10 Instructors Certified in IKO Course May 17th

We have been so busy teaching kite lessons that I am late in posting this blog entry on our great IKO instructor certification we hosted and completed May 17th. David Dorn and his wife Susie flew over from Maui to run the course at both our Alameda and San Mateo facilities. IKO stands for the International Kiteboarding Organization and is the main international outfit that certifies instructors around the world. This will allow a lot of our team to travel internationally over the winter and share their passion for kiteboarding by teaching globally!

We had a great 5 days together learning lots of new teaching techniques that we have already implemented into our beginner program. Here is the crew on the first day in Alameda, ready to soak up some new teaching techniques for our beginner kiting school.
Here are some of the pics Susie took over the 5 days. Thanks to Susie and David of Action Sports Maui for coming over to teach the course!

First day ride test in Alameda...wind was sweet!

Bruce ripping it up on his bamboo surfboard.
David braving the 70 degree Alameda water in a wetsuit (he used to Maui but braved our local site anyway!), on a 15m Naish Boxer, and a Litewave Wing. Go boy go!
Back to work reviewing all of the different safety systems on the bars....
Lots of Naish kites on the beach in Alameda...David's favorite brand so he felt right at home.

After riding for a while we were hungry. Susie helped out on the grill with some yummy sausages. Thanks Susie!!

The next day it was back to work and reviewing self rescue teaching techniques. David gettin' down and dirty in the sand at Crown Beach Alameda...
Andy, Matt, and Kirsten practicing self rescue teaching techniques in the water.
The third day we moved over to Coyote Point in San Mateo to do some boat training.
Water lesson training at Coyote Point at low tide on short lines.
Then on to the boat for launching and landing training....
On day 4 we brought in some "dummy" students for practicing our teaching techniques. Jason had a blast learning from Kirsten!

And the newbies got to go in the water in San Mateo and get free lessons :)
We look forward to hosting an IKO course every Spring as we had a great time and learned some really cool stuff.

Congratulations to all 10 of our Boardsports School instructors who got certified with IKO including from left to right - Kirsten Doerre, Andy Crafts, Michael Mirisciotta, Jonathan Busby, David Dorn (Action Sports Maui and IKO Instructor Trainer), Martin Stokl, Bruce Johnson, Martin Loeffler, Jane Cormier (me), Matt Johnson, Tim Watterman.

Jane