Course Philosophy

Fundamentally this course is designed for paddlers irrespective of their chosen craft, or as may be the case for coaches as either a boat based or bank based coach. The objective is to teach simple and safe skills that can be applied appropriately.

Course Aims

This course aims to provide you with the key safety and rescue skills required to operate safely and to be able to deal with common emergencies. These skills will then form the basis of all safety and rescue training throughout the BCU Scheme.

The award has two purposes:

1. To provide you, a boat based or bank based coach, with the necessary skills to enable you to ensure the safety of yourself and others.
2. To provide you, a boat based or bank based coach, with the appropriate rescue skills to be used to help yourself and/or others in difficulty.

Pre-requisites

• Due to the paddling environment and the boat control required the candidate paddler or boat based coach would need to either hold the 2* award or be of that ability.
• The bank based coach accessing the course would not be required to hold the 2* award, however, they should be prepared to fully participant in all relevant aspects of the course.
• Be able to swim in normal canoeing clothing suitable for the prevailing conditions.
• A first aid certificate is not a pre-requisite; however holding a first aid certificate is strongly recommended for all paddlers.
• Be a minimum of 14 years of age.