I did my lessons with 2 different blokes (same school) and had i had the second guy for the first 6 hours i'm sure i would have progressed faster and learnt more....Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I've since found Christians videos on youtube the best tutorials and have watched them often

First bloke never even said anything about self rescue. He missed simple stuff like locking the struts after inflation.

But mind you, in between getting ****ty at me crashing the kite and struggling with a language barrier he did reinforce the need to hit the QR the second something goes pear shaped and upwind body dragging. They were the only things i was really able to take away from his lessons but it's potentially saved me from injury a couple of times and loosing my board.

yep was taught and went thru practice of self rescue by Nick at SOS ... excellent instructor !! with good looks to boot

... he did reinforce the need to hit the QR the second something goes pear shaped and upwind body dragging. ....

That's interesting. In 14 years of kiteboarding I have hit the quick release once and the hook knife once. Both times I had plenty of time to assess the situation and decide on the best course of action at the time. In most cases hitting the quick release is the worst thing you can do because you instantly sacrifice all control over the situation. It turns a minor oops into a potential disaster.

This is my concern with rote learning. Self rescue is a good thing to know. But there are numerous forms of self rescue and each one is applicable in different circumstances. It's easy enough to be aware of the various techniques by watching a video. They're all really easy to do. Most you can try on a light wind day by yourself if you must. Would you want to pay an instructor while you try them all out? Would you be able to devise something else in the water because something you have learned to use has broken or is lost?

It's far better to develop a sense of caution to avoid unnecessarily hazardous situations, and a sense of self-reliance to sort things out when they go wrong.

On the weekend my harness spreader broke during a downwinder. I was able to improvise something to get launched then ride un-hooked to the destination, occasionally operating the chicken loop by hand. It was a bit worrying at the time but it ended up kind of fun and very satisfying.

You might say that I should know how to do stuff because I have been kiting for 14 years. But the fact is I started in the ocean as a little kid, long before that. You always encounter situations that will be life threatening if you screw up. You always have to deal with those situations and stay alive.

An example of that is people getting caught in rips and drowning. There's all sorts of advice about swimming across the current etc. The advice is all BS. Rips have out, in and cross currents. If you swim across a rip there's a 50:50 chance you will be swimming into a cross current. The only thing you have to do in a rip is stay afloat and stay alive. You can do that indefinitely and when you're alive you can make observations and implement plans. Everything after that is just incidental details.

Gorgo said..

... he did reinforce the need to hit the QR the second something goes pear shaped and upwind body dragging. ....

That's interesting. In 14 years of kiteboarding I have hit the quick release once and the hook knife once. Both times I had plenty of time to assess the situation and decide on the best course of action at the time. In most cases hitting the quick release is the worst thing you can do because you instantly sacrifice all control over the situation. It turns a minor oops into a potential disaster.

This is my concern with rote learning. Self rescue is a good thing to know. But there are numerous forms of self rescue and each one is applicable in different circumstances. It's easy enough to be aware of the various techniques by watching a video. They're all really easy to do. Most you can try on a light wind day by yourself if you must. Would you want to pay an instructor while you try them all out? Would you be able to devise something else in the water because something you have learned to use has broken or is lost?

It's far better to develop a sense of caution to avoid unnecessarily hazardous situations, and a sense of self-reliance to sort things out when they go wrong.

On the weekend my harness spreader broke during a downwinder. I was able to improvise something to get launched then ride un-hooked to the destination, occasionally operating the chicken loop by hand. It was a bit worrying at the time but it ended up kind of fun and very satisfying.

You might say that I should know how to do stuff because I have been kiting for 14 years. But the fact is I started in the ocean as a little kid, long before that. You always encounter situations that will be life threatening if you screw up. You always have to deal with those situations and stay alive.

