WHAT MAKES A GOOD COXSWAIN?

A highly trained one. Why?

A complex question cannot take one minute or one sentence structure to placate the format of thought that would not entertain a necessary discussion. The discussion must be productive.

It requires a CON-versation. If people are satisfied with a quick answer, they are the problem. They encourage mishaps. They most likely defend them. These are called excuses.

What is worthy discussion is the proper formulation to a rule, getting to the ‘devil in the details'. It is called conscious. That is our active and aware internal warning system that alerts us what we should not do.

This is a warning, its internal and its sacred. This is what keeps people alive under pressures unknown.

Precisely the determination in a moment facing death, mortality, not existing, can be held within a fraction of a second decision.

What was it in me that caused me to ride head on into a mountain of a moving wall of ocean water, instead of turning and running in panic? And not one wave, but a train of waves out to sea on a very small power boat, which makes no sense.
I made a decision based off of a bevy of input that was manifest inside me through hard work, attending to the details and listening to God. That internal guide of life, the miracles we cannot explain.

There is an answer to this. It’s not the one people want to hear.

What does highly trained offer to the profound listener? They know what is coming. They can anticipate the situation unfolding in front of them and they understand what their positioning should be in advance.

This is become they do not lack the know-how. It is understood that those who cannot handle effectively the risks, known or unknown are behind the curve of anticipation. They are delayed, waiting for something to happen to face it and apply facts. Underway you have to be 3 steps ahead, not 6 steps behind. This is not complex reasoning, its common sense.

The potential of what we are hunting is to secure a future experience of a conscious goal we want to attain. If that goal is haphazard, a poor imitation or an apprehension of reality, the selection will actualize in a terrible result. This is a strong possibility.

If the actual experience is not realized as a successful mission, the preparation was wrong. This must be attended to; it is called remedial action. The problem is this type of person is already dangerous.

They have no platform of realistic measures versus a potential never realized. This is the trap. They put the past forward of the future and reward mishaps, don’t accept or realize the poor choices.

There is an ethical argument regarding these kinds of choices, these poor performers, these haphazard programs. The safety of the program is held hostage in the actions of the program. If they don’t exist, it will be easy to see in truth.

We’ve attained enough historical evidence to see this as a pandemic of neglect instead of an encounter of Watermanship behaviors.

THE VALUE OF EDUCATION IS CONVINCING

The problem is the handlers of the boat or the program are not good. Our goal is to create that which is good, that means we are accountable.

The pressures, risks and demands are not on the boat. Those who earned it by vetting, are. They don’t operate under a lie. It requires effort, dedication and study. Study in the books, and study on the water; study of the craft.

They are not learning it be trying to recreate it. Mishaps are not glorified as capability, but admonished as failure.

They don’t think that free is full steam ahead. They invest in their behavioral learning.

Knowing that the process of acquisition of knowledge is the way.

What does ALL OF THIS MEAN?

Our training decisions have to be right.

Or our field decisions will be wrong.

When people want a free, fast, short answer, it’s precisely the time to get away from them. Don’t let them on your boat and do not go on the water with them. Stop the harm.

Encourage them to get properly trained and engage in the boating education process. Nobody can help a broken ego fix itself, but you can protect your own by ethical choices.

Start thinking and performing on a level that your operational choices can transform Watermanship as an actual function and represent our community instead of harming it.

Instead of being tempted to make horrific mistakes, understand that you control the helm.

The boat does not hit the rock, capsize or lose control.

And here we have the truth of our choices, what we select is our responsibility. It is not potential; it is what we did right from the start.

Faithfully yours,

Shawn

__________

Posted: July 17, 2020

Content Creator of Rescue Water Craft and Personal Water Craft boating international education standards: Shawn is the world’s foremost authority and leading subject matter expert. She cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

__________

Have any questions? Come train with us and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!

Caution: Visit page terms and conditions. Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

GET INTO THE CONVERSATION

WARES = Water Rescue Education

WARES is an ethical and altruistic movement to evolve water rescue worldwide.

WARES is a collaboration of fact-based evidence shared in the spirit of cooperation.

Sourced by those who are doing the job. This is not a strategy to train but to share crowd sourced educational and operational evidence from those who are on the water, on the boat, the survivors, and the stories of those who perished.

