14/07/2005 - First UK trainers course
From the 11th to the 13th of July eight of the most senior instructors in the UK got together at the behest of Richard Gowers [BKSA Chairman] and Jeremy Waitt [BKSA Head of Training] to be taught by Neil Godbold [UK Instructor Examiner] to run Assistant Instructor / BKSA Instructor and BKSA Instructor Equivalency courses.
The eight instructors, [Tim Ovens - Mobius, Simon Mudd - SX Kitesurf School, Andrew Fisher - Transition Kiteboarding, Mark Ward - Kitesurf Scotland, Eric Bridge - Edge Watersports, Chris Bull - HI Kitesurf School, Berny Maginn - Airzone and Andy Gratwick - Easyriders] were selected by the BKSA because of their long history of teaching in the UK as well as their support to the Association over the last several years and their desire to see training conducted safely and professionally in the UK.
As well as their responsibility for helping to train new instructors and keep old ones current, the training department will also be asked to assess schools and instructors to ensure their safety standard is kept high and develop the UK training package such that it stays one of the most comprehensive and respected in the world alongside Jeremy and Neil.
Our own Andrew Fisher was one of the eight new UK Trainers and he said, "This new structure will bring more maturity to the BKSA. The workload was getting too much for Neil and Jeremy alone, now that we have several hundred trained instructors in the UK.
"Other organisations have similar structures, such as the RYA, and we are mirroring what has been proven to be workable and useful in other sports. It is increible to think that an organisation that is only 5 years old has already reached this level of maturity.
"The eight Trainers are obviously still in competition with each other at a business level, but we all get on really well and we all have the same goals for kitesurfing and kite surf training in the UK - that is that it should be done responsibly by the riders and the instructors should be teaching safely"
The plan is for other Trainers to come in from different parts of the UK over time to help fill some of the holes we have in the North West and Norther Ireland at the moment. Each of the trainers will be taking on a regional role in order to help instructors and schools face the challenges they have teaching kite surfing and provide support particulalry to new instructors trying to develop their areas.
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