An example of that is people getting caught in rips and drowning. There's all sorts of advice about swimming across the current etc. The advice is all BS. Rips have out, in and cross currents. If you swim across a rip there's a 50:50 chance you will be swimming into a cross current. The only thing you have to do in a rip is stay afloat and stay alive. You can do that indefinitely and when you're alive you can make observations and implement plans. Everything after that is just incidental details.

I agree Gorgo...BUT in the past the people who got into Kiting were generally water people already ( Surfers, Sailors, Windsurfers etc.... ) as such they already had some ocean sense ie: ability to understand and read conditions, ability to make decisions when things go awry and have an understanding of the effect their input will have in a situation.
These days many people are getting into kiting because it looks awesome, many new kiters have not spent much time in the water and think because they can swim they will be fine....... yet they have No understanding whatsoever of rips or currents ( where they might form or where they are present nor what effect they may have on them or their equipment ) No understanding of weather patterns or wind strengths or what to do when things go wrong.

The ability to jury rig something to get yourself out of trouble comes from having a clear mind in a difficult situation you can only really have this if you are relaxed and understand the situation you are in....... If you are taught something about self rescue you will have more confidence in these situations. Hopefully leading to a better outcome............ although the bottom of the gene pool is quite deep and some will still be totally clueless

Yes by AKS 3-4 years ago.

At the end of the first and second lesson an instructor should (must) be doing self rescue....

It is time consuming and involves a wet kite etc, good schools usually have designated kites so the next lesson can progress. I used to use a 5m the first time and then second time with the kite that they are on, only in deep water. No one can learn a self rescue properly when standing.

THe biggest issue I see is guys that dont be really conservative once they get more that 200m out the back. Most guys in Perth have a natural stance which favours them greatly riding out........ Not so much riding in. Murphys law says the trick that you do right out the back is most likely to go pear shaped. learning to ride on switch is part of kitesurfing.

Had to do the pack down twice floating offshore at Woodies..........Choicy was tops, followed me in the boat all the way.

Hi Arloj,

I used to train instructors, and indeed taught more than 200 in my time. I always emphasized the importance of safety and to take personal responsibility for the quality of tuition. I became disillusioned after pouring my heart and soul into every course hoping to create great instructors. It was demoralizing to see most of them become the antithesis of what I was hoping to achieve. Many still don't "get it"

The problem with IKO is their inability to quality check their instructors and schools once they pass the course. BKSA is no better and from what I have seen are worse than IKO, total hipocryts. KAL is working on an Australian standard. I wish them more success than IKO and BKSA. They have a great opportunity to create an excellent system. To the best of my knowledge, the only one with any real cred is the French system.

I taught more than 100 Aussie instructors, and most dropped out of teaching shortly after the course. It's almost impossible to get Aussie instructors, they just don't want to do the job even at the rate of pay we offer. It's even harder to get a good school manager. I'm proud of what Christian has done for the teaching in my school, it follows on the same ideals on safety and quality in creating independent students that I started back in the day.

Any idiot can teach someone to kitesurf in about 2-3 hours tops and you don't even need to be trained, but not if you are teaching how to be safe and independent, this takes hours more, but is totally worthwhile when we NEVER have to rescue our old students. Most modern day instructors think that the mark of a good instructor, is how fast you can get someone on the board, and indeed I've heard instructors boasting that they can get a student up in a single lesson. This to me screams reckless and inexperienced instructor who doesn't care about the welfare of the student. A student shouldn't get anywhere near a board in their first lesson, and not all get to one in their second lesson.

The student says he wants to learn to kitesurf, this isn't actually the case. 99% of them want to learn how to avoid an accident, how to get themselves out of trouble and how to avoid incidences involving others and the public. In short they want to know what to do to keep themselves safe. Learning to ride is actually secondary. You can safely self learn once you have been shown control and effective use of safety and self rescue. The ability to progress quickly comes from the confidence of them knowing they can get themselves out of any situation without relying on outside help.

Kozzie, you have the ability to create a difference in the students you teach. No one will thank you if you get them up and riding but they plaster themselves against a hazard or lose their gear offshore because they didn't know what to do in an emergency.

