big backflip from IKO

Instructors left in droves this year because of their money grabbing policies.

Personally I am gonna wait until I see what BKSA have to offer. They are are a non profit organisation whose focus is on safety and instruction, not providing a cool lifestyle for a bunch of Frenchies in Cabarete.

IKO In Australia,

IKO has been in Australia since before it was IKO, the first Wipika teaching system came to Australia in about 2000, then it grew into the IKO. Australia has always had a strong IKO representation, and Darren Marshal became on of the early Examiners for IKO. Darren actually came to Maui to do our first IKO Instructor Training. And I did my ITC with him. So we actually imported an Aussie to Maui to teach us the IKO. We became an IKO school and have worked with instructors from all over the world, including many Aussies. The IKo is the only truly international system I know. I have trained in and taught under several different systems, and can say first hand that if you want to travel and teach you should get the IKO. If you stay in one place it doesn't matter as much.
IKO is represented in over 38 countries and is taught in at least 5 different languages.
IKO has always had a following in Australia, and presently have about ten school and many moire independent instructors. And everyone was basically happy until IKO introduced its CEP system. This system was designed to ensure that instructors would get ongoing training, and stay current in the latest teaching techniques. The instructor can get credit for taking extra course and or teaching students.
There was a problem with the CEP system when it came to the bi-annual renewals because non-active instructors suddenly had to get their CEPs in a hurry, and had to buy some courses to get the CEPS. this upset many people because they had to spend a bunch of money to renew. We have listened to feedback, and responded by creating more affordable courses, and a cheaper assessment test that was free of charge. This made the renewal very affordable. Some call it a "backflip". I call it fixing the problem. We did not abandon our CEP program because we still believe in ongoing instructor training. Not everyone understands it or likes it, but I believe IKO is doing something unique, and offers more teaching tools than any other system.
IKO has more people working in Australia than many other countries. Australia has two resident examiners that teach ITC instructor courses in Australia and overseas.
IKO Courses are available to any school at any time, any school can host an ITC course to train their instructors or offer the service to the public.
As for the IKO commitment to Australia, On behalf of the IKO I have personally offered to meet with the AKSA, and I am available for any issues that need my attention. If you want a local person to answer IKO related questions ask Steve McCormack or Darren Marshall, or Ed Teo. and I am sure they will be happy to help you out. if you have a question for the IKO support staff, send and email to [email protected]
or to me, [email protected]
thanks,
David Dorn
IKO Training Director

I would like to see if we can get our iko qualifications transfered to bksa?

sohk said...

I would like to see if we can get our iko qualifications transfered to bksa?

There are moves afoot to have an Australian Kite School accreditation system created. Any system developed in this regard would necessarily have to recognise both IKO and BKSA standards.
PM me if you want more details.

australia has its own standards for seatbelts, helmets, cars ect. Why not kitesurfing? who made IKO king? who do they answer to and who regulates them?
Australia should do it's own thing and have it's own standards. AKSA? If done properly they would be recognised eventually as world class, and who knows people may actually come here to get instructors licences.

Hi bennie,

There has been talk about creating an Australian Standard of instruction for many years amongst talented and very experienced instructors in Oz.

The problem is, to create the system and write the standards and training manuals etc requires an enourmous amount of time and commitment from people (it will take more than one) who really know what they are doing and all of these people are busy running businesses or are otherwise engaged in life without too much spare time.

The people with time are not prepared to devote the next couple of months to the cause for free. Then who controls the quality of the standards, who updates it, who covers wages of those who teach it, and how do you police the standards to ensure the standard remains high? It all costs money and time and therefore becomes difficult to be a not for profit thing. AKSA members are flat out just coping with their duties as is so adding something as monumental as writing and running a teaching curriculum is a full time job requiring staff which means that they need to be paid, this adds cost to the association which means fees will effectively double.

Who pays for the printing, the artwork, the insurance etc etc? This is why we have had IKO for so long and why it is run as a business, because it has to be basically

Australia simply doesn't have the sheer numbers to make it viable financially. If you want to help, join AKSA or your local state association. With your added funds they will have more money to put towards projects like this.

Just a few thoughts.

