Report on 5 Star training at Cape Flattery

As I sit here feeling the stiffness in my muscles, I realize how I had forgotten just how tough these BCU trainings could be; especially at this level. But even more so I had forgotten how much value and confidence there was to be had when you have the opportunity to paddle with such a high caliber of people; and not just the coaches but the candidates as well. I learned new things from all the people involved in this weekends training, but that’s the beauty and makes the rigors worth it.

We started Saturday in force 5 winds which built into force 7 before the day was done. Our coaches , Steve Maynard and Kevin Mansell, broke us up into two groups so we had the advantage of a 2-to-1 coach/student ratio and each group worked on a slightly different curriculum. In my group we used the reciprocal teaching technique to fine tune forward strokes, then in the afternoon practiced various towing techniques. Again all of this in force 7 winds while pushing through 4 foot wind waves. For those of you not familiar with the Beaufort Wind Scale, force 7 is equal to winds of up to 38 mph; “Sea heaps up, waves 13-20 ft, white foam streaks off breakers”. Due to the limited fetch our waves were smaller then those described. No rest for the wicked. That night we did studied navigation working on an assortment of problems the instructors gave us. We finally hit our racks around midnight.

Our second day the weather had calmed down somewhat, although we still had to content with the odd squall line raging through the area with high winds and cold hard rain. In the morning one of our candidates had had enough and was contemplating dropping out, but it was just a momentary low, and a quick pep-talk by the instructor soon had him back in the fold. Timed wind sprints to tire us out, then when we were good and fatigued, impromptu rescues. From the crazed panicked paddler determined to crawl on your back deck, to ‘all-in’ and sort yourselves out and to quote Kevin in his ever so precious Queen’s English, “No twaddling mind you!” My personal favorite was this. Capsize out of your boat and swim to a rock pile being swept by ocean swells. While you climb to the top through the breaking surf, the other candidates position your boat approximately 20 yards seaward of the rock. Dive from the top of the swell making sure to time the swell, least you scrap down the rock face through the barnacles, swim out to your boat and do a quick reentry and roll. All before being swept back into the rock. What fun!

Again it was midnight before we hit the sack as we stayed on the water till long after dark to practice night navigation. Not the stuff I’m use to here in the South Sound, but precision navigation finding dark targets based on bearing and time. It was harder then I thought, and you know what I’ll be practicing for the next few months.

Our last day was a bit easier as we needed to get off the water for debriefs and to allow those with long drives ahead to get on the road. Still the instructors weren’t quite done with us. We alternated turns leading the group down the Strait through the rock gardens, and sure enough we had to perform a rescue among the rocks with the swimmer suffering from a ‘dislocated’ shoulder.

Its tough training, with fatigue and stress purposely thrown at the candidates, but it’s an award not casually given, and ultimately it’s designed to make world class Ocean Expedition Leaders out of us. I’d like to thank our coaches Shawna Franklin, Kevin Mansell, Steve Maynard, and Leon Somme for taking the time to coach this class. I’d also like to thank all my fellow candidates who unknowingly helped with my development as well.