John : I tend to agree with a lot that you say. When you wrote :

I hesitate, however, to buy the notion that
student equate instructor competence with the physical appearance of the
boat they're paddling, or whether they're decked out in new high tech
clothing.

I think you're putting words in my mouth that were never there. Competence is either there or not. A certain degree or caring is
only that and it means that some folks care about that others don't. The problem with some of the other posters here is that they
were implying that they would judge an instructor on scratches rather than competence.

In one case,
one of the instructers was wearing an old sun faded PFD. Unlike the clean
shaven pretty boy ski instructor image with a french accent,

BTW a faded PFD is a sure sign that it should be replaced. PFD loose floatation over the years and by the time they're faded have
generally lost enough to require a new one.

Te







"John Fereira" wrote in message .. .
"Te Canaille" wrote in news:_U_xc.1$MO3.0@lakeread01:

Good point John. Fact is the boat I want to repair has a similar
history. Even though a hull gets scratched there's nothing
wrong with wanting to re-do the exterior. It shows a certain degree of
caring about one's gear and personal look.

And for some that amount of degree is very low, for others very high. If I
thought any of the scratches on the hull of my cedar strip boat
significantly impaired performance or would compromise the integrity of the
hull I'd bring my boat up from my friends shop and refinish it. As long as
they're only cosmetic I'll leave it the shop where it's readily available
for a paddle anytime I want. I'll probably use it for the lesson I'll
probably help with this weekend.

Students hear about 10% of
what you say but absorb about 90% of what you are.

Probably some truth in that. I hesitate, however, to buy the notion that
student equate instructor competance with the physical appearance of the
boat they're paddling, or whether they're decked out in new high tech
clothing. In fact, my experience has had an opposite effect. I also have
been a student many times in classes over the past few years. In one case,
one of the instructers was wearing an old sun faded PFD. Unlike the clean
shaven pretty boy ski instructor image with a french accent, he had a full
beard and a british accent. I listened to everything he said though because
of who he was. His name was Nigel Foster. In another lesson at a sea
kayaking symposium a few years ago I took a refining your forward stroke
class. After introductions we got into our boat and the instructor hopped
into a loaner plastic boat (a Dagger). He attempted to put on the nylon
spray skirt a couple of time before asking me to help put on the poorly
fitting skirt. Once he started paddling though he danced with that kayak
like nothing I had ever seen. The class was very well structured and my
forward stroke improved significantly from that two hour lesson. I was
paying close attention to what he said, as he has probably made more forward
strokes than anyone in the world over the past five years, including the
circumnavigation of all of the British isles, the South Island of New
Zealand, and most recently Iceland. Chris Duff is a remarkable paddler,
even is a cheap plastic boat with a poorly fitting spray skirt.