What went wrong, marginal or succeeded during incidents?
What Personal Protective Equipment has proven its merit? What needs to be adjusted or adopted?

WARES is the virtual proof from the results of a variety of responses from mutual aid public safety agency professionals to the volunteer or professional guide.

Every incident offers insight, wisdom and takebacks.

Many are manifest in the absolutes learned of accidents and injuries. What equipment was broke or damaged, how did it happen, was it preventable?

The results of poor behaviors and selection in the field or the quick and vetted maneuvers that proved worthy, we need to not lose these lessons, but pay close attention.

STAY STEADY

It is a contextual sourcing of global supporters who are ready to move ahead. Those stalwarts who believe in the ethos and risks entrusted to those who work the frontlines at the edge of a continent, the shore, aerial deliveries, the boat, the swimmer stroke.

We have CONversations which result in solutions, not repeated mishaps. We are not looking to reward the accident and excuse the lesson.

From those whom are at the helm. Join the movement, join the CONversation.
Hashtag #WARESed

WATERRESCUECON
A curated convention sourced around water rescue conversations brought to you by the minds and creators of rescue water craft safety and water rescue disciplines of a variety of educational outlets. This is our cultural world fairground for our future, our public need and for preservation of life, including our own.

WaterRescueCon is programmed for you to be a participant, it is like not like past, it is a stand-alone modern experience. Hashtag #WaterRescueCON

Faithfully yours,

Shawn Alladio & K38

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Posted: April 10, 2020

Content Creator of Rescue Water Craft and Personal Water Craft boating international education standards: Shawn Alladio is the world’s foremost authority and leading subject matter expert. She cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

__________

Have any questions? Come train with us and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!

Caution: Visit page terms and conditions. Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

Change is You

It's not spare change!

Change is the only way out of a dead end.

You are the word.

You are the change.

Be sure you imitate through scrutiny and not on your own.

You can't fake it till you make it.

Study and be genuine.

Because you matter.

=

Be a contributor to our maritime culture by leading the way, all the way around the world.

The time is now.

Faithfully yours,

Shawn Alladio & K38

__________

Posted: April 10, 2020

Content Creator of Rescue Water Craft and Personal Water Craft boating international education standards: Shawn Alladio is the world’s foremost authority and leading subject matter expert. She cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

__________

Have any questions? Come train with us and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!

Caution: Visit page terms and conditions. Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

Weather The Storm

SAFETY MEANS DANGER

Ahoy friends!

K38 is docked and riding out the storm in safe harbors all over the world. From Asia, South and North America, Australia, Europe and Africa, our pandemic quarantine is a gift to the health of humanity.

Our community was built for storms; dark nights, cold, wind and extreme hardship. We understand the loss of disaster.

We have had our hands and hearts upon it; our eyes witness devastation, been on the water and listened, heard the heartbreak with our ears, and worked with survivors and those who perished. But most importantly, our spirit and actions gifted to be a positive conduit of hope in bad situations.

We are ready for the difficulty of any struggle that nature and mankind delivers, as long as our health is intact.

This is who we are, this is our K38 family, our instructors, volunteers and qualified coxswains. These incredibly Unique personalities who can manage tragedy and not succumb to its disaster.

We are caretakers of the greater good on the wild and watery main.

Our community is a resilient one. We don’t feel sorry for ourselves, or reduce our potential because times get hard.

What we do is get stronger, gain spiritual awareness and become more determined and focused.

What do you want your finest moment to be? Will you be the person on the boat everyone can depend upon, even if harboring on shore? We believe you are that person.

Be brave. Have Courage. Take on the challenge the same way you head into the darkening storm; head down, eyes focused on the goal and a safe return to ready for the next call.

You are what is best in any human. We are essential beings who express spirit, determination and honor through service and sacrifice.

STAY STEADY

What we are not is weak. We are not cowards. We take the hard hits that everyone else is suffering with. We are a beacon of endurance. We never quit. We pray for everyone's well being and safety.

Our community has faced many challenges over the years. Wars devastate humanity and nations. It has been a long time we have not had to face such adversity. It is our turn. We can look to our ancestors and let them remind us of the things we need to do to stay steady. All generations overcome war, what we do is pay attention; quarantine.

