Beginnings: A Controlled Environment

December 1996 - January 1997

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

by Mark Ring

I'm sure a lot of us started our paddling careers in a similar manner. Someone we know invited us to the pool to learn how to roll. We assumed they knew what they were doing and anyway, it was a warm, safe, controlled environment. And generally things worked out just fine.

Lately, however, I have the impression there is an increasing trend towards people getting a little experience then thinking they know-it-all. It can be typified by the person who takes an introductory kayaking course then sets off for three weeks in the Charlottes, or learns how to roll from a friend and then decides to take some of his other friends to the pool to teach them. While the hazards of the first example are probably obvious, what's the problem with the second? After all, the pool is a warm, safe, controlled environment.

It would seem not. There were in fact two serious shoulder injuries at Vancouver's Lord Byng pool last winter, including a total, muscle-ripping, dislocation. Not very pleasant for either the injured party or the person whose ignorance precipitated the accident. In this case, the dislocation occured when the student was trying to perform a hip-flick on the side of the pool with arms stretched out behind the head instead of the more usual, hands in front with the elbows bent position. Ouch! The person doing the instruction is rumoured to have had only two hours of previous instruction themselves.

Apart from the obvious problem, there are two other problems. Firstly, if this happens too often (it already has) there will be be no more open pool sessions as access is denied for liability reasons. Secondly, and far worse, there are going to be a bunch of people out there bracing, sculling, and rolling with locked elbows, who are eventually going to end up hurt and maybe even teach others how to hurt themselves.

What can we as concientious paddlers do about it? One solution is to let people know when we see they are doing something wrong or dangerous. While there is a tendency to just leave people alone ("it's none of our business"), their actions can impact on all of us, either by causing the closure of pools or by disrupting paddling trips by injuring themselves, so it is in your best interests to say something.

The most obvious solution is to be honest about our teaching abilities and experience, to ourselves and to our potential students. If you are not sure about all the ins and outs of a particular skill, don't teach it as gospel, and be open to other people's suggestions regarding safe practices. Leave your ego at home. Of course, it is sometimes hard for people to judge how much they don't know, but if we all keep open minds, open eyes and open ears we can not only increase our knowledge base but also provide safe, enjoyable instruction for people that we like and care about. Why else would we spend our time teaching them?

Mark Ring is a Vancouver writer, photographer and kayaking instructor