCKA, so I’ve taken nearly all the classes and am actually certified to teach everything done there except rolling. No claims of being as good an instructor as others, but I could legally teach. I didn’t solidify my plans to attend this year until a few weeks before, so teaching wasn’t an option at that point. In this situation, it’s a bit of a question why I go at all other than to hang out with friends.
Day one of the symposium I started by taking a rescue class with Jeff (slightly different than his Friday stuff) mainly to observe the teaching style and practice rescues which I already knew. While most of the classes are an hour and fifteen minutes long, one of the instructors was running a day and a half BCU 3 star training. I joined up with this for the second part of day one and first half of day two.
The BCU training was a nice review of things that I learned in the ACA basic coastal instructor certification. Even for those who don’t care about the BCU and their rating, I thought it was a nice way to make sure to cover all necessary skills up to that level. Had this been presented my first year attending, it would have saved my friend and I a lot of planning, circling, crossing off and shuffling trying to get the necessary classes for death prevention on our subsequent stupid trips.
In the afternoon of day two they have a kayak rodeo which I likely have some wonderful pictures from, some of which I may post later. Sunday evening is the wine and cheese party, which is when a bunch of kayak geeks gather, drink boxed wine, nibble on cheese cubes, discuss kayaking and everything else and dance to Betsy Bay and Groove Engine (formed by the owners of Betsie Bay Kayak). Often I skip out on this event, being tired and dehydrated by that point and wanting nothing to do with dancing. This year, a better job with the sunscreen and water combined with having enough friends present for good socialization made the event quite enjoyable. The fact that no one took the unwelcome initiative to try to get me to dance was also a big plus. Oh, and Corrina did a back flip on the dance floor, that was worth seeing.
This morning ended the symposium with a paddle around the lake to practice all the various things we learned over the weekend. Fortunately a nice ~15mph wind had picked up so we got a bit of wind and waves practice too rather than just flat water. I had an opportunity to learn just how hard it is to roll a kayak when your dry suit isn’t properly deflated.
So, mostly good weather, minimal sunburn, fun people, new things to learn, and no casualties… All-in-all I’ll rate the weekend as a raging success.
I do need to add a line in the log book of Jeep history: That thing sways like mad with 170# of kayaks on top and more gear in the back. At one point in the return trip we charged across a little dirt path which caused some massive shift and accompanying noise near the front left wheel of the Jeep. It might die soon.
* BCU 3 star: Assuming the BCU’s competencies align somewhat with the ACA’s, level three means you have mastery of all typical strokes, rescues, and navigation and can apply this in conditions up to 3ft. waves with ~15 knot winds.
