General Aims
The Level 4 Open Canoe Skills Award aims to enable participants to:
- Canoe safely and competently on rivers up to and including rivers of Grade IIโIII difficulty as part of a group of peers.
- Be capable of negotiating obstacles encountered on water of Grade IIโIII difficulty
- Deal competently with rescue situations that might occur on rivers up to and including rivers of Grade III difficulty.
- Develop group awareness.
Requirements
During assessment, a participant must successfully explain and demonstrate the following techniques and skills at a level higher than that required for the Level 3 Open Canoe skills award and be capable of demonstrating any combination of the strokes competently and efficiently:
- Forward Paddle, Reverse Paddle and Emergency Stop
- All Sweep strokes, including Outside Pivot Turn and Inside Pivot Turn.
- Edging/leaning
- Trim
- Bow Rudder, Cross Bow Rudder
- Stern Rudder.
- Bow Jam & Cross Bow Jam
- Support Strokes
- Draw Stroke, Sculling Draw
- Hanging Draw strokes.
- Poling & snubbing in a Grade 1 environment
- An ability to use water conditions available for the effective and efficient manoeuvring of an Open Canoe.
- Competence in negotiating water obstructions i.e., Standing Waves, Stoppers during the course of a trip.
- Competence in negotiating bends where water flows under trees or against vertical riverbank
- Forward Ferry Gliding
- Reverse Ferry Gliding/ Setting
- Breaking in accurately
- Breaking out accurately
- Controlling a canoe with a pole in a grade 1 environment
- Controlling a canoe in windy conditions.
- X Rescue
- Curl rescue
- Self-Rescue
- Deep Water Rescue of an incapacitated paddler
- Rescue and Tow
- Offensive and Defensive Swimming
- An ability to manoeuvre an empty canoe between two specified points.
- An ability to use a Throw Rope to rescue a swimmer.
- A practical knowledge of First Aid and its relevance to possible situations arising during a canoeing trip to include: Shock, Hypothermia, Head Injuries, Dislocations, Bleeding, CPR, EAR.
- An ability to deal with the recovery of a swapped, pinned, or stuck canoe.
An understanding of the following:
- River Grading
- River Route finding
- Trimming a canoe for varying environmental factors
- Types of Open Canoes and Paddles
- Towing systems and methods
- Group control and awareness
- Signals and Commands
- Personal Equipment
- River Running Methods
Course Documents