East Coast Sea Kayaking Club

Trip Planning

Begin your planning long before the event.  Check forecasts several days before the trip.  Develop some gauge as to what the conditions for the trip will be and plan accordingly.   Many aspects of leadership start long before you get to the beach.

Announcements

Bulletin Board.

Put a preliminary notice up on the Bulletin Board, a few days in advance.

Follow up with other notices as necessary, and then on the day itself, let people know precisely what is happening.  Information usually includes weather, tides, and outline plans, but may have as extra - whether to bring sandwiches, woolly hat, wet session gear, whatever the projected situation will require.

Trip arrangements

You may…

• change the time
• change the date
• change the venue of the trip
• arrange an alternative leader if you can’t do it yourself
• designate it as a peer paddle
• or cancel it altogether, as you wish.

On the day…

• Arrive early at the beach. 
• Saying “no”.  The leader is free to decide who can get on the water as part of the group.  Probably the least pleasant aspect of leadership is saying “no” to someone who has travelled miles, and maybe hours, to the beach.  Sometimes, it must be done.  Do not shirk your duty.
• Peer Paddles.  In the case of Peer Paddles, let it be well known well in advance that this is a Peer Paddle and state the required proficiency level.  Be conservative.  Do not take paddlers below your own level of proficiency. FYI, no paddler renting a boat from Deep Blue is allowed to go to sea unless they are part of a led group – there is no Peer Paddling in a rented boat.

Leader working with a mentor.

• Remember you are still the leader. 
• Do not offload any part of your function onto the mentor. The mentor will help and advise, if asked, but will not take over your role. 
• Make contact with your mentor prior to the trip, and STAY IN TOUCH.
• You must still do all the preliminaries, i.e. check tides and forecasts, plan things, put notices on BB, but you must also let your mentor know what is going on.
• Discuss dodgy decisions beforehand where you feel that is necessary.
• You must also make sure they are available on the day, and if not, organise for someone else to do it for you.  Do not just contact your mentor to let them know the situation or assume they will step into your shoes for you.
• Bottom line, if a mentor and leader are working together, the mentor is ultimately responsible, and if the going gets rough, YOU MUST DEFER.

Mentor’s Responsibilities

• You are responsible for the trip. You may take over at any stage if you feel the leader is not performing adequately.
• You should advise where necessary. Your role is to develop the leader and enable them to lead trips on their own.