This is the first of this type of war against our health and economy. We will not fold, cower or excuse. We will be ready to go to work, put our lives on the line like others depend upon whenever called.
Honor those who have died from this virus by being the best person you can be for what they will no longer experience. Rise up your capability and gratitude.

Meanwhile, what can we do besides support our local communities and families? Train!

We can study, prepare our equipment, assess the level of our capability and program needs. Make necessary changes and increase our capability. We can get back into our books and source material.

While we may not be on the water, we have been gifted a tremendous opportunity to reflect on our character, behaviors and attitude. Now is the time to review and correct.
Thank you to all the frontline defenders;

Nurses, doctors, law enforcement, volunteers, health care workers, respiratory therapists, mortuaries, delivery personnel, agriculture, pharmacies, non-profits, places of worship, stores, hospitality industry, airline and helicopter services, animal welfare groups, senior citizens, teachers and educators, virologists, bakers, candlestick makers, industrial, fabrication, automotive, entrepreneurs, corporations, plumbers, dentists, toilet paper companies, truck drivers, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, maritime police, Coast Guardsmen, military personnel, politicians, decision and policy makers, students, instructors, scientists, researchers, EMS, IT industry, lawmakers, special forces, boat captains and crew, cruise liner industry, port authorities, aviation, mayors, governors, managers, governments, nations, the unborn, naysayers and the doers, chimney sweeps, candy maker, spiritual leaders, conductors and engineers, bus and taxi drivers, cowboys and cattlemen, machine operators, UAV pilots, snowplow drivers, roadway maintenacne, linemen, power companies, athletes, lifesavers, intensive care units, ventilator companies, PPE suppliers, salesmen, communication industry, garbage men, waste collectors, realtors, harbor departments, office personnel, restraunteers, servers, mass transit, airport workers, funeral services, energy sector, food processing, medical suppliers, fake media and journalists, gas stations and supply, mechanics, national security, clowns and comics, writers, wastewater workers, banking, economists, janitors, screen printers, clothing industry, printing, artists, herbalists, landscapers, and the list grows with every thought, you and others are not forgotten.

Be a contributor to our maritime culture by leading the way, all the way around the world.

The time is now.

Faithfully yours,

Shawn Alladio & K38

__________

Posted: April 5, 2020

Content Creator of Rescue Water Craft and Personal Water Craft boating international education standards: Shawn Alladio is the world’s foremost authority and leading subject matter expert. She cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

__________

Have any questions? Come train with us and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!

Caution: Visit page terms and conditions. Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

K38

COXSWAIN BEHAVIOR

SAFETY IS A BEHAVIOR CAMPAIGN

Program review is the cornerstone strength of you team and mission.

The waterway on a inclement weather call can be not only hazardous for small craft but can rapidly decrease performance values that were not intially targeted in training.

Today is a great day to review any and all values to the mission and how they correlate with the program management.

If you have any questions, give us a shout!

PERFORMANCE ABILITIES

__________

Posted: February 29, 2020

Content Creator of Rescue Water Craft and Personal Water Craft boating international education standards: Shawn Alladio is the world’s foremost authority and leading subject matter expert. She cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

__________

Have any questions? Come train with us and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!

Caution: Visit page terms and conditions. Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

K38 Rescue Water Craft

The Encouragement Effect

The effect of training criticism is to encourage behavior development in Rescue Water Craft boat handling skills.

It is a measure to motivate a student candidate towards the purpose of their goals for qualification.

The quality of criticism is equivalent to the motivation and meaning of the outcomes desired.

Training scrutiny is a process of observation, review and remedial correction.

Failure of skills is a strong part of the construct of criticism.

BE FEARLESS OF YOUR REVIEWS

It is also a study of the art modus of training and relationship between the audits that instructors oversee. This relationship requires attention and preparation.

The content of the assessment is based off the vessel type, water conditions training in, accessory equipment and the aim to be a prudent and safe occupational boater.

Targets that are to be achieved are focused on the fundamental best practices employed during the training that are reinforced throughout the entire training program.

It is about respecting the student goals enough to inspire, coach, motivate and direct them to the behaviors that will fulfill their mariner skills.

NOTHING BUT THE CHANGE

Change is a varied experience that students embrace on different levels and measures. This is dependent upon emotional maturity and physical capability.