From what I see going on on most beaches, there is plenty of room for improvement....

DM

Now bring on the red thumbs and the smart arse comments. The average teaching standard in this country is a f%#king joke!

No never taught it,

Read about it and mentally rehearsed it. Watched some videos.

I was given a demo but never performed one. Disappointing as this was that it was taught as check in the box rather than an essential skill and safety aspect of the sport. The instructor told me we will rush through it so we can get on with lesson.

(Go Kite) We did self rescue here in Melbourne on I think the second water lesson? The first being kite flying body drag type stuff..

Yes, it does take up time but.. I want to know that stuff..! Doesn't everybody?

Instructor did a Self Launch then I had to replicate it - To be honest I generally got the idea of it but while learning you are doing so many new things it is hard to keep hold of all the new info.. So I don't think I could do the weird knots properly - but I would get by..

I'm planning on doing another lesson to learn a few new things and refresh. (Now I'm upwind etc and generally kite a few times a week)


Self Launch
Self rescue
Boost/ spins etc..

ActionSportsWA said..

Hi Arloj,

I used to train instructors, and indeed taught more than 200 in my time. I always emphasized the importance of safety and to take personal responsibility for the quality of tuition. I became disillusioned after pouring my heart and soul into every course hoping to create great instructors. It was demoralizing to see most of them become the antithesis of what I was hoping to achieve. Many still don't "get it"

The problem with IKO is their inability to quality check their instructors and schools once they pass the course. BKSA is no better and from what I have seen are worse than IKO, total hipocryts. KAL is working on an Australian standard. I wish them more success than IKO and BKSA. They have a great opportunity to create an excellent system. To the best of my knowledge, the only one with any real cred is the French system.

I taught more than 100 Aussie instructors, and most dropped out of teaching shortly after the course. It's almost impossible to get Aussie instructors, they just don't want to do the job even at the rate of pay we offer. It's even harder to get a good school manager. I'm proud of what Christian has done for the teaching in my school, it follows on the same ideals on safety and quality in creating independent students that I started back in the day.

Any idiot can teach someone to kitesurf in about 2-3 hours tops and you don't even need to be trained, but not if you are teaching how to be safe and independent, this takes hours more, but is totally worthwhile when we NEVER have to rescue our old students. Most modern day instructors think that the mark of a good instructor, is how fast you can get someone on the board, and indeed I've heard instructors boasting that they can get a student up in a single lesson. This to me screams reckless and inexperienced instructor who doesn't care about the welfare of the student. A student shouldn't get anywhere near a board in their first lesson, and not all get to one in their second lesson.

The student says he wants to learn to kitesurf, this isn't actually the case. 99% of them want to learn how to avoid an accident, how to get themselves out of trouble and how to avoid incidences involving others and the public. In short they want to know what to do to keep themselves safe. Learning to ride is actually secondary. You can safely self learn once you have been shown control and effective use of safety and self rescue. The ability to progress quickly comes from the confidence of them knowing they can get themselves out of any situation without relying on outside help.

Kozzie, you have the ability to create a difference in the students you teach. No one will thank you if you get them up and riding but they plaster themselves against a hazard or lose their gear offshore because they didn't know what to do in an emergency.

From what I see going on on most beaches, there is plenty of room for improvement....

DM

Now bring on the red thumbs and the smart arse comments. The average teaching standard in this country is a f%#king joke!

Slow clap......very well said!

Darren,

That's all good an said but you've got a willing, local wanting to undertake the kite instructor course right now and from what I gather there's no ability for me to pursue it?

Does the IKO system still have the records keeping and "Skills card" system?

There was a list of things you had to complete to be assessed as competent (all the self rescue was part of it)- bear in mind, "Intermediate" was successfully water starting and riding for 10 metres, not going up wind or anything.

Does anyone report in IKO instructors and schools not teaching to the course?