11 of us made it for this one, good times, and an excellent way to finish the season with a live foot entrapment scenario! Excellent group to work with!
13 brave souls made it for this one & good times were had by all despite a brief dance with the rain gods. Excellent group to work with!
Covered a series of topics; land based safety discussion & foot entrapment scenario due to minor thunderstorms, defensive / aggressive swimming, zip lines, rescue vest use & v-lowers & strainer exercise.
Special note; kudos to Jody & Conny for making it out!!! Jody has very limited whitewater experience with experience recreational sea & river kayaking. Conny had never been on moving water (We took our time getting Conny to where she needed to be on the river for the safety scenarios, Nice Job!). Can't say I wasn't a bit hesitant having someone along with no experience at all, but after we were done, I could tell it was a huge confidence booster for both!!
Special thanks to those safey minded boaters that have aided us on our Safety Day Adventures, we coulnd't do these without their support, so heres to you'all; Jannelle, Brandon, Jon, Ken (Ken by the way made an unbelievable bootie save for Daniel at our first safety day!). Forgive me if I am missing someone, let me know?
Glenn
Jannelle, "why is Glenn swimming?"
Brandon
BB taking a wee bit of a digger
Defensive / Aggressive Swimming
Jody
Brian Koop
Sara Koop
Conny Anderson
Zip Line
(Note; we should have been using anchors for this, but Jim falls makes that a bit difficult. So, when all esle fails, you work with the River.)
Doug Ritziger
Jody
Conny & Jeff Anderson
Jeff
V - lower
(Conrad gearing up, watch the video below & how he does this in style)
David Conrad - "The Boat Repair Man"
Jeff
Conny
Chris testing the limits of a V-lower.....
Brandon with Conrad testing him too see how far he would go before releasing....
Conrad, V - Lower, showing us how it can be done..."Hugging & Holding his victim"...........you gotta love it!
Another excellent day on the river & special kudos to Jason for making the trek over with me!
Now even though I / we might not see this guy on the river much, when he gets on the water, he throws himself into it! Good peoples', twas a pleasure to boat with him for only his third paddle day this year.
Jason, we have to squeeze one more paddle day in this year....... ;) SYOTR Bud!!!!
"Water Off"
"Water On"
"Water Off"
"Water On"
"Here's to you Jason, Cheers!!!!"
"Water is still running"
"Still running"
"The beginning of an exellent ride"
"Almost their....."
"Oh yeah, thats right, riding it......"
"Ahh yes, a perfect blast"
"Still blasting...."
"Still blasting....."
"And, yes, an excellent ride he had, blasts and all, but what you don't see is the after math.....for seconds later he flipped, rolled not once, not twice (upside down over the next drop), three times (upside down over one more drop), and yes, six times he tried.....thats determination man! Unfortunatley the river gods had other ideas for Jason at the end of the day, and I missed the footage of a good swim.........no worries, he survived & got right back in it!
Excellent graduation weekend for the team of "Ham & Eggs"; 1st day running the Kettle, 2nd day running the Upper St. Louis.
Even though I missed the first weekend teaching, having to fill the shoes of Alex Pak (an excellent instructor), it was neat to catch "Ham & Eggs" on their 2nd weekend. Having the oppurtunity to watch them "Hit it UP" on graduation day & giving them the freedom to take the skills they acquired over 4 days of instruction & run with it! Teaching with Natalie, awesome!!
Special thanks to Dennis Fox, Brian Gimu & Mike Jorgensen for safety boating for our group. Thanks to all those who were working on the "behind scenes work", making this thing Happen, "Awesome"!! And to Natalie, pushing me teach a few years back, You Rock!!!
Good times had by all, and a special thanks to Bob Dodds & Conrad for cooking up some excellent Chow on Saturday night!!!
SYOTR!!!!
-----Camping in Style, it's like bringing home with you where ever you go, this rig has a shower, a DVD player, the works!----------
-----Lou says, "Did you actually think I was going drop Electric Ledge alone?" :)------
-----Dennis showing how its Done!------
------Ooops, sorry Pat, not quite the angle I was shooting for-------
May 16th through 19th - Charlie Walbridge SWR Cert. Course / Walt Augustine Instructor Trainer, hosted by Bear Paw - White Lake, WI on the Wolf River, Section III
Day 1 - Saturday, May 16th
The Crew
___________________________________
Charlie Walbridge - Instructor (AW, ACA)
______________________________________________
Walt Augustine - Instuctor Trainer (ASCI - Maryland WW Park)
"Isn't that the phone he lost?"
______________________________________
Deffensive & Aggressive Swimming Techniques
_________________________________
V - Lower
Wausau Rescue Swimmer Dan - "Just another day on the water"
__________________________________
Tethered swimmer with back-up belay rescuing a unconcious victim. In action, Brian Heikenen.
Jody
"Here's to you Jason, Cheers!!!!"
"The beginning of an exellent ride"
