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American Canoe
Assn Page
  The American Canoe Association -
Note the "Old and new" on the left........... The ACA is in the process of modernizing their course
structure and the names of each course. When they are done it will be exactly
the same Material under different headings......At present the
ACA has standardized
5+ general open canoe courses for
tandem and solo paddlers, and
5+
Touring/Coastal kayak Classes. They have a system of Work Shops called IDW and ICE for
Instructor Development and Certification in these same disciplines. (there are other courses and canoe disciplines: poling, C-1 or decked canoeing, rodeo, sailing, racing, slalom, wild water,
marathon, touring, freestyle etc.) There are One day Safety classes
for moving and white water and a 3
day Swift Water
Rescue course which are appropriate to
both canoe and kayak.
 From within our own ranks and through our association with
Canoe kayak and Paddle
Company
[CKAPCO], We teach or sponsor all of these canoe and Kayak courses. The current Canoe/Kayak
schedule is on the CKAPCO site at the link above.
It is of note that CKAPCO is the 1st ACA Pro-School.
The seven courses and Work Shops break down as follows:
- Two Distinct introductory courses :
- Quick Start your Canoe/Kayak (3 hrs.or
less)- a
flat water course suitable, e.g., for a canoe
livery to give beginner patrons prior to an outing on flat water, in controlled
circumstances. Instructors are required to have an Introduction to
paddling certification to teach this course. There is no "Quick Start"
Certification. Many of our tours begin with a
shortened form of this course at the start.
We call it on water "Smart Start" Orientation. Students can
look at Quick Start as the 1st 3 hours [or less] of Intro.
- Level I
Introduction to paddling Canoe/Kayak(6-8 hrs.) -
"Intro" more comprehensive than Quick Start,
a course suitable, e.g., for scouts at a one day flat water summer camp.
[the instructor cert course
for "Intro" is a 2+ day
affair with 3 days more realistic than 2, It's
focus is teaching modern canoeing]]
-
Level II Essentials of River Canoeing - This is an Introduction to River Paddling
course. the 8 hour course for easy class l water. This course pretty
much matches Antietam Creek demands at easy water levels. It is our most popular course at both
the student and Instructor level. It is similar to the
old "IRP" Introduction to river paddling. [The instructor Cert. course for
Essentials is a 3+ day IDW/ICE.]
NOTE: We ACC, teach an Abbreviated one day course called "LI, LII Combo
Canoe Course" which covers The material Above. for a
course outline click here
- Five Comprehensive canoeing courses.
- Level III Basic Flat Water or
Touring Canoe (2 day stand alone course )
this is about 90% of all canoeing.
NOTE, if one takes the Introduction to paddling course then Basic Canoeing
would take one long additional day.
- Freestyle - advanced flat water - a 5 level course with a min. of 6
hours per level .The Zen of Canoeing. (We/CKAPCO sponsor this course with Karen Knight,
the current National Champion at this discipline,
once each summer. 2011 is not yet scheduled.
- Level III River CANOE
[this is your first level of white water, class I]
(1+
day stand alone course)
(this is the other 90% of all canoeing . At ACC/CKAPCO we pride ourselves on giving River track students a solid and
complete foundation in flat water skills... it's where WW skills come from).[4
day instructor Cert.; comfort on class II water teach on Class I]
- NOTE: The basic courses are designed to use
either standard
recreational [touring] canoes without
special outfitting or WW outfitted canoes.
-
Level IV White Water (2 day course, one day with Basic River Prerequisite
and proficiency, this is an "up the food chain" course,
outfitted boats, helmets, etc.) [5-6 day
instructor Cert. that requires comfort in class III water and is taught in
class II, Anglers, Needles and Staircase type water]
-
Level V Advanced White Water ( 2 day course, one day with WW prerequisite
and proficiency - This is a very high maintenance course
with travel to an appropriate venue class III and above [Lower Yough for example] that we would always refer to or teach
with CKAPCO or
other associate instructors)
- NOTE: Whitewater and Advanced WW canoeing requires special equipment, saddles, thigh straps, flotation
bags, helmets and safety gear. It is not suitable for standard recreational canoes.
The venues are not "SAFE" [which is not to infer that
any canoeing venue is "SAFE"]
- Instructor Development and Instructor Certification Work Shops.
- The instructor development work shop [IDW]is generally a
2 - 3 day course to teach
potential teachers what they need to teach, how to teach it and how to demonstrate
professionally in any or all of the above 7 standard courses.
- The Instructor Certification Exam [ICE] or Workshop is generally a
1 or 2 day course/exam, where the student
performs, demonstrates, teaches and is evaluated by an Instructor Trainer and is certified
(or not) as an ACA instructor at a given level at the end of the course.
- Note - A single IDW/ICE that takes a student from
Intro through WW open canoe is a 5/6 day Instructor course. It is a
difficult endeavor and students that have not seriously pre-prepared will generally
not be successful. Unsuccessful candidates are given their deficiencies in detail. They may certify
at a later date by demonstrating, through various means [demo, video of demo etc.] the
correction of those deficiencies to the/an ACA
Instructor Trainer.
All of these courses are flexible as to time. e.g. an excellent flat water paddler will
not need the same amount of time to develop moving water skills as a novice paddler. It's
in the doing. Discretion to the Instructor. Conversely, the student who just completes a
White Water Course should stay away from Niagara Gorge for a couple of days. Discretion to
the paddler.
There is an online
application form for classes, workshops etc - if we're not giving the course
you want within your desired time frame we can steer you
to a scheduled course. Lastly if you'd like to contact the ACA to join, inquire, find a
form, find a class etc. the link to their new site is
http://www.americancanoe.org
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