The Wanneroo SES planned a training weekend designed to qualify as many people in four wheels drive techniques and quad bike operation.  The venue selected was Lancelin as it has all of those wonderful Sandhill’s to practice vehicle recovery on.

We left our unit at various times throughout Friday afternoon depending on when people could leave work.  I concluded a lot of people must have easy jobs because most arrived well before myself.  Accommodation was in a large rental property that had 4 bedrooms, 3 toilets and 3 showers with a large communal dining area.  Friday night was spent building up team morale with a couple of drinks and a rousing sing-along led by Tasy and Damien on guitar.  Collectively we know many songs however only a couple of lines from each with the exception of Mercedes Benz by Janis Joplin which is known in its entirety.

As is the norm for the first night away sleep was rather limited thanks mainly to the aroma coming from Steve’s boots.  After having our 2 hours a quality rest we were up early and into a superb cooked breakfast before commencing the days training.  The student body was broken into 2 groups and sent off with the respective instructors.  I was an instructor for the quad bike course, which started with theory before a rather cold ride to the sand hills.  The students were given instruction in all aspects of riding quad bikes starting with straight riding, turns, hill ascents, descents and traversing of hills.  As most students have never ridden a motorbike of any description they were a little nervous to start with but confidence improved as the day went on.

The day was going along well with all students finishing the structured part of the course with no incidents.  Next was free time, which was 10 minutes for the students to practice any skill they wished for the next 10 minutes.  This was when a perfect day started to go badly.  One of the students decided to practice traversing as she felt she required practice in this area.  The first couple of attempts worked ok but the next caused a sudden impact of chin against break fluid reservoir.  Normally the rule during free time is if you get yourself stuck then you must carry out the recovery without outside help.  With this rule firmly in place every one sat back while our intrepid rider frantically signalled for help.  We quickly jumped to action however when she rubbed her chin with a hand and showed us all the blood.  The injury required a dash to Joondalup hospital for stiches and dressing.  Being the caring group we are we washed the blood off of the bike and carried on with the course.

The course concluded mid afternoon which allowed a couple of us time to take a stroll along the beach then back to town for an ice cream.  Being the first finished ensured we had the showers to ourselves to tidy up for dinner.  Speaking of dinner we were treated to a roast with fruit and ice cream for desert.  Our catering officers did a great job by purchasing all the food and leaving instructions of what to cook when.  Saturday night was a bit more subdued but we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to play “Pass the Pigs”.  Karen managed to finish the round with 0 points but we are still waiting for the traditional “pants down”.  Dave tried to go to bed early but was set upon by a hoard of women who were determined to keep him awake.  I believe this is called revenge from the previous night.

Sunday started at 0600 when I received a call from my wife advising the fire brigade was on the way to put out the fire in our front yard.  What a way to clear the cobwebs from the night before.  Sunday a new course was held on the quads but no further injuries were sustained.  On completion we packed up, cleaned up and headed home.

In conclusion I believe the weekend was well worth while with a large amount of people passing in both courses.  I believe planning will commence shortly with the all-important booking of the accommodation.