I was reading an interesting article in the Early Summer 2015 edition of Adventure Kayak magazine titled: The Antidote to Apathy. Although I hate to bring it up again, it reminded me of our troubles in the EC2015 and the complete lack of interest in the WaterTribe Survival Meetup.
The author, Charlotte Jacklein, nailed it. She wrote about a participant in one of her intermediate classes who had taken a basic class about one year previous and had not been in a boat since. He expected to jump into an intermediate class without any practice. Of course, she had to fail him.
She also wrote about certification classes being great, but you still have to practice. WaterTribers should be practicing basic survival skills regularly because it needs to become so ingrained that you don't have to think about it. Consider the four levels of competence:
- Unconscious Incompetence: We don't know what we don't know.
- Conscious Incompetence: At least we sort of know that there are skills we need to learn.
- Conscious Competence: We have the training and know the skills, but we have to think about it.
- Unconscious Competence: With continuous practice the skills become ingrained into our muscle memory and we don't even have to think about what to do in any situation. We just do it.
The WaterTribe Survival Meetup will get you to stage 3 or help you get to stage 4. It will also be lots of fun and a WaterTribe Challenge in its own way. This course is not required, but it will satisfy the Skills Assessment for Newbies and provide valuable practice for WaterTribe Veterans. Here is the link;
http://www.meetup.com/WaterTribe-Adventures/events/221636094/
If you signup for the course, please make your reservation at Palm River Cottages ASAP before they fill up.