DM

Spot on Darren. Thats it in a nutshell.
I just think that an awful lot of IKO customers believe that the "business" wasnt offering them value for money.
Not for me to say. I havent been there.

that was way more diplomatic than my thread ha ha
Put very nicely sir.

The drop out rate has gotta be huge.

Unless you travel internationally the opportunity to make a living from teaching kitesurfing is almost zero. You need another source of income to make it viable.

Lack of wind
Wrong wind
Wrong Tides
Rain
Insurance
Permits
Crowds

All obstacles.

Then people complain because the hourly rate is a bit steep.

I don't think there has been one week in 6 seasons where I have earned a decent paycheck from teaching kiting. With the unpaid hours before and after the lessons it really is a love job.

And now the schools everywhere are actually dropping the hourly rate that they pay instructors because they have to remain 'competitive' in the business. Some school are even resorting to using unqualified instructors to cut costs.

The thing to remember about kiteboard instruction is that it is actual work.
I think it is the world's best job, but that is just my opinion.
If you love the sport of kiteboarding, go out and kiteboard, and have fun.
If you want to make it into a job or career, you can consider different ways to engage in the kiteboarding industry; Become a pro-rider, go work for a kite shop, or manufacturer, become involved in running charity events or professional competitions etc. There are all kinds of different jobs in the industry. The kiteboarder education industry, includes Kiteboarding instructors, kite school owners, Instructor trainers, people creating educational materials, and things like that.
I have been a watersports instructor all my life so the choice to be an kiteboarding instructor was a no-brainer for me, basically it was the only profession I was qualified to do.
So, if you are considering becoming a kiteboarding instructor keep in mind these things:
Becoming a kiteboarding instructor is a great way to learn more about the sport.
It is a great way to meet people and share your love of the sport. It is a great outdoor job.
You get to stay at the beach all day and meet other kiteboarders.
You learn all about the new gear, and get to try lots of different brands of kites.
But, you will usually spend less time actually kiteboarding than you do now, because when it is windy you have to work. Then after working 6-8 hours in the sun you may not be so stoked to go for a session so there is a risk by making your stoke your Job that you may not be able to do it as much. This is a sacrifice that you have to be prepared to make, or you will be a terrible kiteboarding instructor. You will never show up for work when it is windy or when the waves are up. Also there are plenty of “real jobs” that pay better, but you are often stuck in an office or a boring job. Where kiteboarding instructors really get the benefits is in the lifestyle. If you want you can travel, and teach, anywhere in the world that kiteboarding instructors are needed. You don't have to be a university graduate to teach it, and if you are already a decent kiteboarder, the training is relatively quick and inexpensive. It is true that instructors may get paid a little less these days because schools are being price competitive, and there are more people teaching it.
But you can still pay your way, and have a great time doing it. Actually, for experienced instructors that are half-smart and can manage a school or a staff, there are better opportunities, like managing a kiteboarding center. These kind of jobs always seem to be coming up around the world. But this is not for everyone. Not too many people will make a lifelong career of teaching kiteboarding, I did and many others have, but the average instructor will drop out after teaching for a few seasons. This is a natural phenomenon, because as people grow and mature they need more money and stability, so that they can have a family and settle down in one place, and maybe one day buy a house etc. Getting the steady pay check becomes the priority. This is when many kiteboarding instructors will go back to their “real job”, you know the one they studied at university for, or they go back to community college and learn how to fix computers, which is really good money I hear. But there are the lucky few who are happy teaching seasonally or happy to travel following the wind and the sun, learning about other cultures, other languages, and kiteboarding in exotic destinations. They may not be super rich, but they will have a rich life. So to paraphrase that old Naish tee-shirt:
“Kiteboarding Instructor, absolutely positively the wrong job for 99.99 percent of the World’s population (But the other 0.01% seem pretty stoked about it).”

There a few schools that pay 50% of lesson fees anymore.

I worked for one in Pt Douglas and the pay and teaching environment was awesome.

Sometimes it's not worth the time to do it here. By the time you get the gear, wait for wind, wait for students and then pack up after, there's more money in being a bartender. Four hours out of your day for two hours pay is pretty crap. Some schools don't pay much more than checkout chick wages :D

In an ideal environment teaching is an awesome job. Good winds, good location and good equipment make it so much fun to do.

