Sea leader training

The Sea Leader Award

The Sea Kayak Leader Award is aimed at paddlers who wish to lead groups of sea kayakers in moderate water sea conditions. You can find more information on the British Canoeing Awarding Body website here.

Moderate water is defined by British Canoeing as:

A stretch of coastline with some areas where it is not easy to land but there will always be straightforward land points a maximum of two nautical miles apart. Crossings not exceeding two nautical miles. Up to 2 Knots of tide (but not involving tide race or overfalls). Wind strengths do not exceed Beaufort force 4. Launching and landing through surf (up to 1 metre, trough to crest height).

British Canoeing suggest that Sea Leaders operate with a maximum ratio of 1 leader to 6 group members in moderate water conditions.

British Canoeing no longer require aspirant sea leaders to attend a training course prior to assessment. However, a training course will help you build your skills and better understand what is required of sea kayak leaders.

Prerequisites

The course focuses on leadership in moderate water - you should already be comfortable paddling and maneuvering in moderare water conditions. It is desirable, but not essential, that you can roll in these conditions. Acquiring the skills required for the British Canoeing’s Coastal Sea Kayak Award would be a good way to prepare for sea leader training.

We will be working in areas of rough water and practicing leadership and rescue skills. This can be demanding on both the body and the mind, and is likely to be more strenuous than a typical day’s sea kayaking. You should be able to maintain moderate aerobic activity for up to 6 hours each day and be able to manage your energy levels, hydration etc. through this period.

We suggest around 20 days recent sea kayaking experience, including some experience in more dynamic water.

British Canoeing provide a leadership e-learning package, which may be of interest to participants - you can find it in their e-learning store.

All participants must be over 18 years of age.

Course programme

I can be flexible with the course programme depending on how long a course you would like and what specific goals you have for the training. I run training with up to 4 participants on a course to enable me to better focus on individual needs and to give me more options to find suitable conditions for training.

For a complete course for those with little experience, I can run the course over 4-5 days on the water, supplemented with 2-3 evening sessions (either during the course, or beforehand - perhaps over Zoom). If you have more experience or are aiming to develop on specific areas, 2-3 days may be appropriate.

Whilst I tailor courses to suit the participants, a full course might include:

  • Personal skills in moderate water - including surf, wind, waves, tidal streams an among rocks
  • Leaderships skills and tactics - applied to a range of moderate water environments
  • Safety, rescue and incident management (if requested, we can deliver the BCAB Sea Kayak Safety and Rescue course as part of the training)
  • Planning and navigation skills (if requested, we can deliver some of the BCAB navigation modules as part of a longer course)

Course logistics will depend on specific venues and conditions, but we will typically meet at 08:30 to discuss options for the day. We might expect to be on the water from 10:00 until 16:30, depending on conditions and whether we plan to cover any theory off the water in the early evening.

Equipment

You will need to bring your own sea kayak and equipment for the course. Essential equipment includes:

  • A closed-cockpit sealed bulkhead sea kayak, with toggles, decklines and hatches in good condition
  • Paddle
  • Dry suit (or wetsuit and paddling jacket) - some of the course sessions will require immersion
  • Warm base layers (synthetic/wool), and extra/spare layers in a drybag in case you get cold or wet
  • Footwear suitable for scrambling on wet rocks - neoprene boots or similar
  • Buoyancy aid
  • Helmet
  • Neoprene spraydeck
  • Towline
  • Knife (in case of dangerous entanglements of the towline)
  • Sun cream, sunglasses and cap
  • Warm hat and spare clothes
  • Food for lunch, plenty of snacks and water, with appropriate dry bags
  • Any personal medication and bags to keep this dry

Relevant policies/terms

This course will be run under our policies (including the cancellation policy), laid out here and the Paddles Up Training policies which can be found here. The Paddles up training policies include information on how they’ll use the data that we share with them for certification, equality and diversity, special considerations and reasonable adjustments among other things.

Contacting us

Our contact details are on the home page of this site - please do get in touch if you have any questions.

We’re always keen to get feedback from those who we coach. Feel free to provide feedback in person or by email. I have an online feedback form here.