I did it!! I'm now licensed to teach!!

[Boneman]

Look out world, Boneman is teaching people how to ride!!!

Well after almost 10 months of training, studying and hard work, I finished off my MSF Instructor certification this weekend by completing my teaching practicum!!

I had a great class of 10 students and two very supportive and fun senior instructors. I was pleasntly surprised at how relaxed and not nervous I was through out my practicum! I think really knowing the course material and doing an extra course observation a few weeks before hand really paid off. I ended up having a really enjoyable experience. Not only enjoyable, but extremely rewarding!!

So I am now an officially certified and licensed ICBC (Insurance Corporation of British Columbia) and Vancouver Island Safety Council Motorcycle Instructor!! :rockon:

My first actual "class" where it's just me and one other instructor is next month.

 

[Hutchmaster34]

That's awesome :rockon: Hope that means there will be a lot less squids around your parts with you teaching!

 

[discgolfdude]

congratulations:rockon:, so do you have any new tips to give out? I'm 3 months away from completing my first year riding, or as some would say completing my first riding season.

 

[Motogiro]

:cheer:Awesome man! :cheer:They have the best to teach them! Your going to be great at this! :rockon:
:Sport:Congratulations Boneman!:Sport:!!

 

[Boneman]

congratulations:rockon:, so do you have any new tips to give out? I'm 3 months away from completing my first year riding, or as some would say completing my first riding season.

I think the best tip I have is "ride like no one see's you".

The others would be:

- Look where you want to go (beacuse that's were you're gonna go!)

- Keep your head/eyes up (for traffic looking 12 seconds ahead)

- Learn and use proper lane position/lane dominace!! It will keep you visible and safer.

 

[Boneman]

:cheer:Awesome man! :cheer:They have the best to teach them! Your going to be great at this! :rockon:
:Sport:Congratulations Boneman!:Sport:!!

Thanks Cliff!!! Very kind of you to say that.

I think I've finally found something that fills the "career void/career satisfaction" that my current job will never give me.

 

[kamao]

Congrats Boneman, must be such a relief after all the hard work so far!

:steve:

 

[Boneman]

Congrats Boneman, must be such a relief after all the hard work so far!

:steve:

It sure was! Lol, the funniest thing was the thing I was sweating the most was having to demo ride the MSA (Motorcycle Skills Assement - parking lot test) infront of all the students on one of the little 150cc novice bikes!! I nailed it with no problems, but it's the one area where if you mess it up, you could loose face in front of all your students.

 

[kpaul]

I think the best tip I have is "ride like no one see's you".

The others would be:

- Look where you want to go (beacuse that's were you're gonna go!)

- Keep your head/eyes up (for traffic looking 12 seconds ahead)

- Learn and use proper lane position/lane dominace!! It will keep you visible and safer.

When I tell people about how you ride differently than you drive, and they ask how, I often go straight to your first point. Within the first ten minutes of class our instructor told us we might as well be invisible, and I got what he was saying, but I didn't fully understand it until recently.

Now I really do ride as if everyone were trying to kill me, or as if they can't see me, at best. I aggressively defend my position on the road, one step short of pissing all over the place to mark it as my own. I tend to turn my high beams on while it's dusk/dawn because while it's light enough to go without your lights on, for some reason people have difficulty picking out a black motorcycle and rider during those periods. The normal light suffices for night-time driving. I will exchange low gear/high rpm in high-volume areas so that people know I'm there (thanks, Leo Vince!). I swerve out to the edge of my lane so that someone ahead looking to turn through or into my lane knows I'm there. So on, so forth. I'll learn even more as I go on, but I've developed all of my strategies around that one point.

 

[nimzotech]

Gratz - well done!:rockon:

 

[Norbert]

congrats! :thumbup:

 

[Kilbane83]

Grats man! That's great to hear could always use some more safety instructors out there :thumbup:

 

[Senior]

Look out world, Boneman is teaching people how to ride!!!

Well after almost 10 months of training, studying and hard work, I finished off my MSF Instructor certification this weekend by completing my teaching practicum!!