Being comfortable in the water we train in and attentiveness to the responsibility and determination of the goals we aim to achieve is respect for the risk and the management of those inherent risks that will be faced in the field post training.

Students should come prepared to training. They should conduct homework on boating skills, rules, laws and navigation prior to attendance. They should be willing to undertake the learning process of correction actions based on their boating skill exercises.

Instructors will observe and issue suggestions, corrections and advice. The students can also ask questions, in fact ask a lot of questions! Be sure you are receiving the value of your instruction and that your comprehension is not assumed but based on facts.

GET YOUR MIRROR OUT

Remember, no matter what your water rescue discipline, your instructor(s) is not looking for fault, they are allowing you to explore the behaviors that are not inherently familiar to you initially.

They are there to encourage dialogue, practice, understanding and comprehension.

Your future role is a significant burden on your performance. You will soon be taking over your risk management and risk mitigation. These behaviors that you are coached in will guide you to the reality of that responsibility.

Pay attention, training is your mistake field, you want to do you best to not pick up the pace during a real incident. Nail it now! Pay attention, ask effective questions and be hard on your learning ability.

Start self-assessing and critiquing your own skill behavior. When you take ownership of your own learning you will develop on a much faster pace. Give yourself permission to learn form your failures and be encouraged by your critiques!

The rest is up to you!

Posted: February 25, 2020

Author: Shawn Alladio, Subject Matter Expert for RWC

Content Creator of Rescue Water Craft and Personal Water Craft boating international education standards: Shawn Alladio is the world’s foremost authority and leading subject matter expert. She cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

__________

Have any questions? Come train with us and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!

Caution: Visit page terms and conditions. Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

We Don’t Give Medals for Mishaps

Accidents are not opportunities to draw praise, but an opportunity to correct and amend.

Mishaps are not for issuing medals and congratulations.

They are a great opportunity to make corrections from the current negligence and prevent death in the future of your team or those you are serving.

This is a serious reprimand for everyone who praises a mishap and encourages Coxswains or Crew to fail.

Why would you want your fellow sister or brother in the RWC world to fail, get hurt, or die?

Think about it.

Modify your own behavior and do not become corrupt. It’s easy to do when people are attracted to crashes.

Fear a mishap so you can learn to respect life itself and to support the mission and goals of boating safety.

Admit mistakes, make corrections before its too late.

Admit the problems, if you don’t know you have any, get your training assessed by an outside SME

1. Research solutions and corrections, find a mentor

2. Test the methods, observe the results

3. Determine the results of change from start to finish.

Do this now, not later.

Our maritime community is a collective internationally of those who practice safe boating and enforce it.

Otherwise, they are not part of the Maritime community.

Remember to fear an accident, you must respect it.

Boating Safety is Accident Prevention!

Posted: February 11, 2020

Author: Shawn Alladio, Subject Matter Expert for RWC

Content Creator of Rescue Water Craft and Personal Water Craft boating international education standards: Shawn Alladio is the world’s foremost authority and leading subject matter expert. She cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

__________

Have any questions? Come train with us and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!

Caution: Visit page terms and conditions. Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

FASTER THAN THE MASTER

SLOW DOWN

You cannot move faster than the master of boating education. No matter how badly you want it, reality will show you the reasons why.

When you place yourself in that position, you cannot afford the tuition you didn’t pay for by dedication, study and scrutiny. There are no short cuts to rising to the top. Failures can be costly, slow it down a little!

Desire should not be confused with competency. Training is a development structure of the direction one needs to go to attain the necessary skills as an occupational mariner.

Training itself for one evolution in training will not secure mastered success. Life teaches us this lesson all the time. Athletes exemplify it and schools represent it.

Don’t think you can jump ahead without a conscientious respect for boating safety. To be part of community is to be immersed within it and surrounded by other mariners.

To develop your skills, give yourself about six months of applied training. That means every day training, not one training session on the water for 2 hours and 3 hours of preparations.

When somebody tells me, they have been operating Rescue Water Craft for 5 years I take stock of that quote and ponder the agreeableness on its terms.

5 years is 1,825 days. There are 24 hours in a day, if we take 40 hours as a regular work week, we are looking at 2,080 hours a year x 5 that would put them up to about 6,240 hours of Rescue Water Craft on water work. Nobody in the world has it.

