Coastal Kayak Trip Leader – Online Prep

This online course helps prepare ACA Trip Leader students for their Level 2 and Level 3 Trip Leader kayak courses and assessments.  Please go to course topics.

As an aside, I’m often asked to differentiate among skills courses for ACA Trip Leader Assessment and Instructor Certification.  Instructor skills and the Trip Leader courses overlap. However, the Skills courses focus on correct demonstrating and modeling strokes, maneuvers, and rescues with the end goal of becoming an ACA Instructor. The Trip Leader courses focus on strokes, maneuvers, and rescues to keep your group safe and happy with just enough teaching to get them moving safely.

For example, you – as trip leader – prevent the need for rescue and efficiently perform whatever rescues are needed (as opposed to spending time teaching others to rescue themselves.)  Likewise, we look to safe and effective strokes and maneuvers but don’t generally video them as you are not required to model instructor quality strokes.  You are responsible for safe navigation, weather, and other parts that affect trip leaders more than instructors (who do not generally travel as far from put-in/take-out).