ACA SUP ICW - Portland, ME
This marks my 3rd course in Portland Maine and my sixteenth course overall. Not bad considering I usually offer only 2-3 courses per season. Last year this course was full with 8. This year we struggled to get only 3 and ended up dropping it to a 2-day Level One course, which turned out to be the right move because the candidates weren't ready for Level Two just yet. Cathy, Caitlin & Emma all did awesome and Portland Paddle is lucky to have all of them as instructors and guides. Big thanks to Portland Paddle for hosting me again this year!
East End of Casco Bay is a tough venue when looking for Level One conditions. Turned out that we had to make our way into Portland Harbor each day to work in a small pocket of perfectly flat water, quite nice spot to teach actually. I enjoyed this because it gave me a real good look into each candidates skills while paddling in wind on the way to the harbor and back. What was only a 5-10 minute paddle gave me tons of insight into their experience and comfort level on a board.
The course was awesome. Super fun, beautiful weather and some great progression.
What really stands out though, is that I realized Level One courses are way more appropriate these days. Most courses I've run in the past have been combined L1 & L2, which is great when you have paddlers filling out the spectrum. What often happens though, which I dislike, is that some paddlers assume they're paddling at L2 standards just because we're covering it. They don't always understand where they fit on the L1/L2 spectrum and it's hard to tell them they're not as skilled as they think they are. The other thing I really don't like that has happened over the years with combined courses is that some people are meeting L1 standards, not quite L2, but might be close enough to send them home with a workplan to meet those standards quickly. Typically we call this a continuation. Sounds great right? It can be, but most often what happens is people go away with a continuation and never really put the work in to meet the standard, and my time gets wasted. What's the takeaway? I'm not offering combined levels anymore.