Think about restructuring that answer. Stop saying you have 5 years of experience, and start saying you are still learning and get back on the boat!

Learning skills will be restrained or resolved depending upon the relationship value of the particulars that are presented to you and how those sills are corrected. Who doesn’t want to be better at these operations? I sure do!

EARN YOUR MERITS DON'T CLAIM THEM

First you need to make a commitment. This commitment needs to cover several areas, your time, your money and your honest effort and willingness to make improvements. That’s asking a lot of you!

That means you have to be trainable.

Some people simply are not, they need to be realistic and conduct some homework first on the demands associated with Rescue Water Craft operations.

If you aren’t ready to do that part, that educational sacrifice you will never master Coxswain skills needed in the dynamics of boating safety.

You will need professional help. Directly from experts who are properly vetted and tested by a boating organization. If you want the right help you need to go to the best instructor.

Be willing to take honest feedback aka critiques from your instructor. If you cannot take the advice, you probably are not the best fit for this demanding role.

Evaluations can be uncomfortable, but a mishap you create from not listening or not being able to grasp the advice will cost you more than you can afford in reputation.

Once you get your foundational skills down, practice on them one at a time.

‱ Over and Over.
‱ Set goals
‱ Evaluate your benchmarks.
‱ Move onto the next one.

While you are engaged in your skill building you are still in the experimental phase. Learning the ropes as they say. Do you know where that idiom originally came from? Our nautical heritage of course! The tall ships rigged with ropes to set the sails.

CONSIDER THE OBVERSE

Without the seaman’s knowledge of these ropes these ships could not catch wind to their sails. Hence ‘learn the ropes’ was for the knowledge of the basics of sailing and as the ropes were learned onto the mastery of the ships rigging, raise the main and an assortment of knots as a deckhand.

An instructor will ‘show you the ropes’, because they have the experience to introduce you to the same thing! How does this work? Well, from imitation of course, but within the audience.

We have people who imitate poorly by not making that commitment for training. Without training, there is no knowledge and without knowledge there is no performance. Everything is reliant on the variation of the other. If not, it’s impractical.

In our method of training we know that learning the ropes means you will need to show him the ropes. You cannot master that which you can not define. This takes time, real hours, on-water hours, documented results.

That’s the hard part, people are spread thin on demands and it is challenging to respect the mastery of our seamanship skills. It’s not for everyone.
Don’t learn on your own, get advice, structure and feedback.

Don’t think you can do this after one class, a few days or hours, that’s a formula for failure.

Do learn by passing and failing your skills aka trial and error. Monitor your results.

Seek knowledge from a variety of resources and continue to learn, don’t set an end point on your knowledge. Learn how to use your time in a context of value by focusing on key items you can include in your evolutionary learning objectives.

Be your own Devil’s Advocate. Why are you doing it that way, what else can you do, how will additional dynamics cause your methods to fail, what can you adapt regarding change?

Talk to people you don’t like and to people you admire. Gain insights from both of their respective models. Speak up, don’t hide in the shadows, reach out and tolerate the results.

You cannot move faster than your master. You may have to swallow some humble pie and realize they may still be on the pursuit of study as a learner and that may very well be why they are a master.

When you pair up with a vetted master you now have the opportunity to challenge the evidence and to scale your ambition safely and surely.
You don’t want to end up a master of disaster.

Reconcile that time by becoming a prudent mariner.

__________

Posted: February 1, 2020

Content Creator of Rescue Water Craft and Personal Water Craft boating international education standards: Shawn Alladio is the world’s foremost authority and leading subject matter expert. She cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

__________

Have any questions? Come train with us and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!

Caution: Visit page terms and conditions. Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.

DO NOT TAKE SAFETY AT SEA FOR GRANTED

YOU ARE YOUR RESPONSIBILITY

“A Moment for Safety Will Save a Lifetime of Regret” – Wake of Fame Inductee Brian Bendix

The only reason you are reading this is because you care.

1. If you are a passenger on a Personal Water Craft (PWC) you assume your own risk of safety. Prepare, study and take responsibility for your actions underway and prior to departure.

