Europe’s 4th largest city played host to the first official TRAK Discovery Day this past weekend. A city steeped in history, and with a population totally suited to the benefits of the TRAK 2.0 - these Berliners have started their journey towards mastering their new kayaks, and to getting fully unleashed on the water.
Discovery Days Worldwide
The Discovery Day is exactly what it sounds like; a day for new TRAK owners to uncover the tips and tricks of assembling their new boats, to connect with their local community of like-minded owners, and to begin down a path of developing the necessary skills + experience to truly discover what they (and their new boats!) are capable of on the water.
These TRAK Pilot-led experiences are open to all new owners of the TRAK 2.0, and their execution is part of our ongoing commitment to provide our community with a solid foundation in the “paddling arts”. With such a global network of Pilots, these experiences will be available to paddlers in many parts of the worlds.
TRAK Pilot leadership: Meet Nadja
Our TRAK Pilot community is integral to everything we do, and we’re privileged to have attracted some amazing people from across the planet to help deliver innovative training days, among other incredible paddling experiences. The TRAK Pilot team forms the core of TRAK’s on the ground efforts, and most TRAK owners get their first experiences with us through a hands-on test paddle. Find out more about meeting a TRAK Pilot here.
We have to hand it to Nadja von Rhein! As one of our newest TRAK Pilots, she managed to deliver her DD in the heart of Berlin just 2 days after wrapping up a whirlwind tour of the Eastern hemisphere, bookended with a 24hr flight from Australia to Germany! Nadja collected her own new 2.0, plus the boats for her participants, and went into Berlin on Sunday morning.
It starts with the Foundation!
The Discovery Day is just one level of support offered to TRAK owners as they receive their new kayaks. With the assistance of our Pilots, TRAK has created a comprehensive online kayak training course, the TRAK Foundations, that teaches the basics of kayak mastery, and dives into a level-1 inspired skills course.
Pilot Nadja, with a background in guiding and leadership, was able to masterfully translate her learnings of the TRAK Foundations course in a way that left our new TRAK paddlers feeling more confident and competent. Getting the set up under 20 mins, and being able to outfit your kayak for maximum utility + comfort are some of the main goals of a DD, plus providing an introduction to important concepts of safety, seamanship, and skills progression.
Applied Learnings
The next step is to take the experience from the classroom to the coastline, and the Berliner group is doing exactly that! The crew is looking to put in to some real water next weekend, where they’ll work together to practice skills such as propulsive and corrective strokes, bracing, and rescues - key skills for all paddlers on the water. Nadja will also introduce concepts totally unique to the TRAK 2.0, such as variable rocker!
Our team can’t wait to hear how all of these things serve to build a new community of German paddlers with boats in-common and shared experiences on the water. The act of paddling with others forges bonds that, though often understated, are a big part of what brings us back to the water time and again. The ups and downs, setbacks and wins, and the act of having each other's backs is something that cannot be sold, cannot be fabricated, and can never be taken away.
The First of Many
Nadja has nailed the first one, but there are many more to go! With hundreds of new TRAK owners receiving their boats in 2019 alone, the Pilot Team has their work cut out for them! Toronto, NYC, Geneva, Tokyo, the French Riviera, and the mighty Pacific Northwest are just a few of the places where we’ll be hosting Discovery Days this year - plus lots of local opportunities for those farther out from population centres.
We’re always looking for great people to get involved with growing our community + empowering the tribe, so we invite you to reach out to us if you’d like to learn about joining the TRAK Pilot Program.
Sincerely,
The TRAK Team
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