C-Forum

Does anyone know of any icanoe nstructor training that is friendly to small boats.It may be a while before I can attend, but I'd like to be ready if someone asks me to help start an all city youth surf and slalom team... or something like that.

If you are talking about ACA Instructor Certification, it should be suitable for any size canoe. That said, as an instructor, you need to use the kind of boat that you expect to teach someone about, or it will be hard to give them good feedback.

Instruction Certification doesn't teach you to paddle new types of boats. It checks out your abilities in your boat, and your ability to communicate and model skills.

There are some EXCELLENT instructors that I have worked with, but they are long boat paddlers, and I think the way the were used to teaching was more focused on older hull designs. They had to work harder to adapt their feeedback to shorter hulls.

Hope this helps,
Shep

I run an annual ACA L:4 IDW/ICE for canoes in Western NC at the end of April. I love the short boats, but typically have a mix of craft. We use tandems, but primarily focus on solo skills. I have had instructor candidates use Spanishfly/Option/L'edge. I am willing to accept Ion or equivalent paddlers, but you must be able to ferry back and forth across significant current without losing ground.

Feel free to contact me for additional details.
Cheers,
Eli