So Niko, Ben, and I decided to test out our paddle club instruction skills by taking Ben Hoffman (who will now be referred to as Hoffman to avoid confusion) down Bull Run, a Sandy tributary.
Bull Run is a class III run with a short little slalom course at the put in. Its a beautiful river mostly made of conglomerate and weird ass boulders. At the level we ran it at (low), it was pretty boney. The weird rocks and low water made most of the run pretty technical class III boulder garden moves, which are not easy for a beginner. Turns out this was Hoffman's first time on whitewater; most of his kayaking experience was in the ocean. He had a pretty good roll, and his strokes were decent. We later found out that his balance was very good and his instincts were aggressive.
Before we put on, Niko decided to give his drysuit to Hoffman, this was probably the best decision of the whole trip. We put on and did some ferrying, which resulted in Hoffman flipping on an eddy line... He rolled up fine, but was pretty shocked at how cold the water was. After his first couple eddy moves, we decided to progress down river. Our 3 instructors to 1 student ratio worked out well as our time was inexperienced and hadn't developed much chemistry yet. Our roles ended up being one of us, usually me, at the front, boat scouting and running stuff to see if it was possible. Then Hoffman would follow one of us, usually Niko, down and usually Ben would run clean up. We all had turns at each role, which we good for me, as I felt that I didn't get much trip leading experience at camp.
So, the river was technical, like, hard class III technical, not ideal for a first timer. Combined with the shallow water, sharp rocks, and cold water, we had all the makings for a bad day for a beginner. And, on paper, it probably would have looked like a bad trip. 3 swims, a couple scraped knuckles, some great upside-down rock interaction, a close call with an undercut... But somehow, Hoffman managed to love every second of it. It was super inspiring to see that look in someone else's eyes. Besides the passion shining through his eyes, Hoffman definitely has the right stuff.
Through the multi-move, technical boulder garden rapids, Ben constantly surprised us by making past many hard moves, and saving it a couple times after being unable to make the right move. Niko said that he would look back and be surprised to see Ben still upright. This kid was a fighter. Multiple roll attempts every time; many, many balance adjustments; frequent instinctive bracing; and active self-rescue. You can't ask for much more in a beginner.
Instructing in such a focus way led me to a couple insights. I found myself, like many instructors before me, yelling at my student to PADDLE PADDLE PADDLE!!! Unfortunately, that never seems to help. What is skill students lack that cause them to not paddle? I think its pretty clear that most students would paddle if they felt able or didn't have something more pressing. I'm starting to think that balance is the real problem. Whenever instructors are yelling at their kids to paddle, the kids always look unstable, and from experience, I can say that when you are trying to not flip, it can be hard to paddle until you've trained yourself to balance BY paddling. Beginners don't have this experience yet. So I decided that I am not going to ever yell at someone to paddle again... if I do, it means that I suck as an instructor. Other skills need to be worked on first, probably on flat water such as bracing, balance, and strokes. And on the river, students need better water reading skills so that they can keep their balance and will be able to place strokes in the water.
Speaking of strokes, I really need to get that last eddy turn stroke, I feel myself doing the down stream boof-y stroke to get into the eddy, but I find myself not stopping my moment enough with my next stroke, or not getting enough turn, or something. It might be that my boat is too big, but I think by observing Niko and working on a drawing Duffek, I will be able to get the rotation and momentum stopping that I need to catch micro-eddies like a class V paddler needs to.
