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Rider Education Program
By David Dirig

This is my first "official" article as Chapter Educator, so let me first thank everyone for having the faith in me to take on this office. I will do my best to do right by all of you, and I encourage you to come to me with any questions or concerns. My 'door' is always open. So!! Lets talk about Rider Education. There are many ways to go about education; individual practice, riding schools, seminars, articles, etc. But no matter how each of us goes about Rider Education, the goal is the same; Safety and Reducing Risk. Lets not sugar coat it; learning how to ride safe and minimize your risks could save your life one day. So how do I facilitate this education and emphasis on safety?

I will take a two-pronged approach to this question using the Rider Education Program (REP) and Parking Lot Practices (PLP). REP is a fundamental part of GWRRA's commitment to safety through education. The basic goal of the REP is to make motorcycling safer by increasing skills and awareness in the interest of reducing injuries and fatalities. To put it plainly, rider education saves lives (check out the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's website for the stats)!! I encourage each of you (both Riders and Co-riders) to get involved and advance to that next level!! Lets see if we can't get everyone in CA1F enrolled in the REP! I have listed the specifics for each of the four REP here and on the chapter website, and I will have the necessary paperwork at the pie rides and chapter meetings. Lets all get involved!!

The REP is a great system from GWRRA, but beyond that, how do we, at a local level, extend our abilities and knowledge in order to become safer riders? How do we take the things we learn at seminars and put them into action? The answer is simple to come up with but difficult to implement ..... Practice !! Talking and learning about riding skills is one thing; putting them into practice ON the bike is a whole different issue. Anyone who has taken an ERC will tell you that. At our first PLP last month, we were walking through one exercise (tight circles), and one rider commented that it didn't look so bad. But once he was on the bike doing it, he said it was a whole different world......"The circle looks a lot smaller from up here on the Wing." Talking about safety (even in a newsletter article ;-) should never replace actual on-the-bike practice. With this in mind, I am trying to organize regular Parking Lot Practices. Craig and Crystal Rush secured a fantastic parking lot for us on Santo Road, and we'll try to get PLP's scheduled on a monthly basis. We had our first PLP last month in preparation for District Rally. The goal was to practice the different drills involved in the 1-up and 2-up Skills Games competition. Kudos to Rick, Joyce, Jim Z, Joel, and Mark for coming out and participating. They did a fantastic job, and I'm confident that we'll have a great showing at the Skills Games competition in Sunnyvale! After just a few times through the course, they were all turning tight circles and no more traffic cones had to give their lives in the cone weave. A little practice goes a long way. It was a great time, but we couldn't have done it without help on the sidelines from Bill and Dori who timed the slow rides, kept the cones upright, and policed those boundary lines. Beyond practice and skills development, we had a grand old time "playing" on the bikes in a controlled environment. I highly recommend it to everyone.

So that's all I have for now. I will be promoting the Riders Education Program as well as coming up with the next skill set for our Parking Lot Practices. Stay tuned after District, and I'll keep you posted on the PLP schedule via email and phone tree. In closing, let me encourage each of you to advance to that next REP level and come out and 'play' at the next PLP!! Its good to practice these maneuvers in a level, closed, deserted parking lot so that if you need them out on the road with the crazies, you won't even have to think about it. We can have a lot of fun with this as well as develop our skills to become safer riders and co-riders!!

Ride Safe and COAST (-- Concentrate On A Safe Trip --)