However, standing in the water looking up into the sun and stressing about all the knobs kiting into your students' danger zone makes teaching for any more than four hours a day physically exhausting.

I have yet to meet an instructor that can make a good living out of kiting by working for someone else.

It's definitely a lifestyle choice. I was going to work for a school in Mexico and Brazil last year. By the time I worked out the pay for a 6 day week, the cost of staying there, work visas and airfares, it was cheaper to just go on holidays and kite.

IKO Quality Checks

Unfortunately I have heard of this type of situation before. And about during that same time frame when you said this happened. This was a time when IKO did not have much of a budget to do quality checks, and they seemed to have an unofficial policy not to pursue complaints from one operator about another operator as seriously as other complaints. Perhaps because many schools complained about their competition without just cause.
More recently there has been a shift at IKO back towards quality service, which means more quality checks and more followups and callbacks. There will also be new protocols coming out that will make it more difficult to cheat the hours, and so this sort of thing will hopefully become rarer. If you hear of something like this or have a similar situation send an email to IKO, [email protected], and CC me [email protected], or send me a PM, and I will check up on it.

thanks,
David Dorn
IKO Training Director

Hi BWDave and others,

You all know me and you know I tell it like it is. I've been watching this thread unravel and have noticed a bit of a lynch mob mentality building.

There have been a lot of changes going on at IKO since Dave has been at the position of Training Master. IKO have been conducting rigourous changes and upgrades for the last several months since the original founders of IKO have gathered the reins again. I have been privvy to much of this work, there appears to be promise.

I've been an IKO examiner for many years and have gone into bat for them on previous occassions because they offered an essential service : A teaching standard. Dave Dorn, prior to his taking the IKO ITC with me in Maui was the writer and owner of a similar teaching standard K.I.S.S. which no longer exists due to politics (but thats another story for another time). He is well qualified to conduct the position he occupies and is bent on change for the better.

The BKSA system is based on IKO's in the first place and I am interested to hear what BKSA have to say when they come out here. I'm keeping an open mind, same way as I am keeping an open mind with the changes IKO is instigating. IKO is well aware of the perception of them in Australia and is working hard to resolve all insufficiencies.

I suggest we give IKO and more specifically, Dave Dorn, the benefit of an open mind also until we get to see exactly what changes they have made and what, if any improvements are on the table. Let time and their efforts be the matter on what they are judged. It is all too easy to keep harping on about past issues. I believe any person and any business can change.

I am not defending IKO, nor am I condoning them until I have seen what changes they have to offer. Maybe we should listen to what BKSA and also IKO have to offer, weigh up the pro's and cons, and maybe embrace both if they satisfy the needs of Australian Instructors and schools.

For the record, I am still recognised as an IKO Examiner although I consider myself inactive, my school is also not an IKO affiliated Center at this point in time due more to administrative issues and permit delays with JCC etc etc than other reasons although I have beena little sceptical of the buying CEP points with purchases (This was a disgusting money grab, straight up ).

AKS still teaches to the IKO standard we always have and still employ IKO instructors and others with experience and skills to offer our customers. We will likely renew our affiliation after I have seen what BKSA and IKO have to offer for my school.

I just hope we end up with a better system than in the past. Let the results be the judge and try to keep an open mind.

Cheers,

DM

Iko just released a free renewal system today just got the email!!!

KIT33R said...
isn't it time that Australian kite boarding instructors formed their own not for profit organisation. Set their own guidelines, accreditation process, training criteria, insurance. Don't expect AKSA, an amateur body, to do it for you.

Absolutely. True words of wisdom there kit33r.
And it may all come to pass - starting immediately after this summer season.
(actually starting with the visit of the head trainer from BKSA in Jan)
It is definitely way too big an ask of a volunteer board of state reps that already has a wish list of tasks way beyond any reasonable time allocation they can contribute.
Kiteschools can, and should, do this for the good of they sport they represent.
AKSA & all state KSAs would welcome it with open arms.

It may not happen overnight but......