Rookie Mistakes

1. The most common way to snap the Rudder lock line (Red line in image) is when we pull the rudder line too hard when locking it into the cleat.
   Lesson Learnt: Stop Pulling the moment you feel tension in the line, there is no need to put with your entire body weight to lock the rudder down. A little tension in the rudder line is all it take to lock the rudder in place.

2. If the rudder line breaks on the water, Just use the cable ties that you have to lock the rudder in place, Follow the green line in the image. If the cable tie is not long enough, connect 2 or 3 cable ties together.

1. The steering line (Purple line in the image) might break from wear and tear, so do check the steering line area for major fraying before heading out.

2. The Steering line can also snap when we are reversing too fast (you call already feel the tension in the steering handle when we are reversing) do not force a change in direction when in reverse
   Learnt Learnt: Reverse only short distances at slow speed

What to do if the steering line break in the water?

• You have to add manual steering by using the safety rope or blue rope.

• Use some leader line to tie a loop at the connection (where the purple line touches the rudder) so you can attach the carabiner from the safety rope to the rudder system.

• you can steer by pulling on the rope.

• Mistake 1: Shifting to reverse in FULL SPEED. Just like driving a car, if you engage the reverse gear when you are still moving forward at speed, something is gonna snap in your gear.
  
  Similarly, the 180 fins experienced too much force when it’s in the 90 degree (half way) position., it snaps off from the force of the water. The tension required to pull the reverse gear is also too high, so the reverse line snaps internally.
  
  Solution: SLOW DOWN AND STOP before you shift to reverse.
  

• Mistake 2: Shifting in the wrong position (Red Zone). When leg paddle is all the way in the forward position, the fins are touching the hull (bottom of the kayak), this prevents the fin from rotating freely.
  
  Solution: Shift gears only in the green position, this way, the fins are away from the hull during any shift of direction. OR think about it this way, make sure your legs are close together when shifting.

• If the back fin breaks, 95% of the time, it is the guide error.

• Common cause of the problem is
  - Not alining the spine with the drive slot, (the mirage drive is locked in but the spine pegs are not resting on the drive slot)
  - Not locking or not making sure that the mirage drive is locked on both sides.
  - Rough removal of drive from drive slot: especially when the pedal length is set to ‘1’, if the drive pops out at a steep angle, the back fin connection will be damaged.

1. The main cause of damage to the sprocket teeth is when the guide or guide paddles too fast, even for a few seconds, it could break the teeth (made of plastic)
   Lesson Learnt: During the safety briefing, show the guests that the paddle gears are made of plastics and tell them not to paddle too fast, if not they will break the drives and reduce the quality of their fishing experience

2. The second likely reason for sprocket damage is Loose Cable tension, If the cable tension is too loose, the metal chain will not fit nicely into the teeth grooves, the force will only be on the tip of the teeth, hence stripping off the plastic teeth.
   Lesson Learnt: Make sure that the cable tension is tight and not loose when you are doing the checklist for all the Mirage Drive, including the MD180 drive and the standard drive.

3. Another common mistake is too group the mirage drive during the landing process, What happen before? Our guides forgot to take out their MD180 drive when landing, or when the guide is landing, the guest did not wait at a safe distance away and starting to drift closer to shore, hitting the shore before the guide was ready to stop them.
   Lesson Learnt: Give clear instruction to the guest to wait at least 100m away (give yourself some margin of error to work with, if you say 50m, they will be 20m away, and the next thing you know is, they are hitting the shore)

1. You must have your phone with you at all time

2. In an emergency, you might need to call us OR we might need to call you.

3. We will keep you updated on the weather so you can focus on your fishing

4. BUY a waterproof case for your phone, then attach it to a float! if it does not float, you will eventually lose it. (ask from Edwin), I recommend ‘lifeproof’

5. For additional precaution, you can put your phone into another waterproof pouch that you can sling over your neck. (ask from edwin)

1. Very common error to rush the landing process and jam the drive into the wrong hole for the tandem kayaks. Because it is intuitive to put it back into the scupper hole that you took it out from. (red to red)

2. Correct Way: Take it out from the red scupper hole and jam it into the green scupper hole.

3. why not just put it back in the red scupper hole? It’s too heavy! it is a torture for our guests to drag this back.