2. If you are an operator or owner of a Personal Water Craft (PWC) you assume your own risk and safety and those you bring on board. Prepare, study and take responsibility for your actions underway and prior to departure.

Boating is a lot of fun! The pursuit of this experience bears the responsibility of being safe so you can enjoy the outing and come home safe.

There is an amazing amount of content on the internet warning people, free information, free boating courses, free downloads for Owner’s Manuals, forums and groups you can join.

Paid or free you have every opportunity to empower your experience and that of others! Make sure you invest in your personal safety and that of all you have on board your PWC.

You cannot blame the boat, the weather, the water, or your friends. Your safety begins with you!

FREE EBOOK!

If you like what you have read so far, download the FREE eBook!
Accept the terms and conditions and evaluate the content and begin your educational outreach and personal responsibility campaign!

_____________________________________

Book ID: #2-121-20
About this K38 eBook
15 Pages
Published January 21, 2020
Completed: January 20, 2020

Author: Shawn Alladio is the world’s foremost PWC authority and leading Subject Matter Expert and Founder of K38. She cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft coxswains. K38 is dedicated towards protecting reputation, distributing boating & water safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care and seamanship skills.
Caution Disclaimer:
Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, gear and OEM manufacturer warning labels, uses and cautions. Read our page disclaimers and terms and agree to them.
Abide by all the Federal, State and Local boating rules and regulations, take a safe boating course.
The content posted on this site is not a training aid and should not be used as such.

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K38-Kanalu K38 2020 Copyright©

WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW IS THE PLACE TO START

WHAT IS THE DUNNING - KRUEGER EFFECT?

“People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden:

Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it.

Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd.

Several analyses linked this miscalibration to deficits in metacognitive skill, or the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error. Paradoxically, improving the skills of participants, and thus increasing their metacognitive competence, helped them recognize the limitations of their abilities.”
– Dunning/Krueger

Source: Semantics Scholar

FALLING AND FAILING IN THE RESCUE WATER CRAFT CULTURE

You can see them in videos and all over the internet, making claims that you know are reckless, dangerous and negligent, but they are oblivious to. You see it in organizations, associations, departments, teams and instructors.

How can obvious warning signs that are unsafe practices be so easily ignored or unrecognized? This behavior lies in the individual’s self-assessment of over inflated value. This can lead to poor estimation of actual capabilities and lure an Operator into a false sense of security.

This is where we view frequent accidents on videos of Operators using a PWC beyond their actual capabilities. The relevant skills are missing. These detrimental behaviors are costly and only serve a self serving bias and do not reflect our professional operations.

We never arrive at the pinnacle of our objective. We are constantly striving for the horizon of knowledge. This is a mighty journey, do not over place yourself.

When asked do I consider myself an advanced RWC Coxswain, I respond ‘yes, but I have so much more to learn’.

Our enthusiasm for using a Rescue Water Craft and diminishing the boating safety requirements for competency has become a maritime cultural whitewash. It has brought all of us to this monolith at some point in our career.

Usually the wake-up call is a fatality in training or destruction in the field during a call-out. This is where lessons will be learned rather than taught to prevent.

People who are not able to recognize their RWC operational incompetency if tested could not fulfill the reciprocal RWC skills necessary to become competent.

Their logic of performance is based upon the very flaws lacking in their scope even though they boast confidence based on ‘feelings’ rather than ‘facts’, they are a time bomb ticking.

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Why does this matter? Because safety is not a word it is a behavior in place for providing consistent boating operations. We have many predecessors in our ancestral maritime culture who have given us the path towards success. It should not be ignored by the new generation of RWC operators.

The fix for this would be to challenge an Operator as a Coxswain, because the standards are askew between the two.

Stiff regulations of evolutionary boating knowledge are determined by a Coxswain. An Operator is basically anyone at the helm of a Personal Watercraft.

How to avoid the pitfalls of your own meta cognition regarding Rescue Water Craft competency? You have to be critical of yourself; actions, motives, skills and knowledge base.

This is why the scrutineers of instructors must be thoroughly tested based on the science of evidence, fact and performance.

In our boating safety culture, Instructors are the first round of success or failure. If they are not competent in their own scrutiny of the knowledge base, they will turn out the next generation of lower than average Coxswains and Crew members.

