New Qualified BKSA Instructors
DATE: 7 – 11 MARCH 2010
LOCATION: X TRAIN (WEST WITTERING)
New Qualified BKSA Instructors
The first recognised BKSA kite surfing instructor course for the Army was run this March at X Train at West Wittering beach on the South Coast, the course attendees included 3 military kite surfers and some civilian staff from X Train. There were a total of 6 persons who successfully completed the course over the week. The weather played a major part in the planning of the course as winds coming from the North and North East ranging from Force 4- 5 brought the air temperature down to a couple of degrees on most days, combined with an offshore wind and water temperatures around 5 degrees made for a fairly harsh and testing learning environment.
The course was run by Andy Gratwick (BKSA National Examiner and head of training) and covered all aspects of the BKSA level 1, 2 and intermediate levels of the National Scheme. This combined learning how to deliver dry teaching sessions on flying land based kites and also LEI (leading Edge Inflatable) kites through to board starts and riding techniques.
West Wittering beach was an excellent location to run the course as the beach is flat with a gentle gradient so no major shore break to deal with, also at this time of year not many other beach users so loads of space available, there is a windsurfing and kite surfing club there also with dry and wet teaching areas so the centre is well equipped.
As part of the development of the AISTC (S) at Thorney Island kite surfing will be an integral part of the watersports program from this season onwards and in the future so we will be running some BKSA Courses this season using West Wittering beach and Hayling Island. The AISTC (S) has just purchased some new RRD kite surfing equipment for training purposes and a selection of Flexifoil land based ram air kites for learning the fundamentals of kite flying etc.
Please contact me or the centre for further details on courses and general kite surfing training matters.
Article written by Jon Metcalfe
Contact details.
Mob: 07768988258
Email: asawsm@btconnect.com .
updated Mar 2010 (1)