Finally... It's Over

Again, this isn't one of my pictures, but taken from this website. I would have had pictures of today, but the small problem of me forgetting to pick my camera up as I left the house put an end to that idea.

Today was the assessment for the Beginners Course I have been running for the last couple of weeks and has been mentioned in this post, this post and maybe even in this post. As it was an assessment for the BCU 1 Star and a capsize is needed for the candidate to pass we had to leave the relatively easy to arrange trip down the canal for something a bit more wild and exciting. After much deliberation about venues it was a toss up between a day trip to Coniston and Peel Island or a morning to Garstang where a meander (pictured above) in the River Wyre creates a lovely tranquil stretch of river ideal for an assessment. In the end I made a decision on heading to Garstang as many of the 1 Star candidates were under ten and unable to paddle great distances, which would have been needed for the Coniston trip.

There were a group of fifteen going for assessment, thirteen of which had attended the course I had been running and the other two had attended the previous course, but had never got around to doing their assessment. I split the group up between the three assessors we had and then headed for the water. With my five candidates I ran through the whole 1 Star syllabus before going through it once more to ensure I was happy with everything demonstrated. In the end I passed four and failed one as they refused to capsize.

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain