Beginners Course Near Central Coast

[katiemascord]

Hello!

I've just started caving and am interested in canyoning and abseiling. Does anyone know of any beginner courses I can go to in the Sydney/Central Coast area?

Also, does anyone know of some great bushwalking tracks/places to go kayaking?

Any help is appreciated

Katie

PS: Great to join a forum of like-minded people

[Aegist]

Hi Katie,
I don't know of any close to the coast, but there are plenty of adventure companies up in the mountains that will train you (for a fee).

I think the better option though is to join a club - There are plenty of outdoor clubs around, many of which are university associated although you don't have to be a student of the university to join them. As we are at the beginning of a new year, now is a good time to join one of those because they will start running a lot of beginner trips throughout March and April to cater for all of the new students coming through.

They will be much cheaper than paying an adventure company, however doing it with an adventure company will be a much faster and more direct solution to the problem.

[Lucas Trihey]

hmm, I'm not so confident in recommending clubs these days as an entry point into activities like climbing and canyoning.
It's true that some clubs are pretty good and have dedicated, experienced and skilled people leading trips - but my experience is that these days that's become the exception rather than the rule. The problem for a newcommer is that they won't have the judgment to be able to decide whether a proposed club trip is likely to be safely run or not. In general (I concede that there are exceptions) club trip leaders don't need (or have) any recognised qualifications. And because many clubs are places with a transitory population (unis etc), leaders change, experience is lost and  trips go out led by quite inexperienced people. How is "Joe Nube" going to know this? Consequently there have been a number of fatalities, group evacuations and other accidents on club trips in the Blue Mountains (where I live) in recent years.
Commercial guiding companies - in general (yes, there may be a small number of exceptions) commercial trips are well run and in the main guides are qualified and experienced. And as time goes by this is improving more. Consequently there have been no deaths on commercial canyoning, abseiling or climbing trips in the Blue Mountains. Whereas there's been a number of deaths on organised group or club trips. And there have been many more minor accidents, near misses, overnight strandings and evacuations of non-commercial "organised" groups compared to the adventure companies.
My experience is that a paid guide will also make more of an effort to impart skills and knowledge during a structured instructional course (less so on a paid "jolly" day) although I may be biased because I've worked in the past as a commercial climbing and canyoning guide 
My recommendation is to do a canyon leaders course through an adventure company. You'll learn a lot about group management, trip planning, problem avoidance, personal self rescue, group self rescue, emergency procedures, gear etc. It will cost a couple of hundred bucks but this is still a very cheap way to enter a new sport, especially a sport where the consequences of a stuff up might mean dying - we aren't talking golf...
Lucas

[Aegist]

Some very good points Lucas, and I do tend to agree with what you have said. I guess I am bias towards clubs because I come from the 'poor uni student' background, where the idea of forking out several hundred dollars for anything is simply not an option, let alone a day or two of training.

You are definitely right about the significantly higher level of qualification and training that commercial tour guides have, and that club trip leaders can literally be some random guy off the street going out for his first time.

What I was thinking of though, when I recommended joining a club, was that many uni clubs do cater to beginners throughout March and April because it is early in the year and they have a club half full of first timers. In my experience at least, with UNSW's Outdoors Club, that they will usually run several courses or beginner activities during this time so that later in the year more people will be able to come on more trips. Some times these trips are nothing more than someone with experience going to a cliff, and showing all the beginners how to rig up an abseil - how to prussik - how to rescue etc, and I do accept that these sorts of training days could very well be full of mistakes as there is no requirement for the person running the trip to have qualifications. However, I have also seen courses organised by members of the Outdoors Club to attend professionally taught courses - usually they are significantly discounted, or done through a qualified friend or something like that.

However, as you have said, the reality of these scenarios can vary greatly from club to club, and year to year. And I guess you can't argue with those statistics - no fatalities on commercial trips (although I do recall one rather dodgy story come out of Claustral Canyon in the Accident register that was from a commercial group).

The other main advantage to joining a club, is that it provides ongoing support. I hope they don't mind me using this as an example, but Trev and Jon did a 3 day training course with a Blue Mountains company which taught them 'everything they need to know' about canyoning. And it certainly did seem to cover pretty much everything...but when we found them wandering around outside fortress canyon unable to find a way in, I think they were lucky we did because even though you have been told the essentials for canyoning, there is a big gap between knowing what to do, and the experience of applying that knowledge.

They theoretically had the knowledge, but with the very limited experience they had, they were in just about the most vulnerable position you can put yourself canyoning.

With a Club you can at least find other people who have previously done canyons to go along with each time you want to go out. So while you are still 'young' you can just follow someone else's guide for while before heading out on your own with your own friends rather than having to pay someone every time you want to go out.


So, I am starting to think that probably the best solution to getting started is to join a club, then
1. badger the club into organising a qualified training course or
2. See if the club can subsidise a course for you or
3. Just go and pay for a course yourself
and then once you have the qualified training, sign up for every trip that you can until you have enough experience to head out yourself/lead your own trips.

[Lucas Trihey]

yeah I agree with most of that. when I learned to climb (back in 1980 but I don't like to admit it...) it was through the ANUMC and it was full off dedicated and experienced climbers and they did a great job in instructing and it really was a great, safe intro to the sport. But there's no denying that the club scene has seen a lot of changes in the past 28 years - jeez I must be old - and this is evidenced by the statistical changes we are seeing. Your suggested approach via a club at the bottom of your post makes a lot of sense.
Not sure which Claustral incident you refer to? Do you mean the 12 Oct 2002? Although I don't recall anything out of order? I'm not trying to defend commercial trips but my experience and observations do lead me to be more confident that your average novice is more likely to do a canyon safely with a commercial guide rather than with a club (just based on the numbers). But I can also see your points about clubs as a good and economical way to get started. there's room for good operators in both options! Let's encourage both clubs and commercial guides to strive for high standards of safety.

[jlb]

Being a member of several bushwalking clubs, I can without hesitation recommend Bankstown Bushwalking Club as the best trained club for Canyoning. You are required to demostrate:

• Different rope types - as well as inspection, care and storage
• Different karbiner types - advantages/disadvantages
• Knots: Figure of eight, Running Figure of eight, Double figure of eight, Double Fishermans Bend, Pursik Knot, Spanish Bowline (alpine butterfly), Tape knot
  
• Rig simple anchors - including equalisation etc
• Absiel using two different devices
• Absiel single and double rope
• Lockoff
• Prusik 20m
• Change over from descender to Prusiks and back
• Absiel over a knot
• Top and bottom self belay
• Safety around the edge
• ABCDE and/or ARCHER checks

and that is just to go on a beginners canyon such as the Grand Canyon. To lead a trip requires a hell of a lot more. They have training days every few months where beginners learn and the more experienced get to practice old and new techniques. Now that is what I call a safe club.

Compare this to some of the other clubs (who shall remain nameless and they can hold their heads in shame) where ANYONE who is a member can lead a canyon trip - no questions asked! - I once lead a canyon trip for a club down Christies Creek including the 105m Margret Falls. I hadn't even been a member long, it was my first trip that I led for this club and not one person on the committee contacted me about my experience to lead it.

Lucas is right, you should be careful about some of the bushwalking clubs - they are not all equal - far from it.