Problems

1. Do not put the camera on the deck of the boat, or between you and the Mirage drive, it will be bouncing around the kayak, the camera will get wet and the screen will also get scratched up.

2. Dropping the camera when pulling the kayak on beach sand. Dropping the camera does too much damage to the internal components of the camera, it is usually instant death for the lens.

Solution for both 1 and 2:

1. Put your camera inside the beer crate ONLY, if you have your green bait bag there, push the bait bag down significantly so it creates a little bowl to cradle your camera.

Mistake:

1. Sharp angles in the battery box female connection, causing the wires inside to break and disconnect.

Solution:

1. When connecting the battery male connection to the Female connection in the Battery box, you have to make sure that there is not harsh angled in the connection before resting the battery in the box.

Mistake: Forcefully yanking the ORANGE cooler back out from the hatch, this tears the cloth of the cooler bag and also rips out the rubber seal of the front hatch.

Solution: Gently take the orange cooler bag out, if its stuck inside, wiggle it a little to take it out, if it requires force to do it, you are most certainly doing it wrong

Mistake: Opening the cooler bag by pulling open the cloth lid instead of using the zip, this action damages the zip, making the cooler bag unusable.

Solution: USE AND PULL THE ZIP to unzip the cooler bag before opening the cloth lid.

Guide cancellation penalty

• If a guide cancels 10 or more days before the trip, he will pay 50% of the guiding fees and administrative charges to coordinate the changes.

• If a guide cancels less than 10 days before the trip, he will pay 100% of the guiding fees and administrative charges to coordinate the changes.

• If a guide is able to look for his own replacement, then there will be no cancellation penalty.

1. Begin late is not fair to the rest of the team that bother to show up on time

2. It breaks the trust between the team.

3. Trainee: 2 strikes and you’re out of the team. For the next trip, you will need to show up 30min early.

4. Guides: if you are 1 second late, you will lose your transport cover for that day. For the next trip, you will need to show up 30 mins early.

Mistake: Aggressively lifting the kayak onto its side when putting in the wheel cart, almost lifting the kayak off the ground, the side of the kayak slides on the ground and damages the decals.

Solution: Grab the handle on the inside of the compass kayak and GENTLY lift that kayak onto its side, let the kayak naturally pivot, the kayak should not slide on its side.

Mistake: When using the Raymarine on a Hobie compass, there is a need to unscrew the bolt to attach it to the track mount. However, at the end of the trip, when removing the Raymarine, the bolt is not reattached back onto the Raymarine mounting plate.

Solution: Return the Raymarine back to the truck the way you found it. Don’t leave the bolt on the kayak or place the bolt randomly somewhere in the lorry.

• NEVER take your camera out from the dive case just to take a few photos with better clarity (use the tissue provided to clean your lens)

• The case protects the camera from physical damages when dropped

• Taking the camera out exposes the camera directly to saltwater splashes and droplets, even a tiny drop of salt water can permanently damage the camera

• THE CASE FLOATS: even if you drop it into the water, it prevent the camera from sinking.

What you are risking if you drop the camera in the water

1. The entire experience of the trip, there will be no photos (no more 5 star experience)

2. The peak end experience, the real 'end' is the feeling our guests get when they see the amazing photos that you took, don't take that away from them.

3. $$ to fever, the camera alone is worth over $1000.

• When we are placing the kayak down, please set it down gently.

• Make sure the kayak is completely stationary before you set it down.

• Don’t drop it and let the front part of the kayak drag on the floor

• Same rules apply when on the beach, just because its sand doesn’t mean it will not damage the kayak, dropping the kayak onto sand will also cause wear and tear in the long run.

• WRONG:
  There's no slack in the connection, so when you pull the main line, the cable tie does not snap, the anchor will not be able to flip underwater, you'll lose the anchor

• CORRECT
  There's slack in the main line and cable tie connection: win you pull the anchor, the cable tie snapped, the anchor will flip underwater and you will be able to easily retrieve the anchor. 

• There MUST be a loop in the main line to focus all the pulling force on the cable tie.

• DO NOT force the on/off switch too much to the left or too much to the right.

• Do it gently, there is a 2 to 3 second delay when you switch your camera on, pushing it with force will not make it switch on any faster, same goes for turning the camera OFF.

• Be patient and switch the camera on and off GENTLY