thesimianprince wrote:Ah, Richard..you nit-pick my friend. I actually apologised to you for taking what could be construed as an 'opposite side' primarily because I understand and accept your p.o.v. I also agreed with you insofar as a leash does save time when you are learning (and thereafter if one chooses to continue using a leash). You want to pay me 50 bucks to prove something, the next poster $500 for proving or disproving something else. Why are you so on the defensive man? OK, so you do teach people to body drag upwind (mea culpa).Just don't use leashes in your lessons. It's wrong, unnecessary, dangerous and ultimately does your paying patrons a disservice.
As to offering you $50, it seemed the easiest way to show that what you implied (that we don't teach students to bodydrag upwind) is FALSE. It was especially annoying in that anyone should be able to see from my posts that our bodydragging lessons are so comparatively thorough and our concept of what PROFICIENCY entails reflects such a comparatively higher standard, that there is no way we would overlook teaching this skill.
What you and some others probably mean is that we should use lesson time to help students become PROFICIENT at it prior to giving them a board lesson. I have no objection to people stating this opinion. We just don't think it provides enough value for our clients in our situation.
As to offering Kasia $500, it seemed the easiest way to show how totally unrealistic it might be for anyone to expect to learn the skill she described.
I believe that one of the MAIN reasons why lesson quality does not improve is because prospective students get TOTALLY unrealistic ideas of what is involved to learn to kitesurf REASONABLY SAFELY. They get this type of idea when they read BS in magazines and then go online, see a thread like this where half a dozen posters say that they can learn to bodydrag PROFICIENTLY in 30 minutes or less (and other threads where they're told they'll be "kitesurfing" in a couple of days blah, blah).
They get all hopped up thinking that they'll take a couple of lessons and in a week be "kitesurfers" (the various risks and dangers are almost completely unknown and/or severely underestimated).
When they call us or anyone who really spends any significant amount of time on safety and responsibility, they're disappointed AND
DISBELIEVING. They then call around until they find the sweetest talking liar who then shows them how to keep the kite at the edge of the window (land work), watches them go downwind a couple hundred yards (body dragging), tells them to practice that for a day or 2, then demonstrates how to get up and ride a few times and then gives them a "GREAT DEAL" on whatever equipment he makes the most money on.
Since the main theme of this thread is POOR QUALITY KITESURFING INSTRUCTION, I think it's more important than usual to not create unrealistic expectations which help CREATE a market for poor (basically FRAUDULENT) instruction.
Richard M.
Malibu Kitesurfing - since 2002
(310) - 430 - KITE (5483)
http://www.MalibuKitesurfing.NET
kfRichard@MalibuKitesurfing.NET