First and foremost - THANK YOU! To those of you responsible for doing the countless number of things required to get this program "up here", y'all deserve medals AND trophies!
Jenerator and I took the Level 1 course on Saturday. I am so glad we took this course. It was fantastic! Lee was accompanied with fellow instructors Dave and Nancy. They were a great team! Everything seemed to work flawlessly with additional efforts from Donna, Paul and Brittany.
A good amount of time was spent discussing theory in class several times through the day, breaking up the on-bike drills. It was all well planned (despite Saturday being the first day with actual students). Many items pertinent to riding were discussed, many questions asked, all questions answered (even from my motor mouth!
). A slide show was also put to use. I thought it was really great that they also had pics to show you not only correct ways of doing things, but also incorrect. Good comparison. This also extends into the course! Before every drill either Dave or Nancy would go out and ride and first show us the incorrect way of doing *whatever*. We would discuss what we observed with the incorrect. Then they'd come around and do it again the correct way. Obviously it was always smoother, safer. It was great to be able to see these comparisons in real life, back-to-back. I found it tremendously helpful. Then we would go out and perform the drills ourselves. After each pass each of us was critiqued. Something good, something bad - whatever was needed to help us learn. We would usually get between 3 - 5 passes for each drill. It was great to watch fellow riders progress as the day went on.
And the day went on ... and on ... and on. It was a long day - pleasantly long. Educationally long even!
All VERY worth it! I feel i'm a much better rider now. I am equipped with greater knowledge of myself and my bike. I surpassed my riding boundaries and feel i'm able to do more now - ride safer/faster/harder/whatever combination. Heck, I was even dragging knees after lunch! Never done that before.
Now watching Jen ride I can easily see that her abilities have improved. She has surpassed her boundaries and is riding better, safer, also.
Again, THANK YOU so much to all of those responsible. It was truly a life-changing experience!
Oh, and cudos to Randy. Poor bastard freezin' his balls off riding in the rain on Friday. Guy get's no respect I tell ya!
