I had lessons but i believe i can teach my mate. Why is this frowned upon?
I have him practicing on my 5m ram air kite until he is super confident and can fly it without looking at it.
then i'll go through lessons about safety etc. I know the beach rules and will only let him use the kite in water. I don't see how an "IKO" instructor is better at teaching than any other proficient kite surfer ( i also have first aid course). I'm not flaming, but your insights/thoughts or critical information i should impart would be useful.
Thanks.
Troll be trolling?
Do you think it's a good idea for someone with a pilots license to teach people to fly a plane?
Think someone who can cook 2 minute noodles should be teaching people to be a chef?
Yes, you can kite. No, you can't teach.
IKO (or any other cert) doesn't teach you how to kite. It teaches you how to teach people to kite.
By all means get him to fly your foil kite until he can do it blind. Then book him in with a friendly kite school to get a couple of lessons. Then once he's learnt the basics from someone who has experience teaching and insurance if things do go wrong, by all means get him out kiting with you and give him a few pointers. If it's a matter of 'saving a few bucks' then kiting isn't the right sport for him.
just seems to start a bad precedent,stick with instructor for the good of our sport.
Ok mates, will encourage him to get a couple of lessons for everyone's benefit. No harm in that.
If you're confident enough to teach him you wouldn't um and arr about it, nor would you go on the Internet to ask strangers if you think you should
Yeah... what Koma Said.....!!
everyone gets hasseled to teach....
tell them to go and get a few lessons from a school.... and then give them tips once they get hooked.. it sorts out the tyre kickers....!
(we dont have an IKO school/or similar within 2-300km and we still send-em)
And:
is you mate going to buy you a new kite when he trashes yours...?
are you still going to be mates when he breaks his leg and can't work for weeks..?
if he hurts someone else on the beach... are you going to take the fall for that..? your teaching him/her...!
The list goes on and on..
Do you realise if something goes wrong (this is kitesurfing), he may, and has some justification to hold you accountable?
He/she want to learn, he/she sees you as an authority on the sport. Compared to him/her, you are. Are you comfortable in this role?
What is your motivation to teach him/her. A couple of potential answers I can think of are;
pressure from your friend to save him/her a few bucks (my thoughts, if he/she can't afford lessons, he/she can't afford to kitesurf, this truth may hurt if it ought to),
to impress your mate (and perhaps yourself, maybe even your mates girlfriend/boyfriend) with your skill and knowledge,
to appeal to your altruistic nature,
It can be hard to say no to anyone, especially friends. If you genuinely want the best, injury free outcome for him/her, you need to take your ego out of the equation and ask what's best for him/her.
Maybe telling him/her that you really want to kite with him/her, but you would feel better if he/she took professional lessons would be a display of real friendship, while asserting yourself and avoiding the responsibility you may not want.
In my experience, there are a couple of things my instructor (who has become a kiting buddy) taught me, particularly regarding safety and self rescue that have helped me enormously, and may well have kept me alive.
When I see one of my local instructors giving a lesson I am always impressed by the patience he displays (especially when there is a good wind he could be kiting himself), and the responsibility he takes on. I can't imagine strapping a person with no experience to a kite and talking them through it.
Me "Now just pull the bar that way, NO NOT THAT WAY, THE OTHER THAT WAY!!!"
Newb "Huh, this way?"
Wind " Whoosh, gust howl"
Newb " Whee, this is great!! I thought we weren't going to do land jumps on the first lesson."
Me "We're not!!"
Newb "Wow, I think I can see my house from up here, how do I land?"
Ambulance driver " Do you know his blood type, are you his next of kin?"
So what do all the nah sayers think about teaching someone, your kids even, to ride a bike or a skateboard or heaven forbid, drive a car?
To compare flying a kite to piloting a plane is just stupid dumb logic.
instructors practise daily how to deal with the many things that people do wrong.
I have seen many people try to teach their friends and to be honest i think it is an ego thing to think that you are just as good as an instructor.....if they can't afford lessons maybe choose a different sport...........
i recently had a conversation wiht a girl teaching her dad to fly...........on a 6m in less than 15 knots. Her exact words
'why does everyone keep telling me i shouldn't teach him' hmmmmmmm and yet she still does it. I even talked to her about mullaloo............nothing.
I'm not the fighting kind but i felt a sudden urge to push natural selection in the right direction.
If you teach your friends your an idiot
I've spent 4 years learning to be a teacher and i will always say no to teaching someone!
thing about kiting is, pretty much anyone can do it.
thing about teaching is, not everyone can do it.
ask any teacher of anything, it is a technique and a developed gift to be able transfer knowledge and skills onto someone else in a manner that is logical and understandable....