Huge congratulations Boneman . . .
:cheer::cheer::cheer::cheer::cheer::cheer:

it's so very rewarding to be able to pass on your own passion to others to ensure that they do it safely and enjoy it to the best of their ability
(I got qualified as a kayak instructor years ago)

 

[Jman]

Ok.....I expect to see some really good riders coming out of that area now.

Congrats, hope goods things come of it!:thumbup:

 

[VEGASRIDER]

Congrats!

My advice for you is go try to observe as many classes as possible before you actually go out and teach your class, both classroom & range. Be an aid, be a cone boy for the day, ride the demo's for the other coaches, etc.

Reason being, you tend to pick up great ideas from different coaches and you can implement them into your class.

There are some range exercises in which you can set up additional cones for the upcoming exercises that are out of the path of travel so there are less to set up when that exerecis comes up. I just recently started walking the student playing follow the leader for the U-Turn box. I noticed for the first few times that most of the riders do not utilize the entire box when they try to complete their turn to the right. They start turning prematurely from the center of the box, rather than going all the way to the outside boundary. So I have everyone following behind me walking the box.

 

[jtarkany]

Congratulations :thumbup:

 

[cap'n]

Congrats Boneman! That's got to be a great feeling.

Now I really do ride as if everyone were trying to kill me, or as if they can't see me, at best. I aggressively defend my position on the road, one step short of pissing all over the place to mark it as my own. I tend to turn my high beams on while it's dusk/dawn because while it's light enough to go without your lights on, for some reason people have difficulty picking out a black motorcycle and rider during those periods. The normal light suffices for night-time driving. I will exchange low gear/high rpm in high-volume areas so that people know I'm there (thanks, Leo Vince!). I swerve out to the edge of my lane so that someone ahead looking to turn through or into my lane knows I'm there. So on, so forth. I'll learn even more as I go on, but I've developed all of my strategies around that one point.

Ditto. This stuff will save your bacon.

 

[Boneman]

Congrats!

My advice for you is go try to observe as many classes as possible before you actually go out and teach your class, both classroom & range. Be an aid, be a cone boy for the day, ride the demo's for the other coaches, etc.

Reason being, you tend to pick up great ideas from different coaches and you can implement them into your class.

There are some range exercises in which you can set up additional cones for the upcoming exercises that are out of the path of travel so there are less to set up when that exerecis comes up. I just recently started walking the student playing follow the leader for the U-Turn box. I noticed for the first few times that most of the riders do not utilize the entire box when they try to complete their turn to the right. They start turning prematurely from the center of the box, rather than going all the way to the outside boundary. So I have everyone following behind me walking the box.

Yeah good call. That's why I did the extra course observation a few weeks prior. It was actually the teaching practicum for one of my fellow Instructor Candidate (IC). So not only did I get to see the course in it's entirety (and make more notes), I got to see and hear feedback and tips given to the IC by the senior instructors. It was a HUGE help and played a major factor in me receiving the high marks I did!

Lol, I mention that U-turn tip all the time. Don't sell yourself short - use the entire course to your advantage.

Trust me, if it were up to me I'd be there almost every weekend and "tagging along" for traffic course rides (I plan to get my Traffic Course Certification next summer), but my wife and 2 year old daughter might have something to say about that....

 

[FZ1inNH]

Boneman, that is AWESOME!!! Congrats to the fullest. That is a big commitment to make and a tough course to get through. Hats off to you for a really spectacular accomplishment! :thumbup:

Given your dedication to motorcycling known to us in the forum, I know you'll be one of the best instructors (and hopefully brutally honest with the students) teaching.

When I went through the BRC the last time, it was with my wife. We had two instructors, good cop and bad cop. The big bad dude was very brutal and loud. He actually made two of the women cry and quit because they were not listening to him. When my wife told him he was mean, he looked her in the eye and said "I'd rather see them off crying than passing and dying. I just saved their lives." That was good enough for me!

 

[DefyInertia]

Congrats :thumbup:

What did the parking lot test entail?