"Wilko" wrote in message
...
Bob wrote:

Virtually all of the people I paddle with have gone through some kind of
class. I highly recommend classes, even though I didn't have one to
start. I
learned very much when I started assisting classes that I should have
learned 10 years earlier. Students in our club classes learn all these
things in several weeks.

These people learn how to be safe, and if they get through the class,
they
tend to stick around.

I also started out trying to learn how to paddle with a student club
with mostly inexperienced instructors (who were little more than newbies
themselves in many respects). I learned a lot through getting in trouble
and swimming out of it. It wasn't untill my first kayaking holiday (nine
months after I started kayaking) that I learned some real skills by
experienced instructors. I learned more in that one week than in the
previous nine months. Having picked up some bad habits in the mean time,
I also had to unlearn some things. :-(

Still, I learned a lot (in the past decade or so) about paddling through
trial and error. I just get better at getting out of the errors
unscathed. ;-)

I too learned a lot through trial and error. I learned to roll quickly.
Which was lucky, since I didn't have a solid left side brace until I got rid
of the feathered paddle more than a year later. Which ensured that I
practiced my roll a lot. Which resulted in it being pretty bombproof.

Our area club has had ACA certified instructors for quite a few years now.
They really do give excellent instruction, and on river trips they are often
close to 1/1 student/assistant ratio. It's a good way to learn, as I'm sure
any of the students would agree.

It does pay to make sure that the more experienced paddlers on trips you go
on know that you want suggestions. That's the continuing education that's
done the most for me.

Bob