Tom Nickels
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In 2002, Tom founded OceanAir Sea Kayak, a successful sea kayak tour and instruction business in Folly Beach, SC. In June 2006, Tom and his wife Gloria sold OceanAir Sea Kayak and moved to Washington, DC where Tom is now the Director of the Sea Kayak Instruction Program at Potomac Paddle Sports.
Tom also teaches at numerous BCU and ACA sea kayak symposia along the east coast. |
| Classroom Instruction |
- Navigation Basics for Paddlers
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Let Tom’s energy make the learning easy as you discover the parts and proper operation of the trusty ‘ole compass followed by plenty of hands on practice with the fundamentals of chart/map reading and course plotting. And while maps are two dimensional, the watery landscape is not, so you won’t leave class without at least getting the basics of tides and currents.
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| Master Class Instruction |
- The Grey Zone: Bracing, Recovery, & Support Strokes
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Somewhere between sitting upright in your kayak and capsizing, there is the grey zone…a split second chance to prevent capsizing. This course will look at the various different strokes to keep you upright. The low and high brace recovery will be presented along with low and high sculling as support strokes that provide longer and lazier periods of regaining balance than a reactive recovery stroke. Low and high sweep support strokes will also be covered. ($20)
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