However, If an Instructor has been examined after intensive Coxswain training and has the ability to consistently apply themselves to learning and knowledge annually with their recertification, they will be avoiding what is called the Dunning-Kruger effect.

Instructors are not immune to self-inflation. This is why we should all question the content and challenge it for professional development. That type of scrutiny is valid for our safety and those we serve.

KNOWLEDGE IS A PROCESS FOR THE IGNORANT

When a person first engages in learning the RWC knowledge foundation, they previously did not harness now becomes inspiration.

Their prior ignorance of the subject of Rescue Water Craft operations and subsequent instruction afterward, they may feel the invigoration of knowledge.

This is a wonderful experience of inspired purpose, but you are just beginning, it’s the baseline of promise. It is not the destination.

This ignorance can be dangerous if they believe they are an immediate expert.

That takes years of cognitive reasoning with practical applications in the scope of the domain regarding these small power craft. It cannot happen with one class, or one year or even five years.

To master the knowledge base is an intensive process and progress laden struggle, and you should not do this alone. Ask for help. Ask for evaluations, research and study. (Keep repeating that)

Group misconceptions are also on the rise mainly due to the rapid post firing of internet posts that are not scrutinized by governing bodies of education or expertise.

Taking an RWC course does not make you an expert after a few hours or days. Keep training, get on the boat on the water and develop the skills your instructor warned you about.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

Behavioral training is a significant influencer on our skills, and this can go in an upward or downward trend. Poor imitation is not success.

Knowing something does not make you an expert. Understanding the realities, history and physics behind it with real world data and scrutiny does.

You can be the nicest person on a Personal Watercraft, and well-liked by your friends and colleagues.

But-If you cannot conduct a positive pivot point secure stop on a Rescue Water Craft 50 times, you don’t know what you are doing. And both port and starboard side swings please! After that we will move onto 25 other skill assessments to determine your competency.

This absence of operational knowledge can ruin reputations, damage equipment and injure or kill people.

Isn’t that enough to scare you into a self-evaluation process of your skills? Probably not.

If you are humble and willing to professionally develop your skills, begin here: Focus on your analytic skills. Look at past historic accidents and videos with repetitive operators creating mishaps. Have you missed something? Do you see yourself in the video?

The ethernet universe is cursed with misinformation regarding Rescue Water Craft operations. It is impossible to correct the dangerous operators and educate their adoring fans.

First red flag: Do not seek negative attention from an accident (mishap).

CONSIDER THE OBVERSE

If a Subject Matter Expert who is internationally recognized points out the flaws of safety or operation, listen to them.

Challenge the advice. Be open to the support you are receiving.

You may even help them. Ask me how I know? I had to admit my own shortcomings in knowledge when I stacked up against seasoned boat Captains and Coxswains in the early 1990’s. I quickly realized how little I know about power boating from a technical maritime advantage. I soon wised up and altered course.

‘Criticism in the scope of learning and is the gateway to progress’. (A good affirmation I use)

This is how we construct our positives from our negatives; where failure can endure the process of capacity unfulfilled or neglected.

Be your own Devil’s Advocate. Be hard on yourself, because you care about your reputation.

Write down the opposing views of the positive ones you embrace. What could go wrong? Why would that take place? What sets the pattern in motion for an accident? Do you know what a mishap is and what to consider?

If you changed one thing in your RWC pattern of operations, how much more effective do you think you would be? Are you open to change? Do you have courage to make improvements?

You won’t know until you go.

Reference the Authors: Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments.

By Justin Kruger and David Dunning (Authors)

Source: Download the Study Here

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Posted: January 19, 2020

Content Creator of Rescue Water Craft and Personal Water Craft boating international education standards: Shawn Alladio is the world’s foremost authority and leading subject matter expert. She cares most about her community and the culture surrounding the safety of event service providers and Rescue Water Craft operators, working hard and dedicated towards protecting their reputation, distributing safety information and continuing to train these amazing individuals to the highest standards of care.

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Have any questions? Come train with us and discover what your community is doing to modernize standards, safety and reduce liability!

Caution: Use at your own risk. Please take a qualified Rescue Water Craft training course and maintain proper records and respect all the PWC, RWC, PPE, and gear OEM manufacturer warning labels and cautions.