Sea Kayak Program Development March 2025 Program Update

Our committee has been working on streamlining and clarifying some of our procedures. We are excited to continue supporting the community and providing resources to help you offer excellent programs.

We are very excited to share new Skills Checklists for Basic Skills through Level-4 Sea Kayak Skills. The skills checklists reflect all skills required based on the manual and allow for the breaking out of whether skills have been completed in the appropriate conditions. Additionally, a skills summary is included with each checklist, and an extract of the manual is included for easy reference. Many hours of hard work went into creating these resources. Big thanks go out to Viki Cirkvencic, Rick Wise, EJ Lange and others for the many hours of hard work. Find the PDF documents on the new manual website.

Policy Reminders

The IT Transfer process allows for Basic Instructor Trainers and Level-2 Instructor Trainers to apply for the next IT level once they have completed the prerequisites, waiving the need to complete two mentorships. Reference to this process has now been added to the Basic IT and Level-2 IT course descriptions and outlined in the Instructor Trainer manual.
A reminder that prerequisites are in place to ensure that participants have the appropriate skill level to participate in the course effectively. When participants do not have sufficient skills, their experience, and the experience of the other participants in the program are impacted. Enforcing prerequisites is especially important when mentorships are being completed so that the mentoring Instructor / IT develop an accurate understanding of the course. Additionally, running a higher-level course, allowing participants in without the prerequisite skills, and then awarding a pass in a lower level is also not permitted.
One Instructor or instructor Trainer offering two different certification levels simultaneously is not permitted. For example, one Instructor can not run a Level-2 Sea Kayak Skills course and a Level-3 Sea Kayak Skills course simultaneously. However, two different instructors offering these programs simultaneously, supporting each other yet separating to take their students to appropriate locations, is possible. In this situation, the instructors must ensure that participants are exposed to the required environmental conditions and skill levels.
When offering Paddle Canada certification on a guided trip, there must be enough time to ensure that all skills are sufficiently covered in addition to the trip travel time. Additionally, a reminder that prerequisites must be met before the trip (example – participants on a guided trip offering Level-2 Sea Kayak Skills must have Level-1 Sea Kayak Skills certification, or equivalent skills, to participate.)

Creating Community Consistency

The following discrepancy was brought to our attention, and we want to clarify things to ensure the IT community is on the same page.

When assessing Solo re-entries, any solo skill is acceptable for a pass. For example, participants do not need to complete a Scramble re-entry specifically. Additionally, do not fail a participant for relying on a paddle float in their solo re-entries.
If you have any policies that you feel are applied differently in our instructing community and would like to have the SKPDC dig into it, please email us your thoughts.

Manual Updates and Clarifications

The following items were clarified and/or expanded upon in the manual:

Waterfront Kayak Skills: sweep strokes were expanded upon,
Waterfront Kayak Skills: correction that Waterfront Instructors can teach this course (previously stated a Level-1 Instructor was required),
Basic Skills: torso rotation as applied to the forward stroke was expanded upon,
Basic Kayak and Level-1 Sea Kayak Skills; added discussion about re-entries in double kayaks,
Level-1 Sea Kayak Skills and Level-2 Sea Kayak Skills: Stern rudder was expanded upon,
Level-2 Sea Kayak Skills: The navigation section was reorganized,
Level-2 Sea Kayak Skills: Participants’ engagement in rolling skills development was clarified; participants must attempt the components of a role in the water, and
Level-3 Sea Kayak Skills: participation requirements in scenarios in were clarified.

If you have any questions or thoughts you want to share, don’t hesitate to reach out; We are always happy to hear from the community. We appreciate your communication when issues arise, no matter how small (a typo in the manual) or big (a policy that just doesn’t work). Please send us your feedback!