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(Eric Nyre) wrote in
om:

I'm going to jump in on this one, because I sit on both sides of the
image issue.

If I am instructing through my shop, and the classes are beginner
"intro" classes, then I will use a gorgeous boat. Shiny, pretty,
whatever. Why? Because instruction through the shop helps sell boats
for the shop, and in my experience the new image helps sell boats.
Pure economics. Image is very important in that part of my market.

You offer some interesting perspectives Eric. In about an hour I'm going
down to my friends kayak shop to help teach a beginner lesson. I'm not sure
what he'll be paddling but he's got a couple of racks full of shiney new
boats for sale the the students will see before and after the lesson. Often
after intro lessons we'll spend some time in the shop talking about boats
(ie. comparing hard chine to soft chine, etc) so they have plenty of
opportunity to see some new merchandise.

Am I doing much rescue work in the beginner "intro" classes? Not
really. I'm teaching very basic stuff, and only spending a few hours
on the water. I'll cover a rescue when someone flips while bracing,
but I try to keep the classes short enough that people have fun, don't
get tired, and want to come back for more.

You teach bracing before you teach rescue skills? Do you even have the
students do a wet exit in your class as part of the curriculum? What if one
of your students takes your class, goes out later to practice bracing and
capsizes? In the classes that I help teach bracing is taught in the second
level class. Generally most students don't capsize unintentionally very
often in the first class. However, once they start trying bracing that's
when they start going over and get a chance to practice their rescue skills.
We also teach a bow rescue before we cover bracing and quite often students
won't even come out of their boats after a failed brace. When we start
teaching bracing we tell students that we expect some of them to capsize.
If they're not, they're probably not tipping their boats over enough such
that a brace is serving it's intended purpose.