What an amazing weekend! On August 3rd & 4th, we did our first Double Header weekend, and it was truly amazing. We had students from all over Ontario, from all walks of life, and with a range of experience levels from none at all, to 40 years on the trails.
We started the weekend on Saturday with our Off-Roading 101 course, and although it’s designed to teach the basics to get people safely into the hobby, even our student with 40 years of experience was still able to learn some great new tricks, and was able to level up on his techniques. We were also able to point out some bad habits that had been picked up over the years.
As usual, the classroom session started at 8am and took us to lunch. After that we hit the trails. One of the best things about this course is that we put instructors in the car with you so that you get some one-on-one training, observation, and coaching. This helps build healthy habits, awareness, skills, and knowledge before expensive mistakes are made.
By the end of the day we had a batch of students with newly learned skills, new confidence, and a healthy respect for the hobby of off-roading and the environment.
On Sunday we held our Recovery Level 1 course with some of the same students. This is why double header weekends are so great. Lots of intense training over two days.
Once again we started off with a classroom session covering the theory, safety, best practices, and of course…what NOT to do and why. After lunch we proceeded to our exercise area to complete the various exercises for the afternoon. This is a certification course, so we don’t hand out participation awards. Students have to earn their certificate by proving that they not only understand the theory, but they have to have to demonstrate that they can safely perform the tasks.
This is real-world, hands-on training with professional instructors guiding you, watching your every move, and pointing out mistakes before they translate to serious mistakes in the wild. It’s all in the rigging, and this time we had some extra time to do complex rigging like Spanish Burtons, and line shortening with the X-Lock tool. Definitely not rigging that you see every day.
By the time all was said and done, everyone was much better informed and better skilled in both off-roading, and recovery techniques.
We’re really looking forward to our next Double Header in October. So much fun!
Previous Post
