I taught a ASA class this weekend. I would say one of the top 2 classes I taught there for the City of Oakland. I felt a real sense of relating. The skys have been soooo bad the last week due to the fires. Worst than being in LA 
Every day it has been cloudy, like major overcast but this has been from Smoke. At night it is like seeing fog in your headlights. Today at the Auqa center it was almost like normal again. Yesterday was and the day before were Bad. My throat hurt after drving home the last few days. Yuk!
Anyway my students this weekend were young Chinese guys. Engineers and a software programmer. They had not sailed before, but wanted to get out there. I surprised them by speaking Chinese. Hehehah more like shocked them. One asked if I was going to teach them in Chinese. I said, Hao bu hao, ( ok?) he laughed and said I do not think I can handle it, we laughed. I gave them a little of my Kung Fu background after he asked. It was funny in a way to hear my sailing students call me Shifu.
They were a good group we got along well, and had a few good laughs. They were funny, making up their own words for Helms-a-lee, & Gybe Ho they could not get it quite right on the pronunciations. They were a bit nervous about there written test. But they all did excellent, one 99% , Two 100%. The best scores I have seen.
One thing I have found is that with totally new students I am rushing to get everything covered. So it is nice the way the Berkeley “O” school does it. Having it run over days instead of 2.5. The students can absorb more that way, instead of cramming.
The wind cooperated for the most part so we were able to have some good sailing time whilst out on the water in the Estuary. Sometimes it is very iffy out there. There were a few short moment where we did not have much wind, however overall we had a good sail. It was fun teaching with people I can relate to well. We took our end of class picture together, they tried to do the Zen sign.
They asked if they could request me for their next level class after they got some practice time in. I would like that if it works out.
