how i spent this years iko fees

[kiwimike]

instead of paying iko fee this year we invested in a new compressor and a drinks water cooler. once again we are improving our service to our customers rather than throwing money away on an organisation whos only goal is to collect as much money as possible.
one day we will meet fred, and you will wish you refunded the fees you took from me.

[kiwimike]

recap of what happened at my school and why i am so anoyed with iko.

i would like to tell everyone of a situation that happened at my kiteboarding school in thailand. i will not name names or call anyone a liar so that i do not offend anyone. this is what happened at my school last month.

* iko examiner 1 comes to my club to run his third ITC in my school

*he does such a sub standard job i inform him he can no longer be the examiner of itcs at my school

*i have a feeling he is going to cause problems so i warned iko and asked them to send me another examiner for the course starting the next week, they say they will.

*iko cancels all my itcs the next day without telling me why. ironically i get emailed a request to renew my iko membership on the same day

*i email and phone iko for 3 weeks without response.

*i find out examiner 1 who ran the course has started a company called
tac-team funky fresh and wants to host all the itcs in asia at 2 of his friends schools. one in thailand and another in vietnam. this way he can pocket all the profits from each course as well as his own examiner fee. he has gone on a mission to stop anyone else from running itcs in asia. (he does not seem to care if he ruins ikos name in the process)

*i manage to contact another examiner (examiner 2) in australia and fly him over to run an excellent itc in hua hin at my friends school as i am banned from running the courses myself

*i bring that examiner 2 to my club to to check it out. iko refuses to let him audit my school. i still have no idea why

*after 3 weeks of emails and phone calls i finally get a list of what the examiner 1 has said about my club and what he thinks i did wrong hosting the itc

*i refute every point as incorrect or a problem i have commit to solve. i back up this with photos of my training area and statements from the candidates who did the course who are angry and want a regund in their course fees.

*iko has a meeting. i am still suspended from running itcs (even though i am not sure why) and iko find the examiner 1 guilty of serious breaches of conduct. his punishment is that he can not run itcs in thailand for one year.
eventually he was banned from being an iko examiner completly.

hardly what you would call justice. i voice my concerns and iko suspend my instructors licence for using a swear word in an email i sent them. now i would like to tell them what you can do with my level 2 certificate but it seems iko are easily offended by bad language so i will refrain.

[braveman]

Kiwimike you are on a crusade, and I fully agree with you.

[kiwimike]

good you are on my team with that six gun. best you stand beside me, not behind me with that crazy get up.

Kiwimike you are on a crusade, and I fully agree with you.

[NYKiter]

what was the examiner's name?

[kiwimike]

what was the examiner's name?

can find him if you google funky fresh tac team training. 7 of the 8 candidates on the course he ran asked for a refund. i wish i had video footage of some of the stupid things he was doing during the itc.
at one point he waited till the wind stopped then said if the trainee instructors could not fly the trainer kite on apparent wind alone they would fail the course. he even asked his non iko examiner mate to sit in on the course to intimidate the candidates. he used a 5 year old training manual, i have no idea why. he kept the candidates up past midnight some nights and asked them to evaluate the other candidates to put them under stress. at one stage he lost his temper while teaching on my boats during the course and threw an inflated kite overboard entangling one of the candidates. i know he reads these forums, i would ask him to challenge what i am saying but he never says anything. he got me banned from hosting the cosurse in pattaya thailand then tried to get us banned in hua hin thailand. was going to be a big job getting us banned from all 6 of our locations. he advertised the following courses on his website

Mui Ne,Vietnam:
16.12.2010 MFA, 17.-22.12.2010 ITC water
www.kite-n-surf.com


Hua Hin ,Thailand:
16-20.2.2011 ITC water, 21.2.2011 MFA
www.one2kite.com

despite neither school being iko affiliated. he ended up cancelling them but i never figured out why. i dont think he had any student instructors.

actually i am more pissed off with iko for standing behind him. iko refused to answer my phone calls or emails. how can they treat their customers this way? is probably why they dont have many left.

[kiwimike]

not easy to find a picture of the owner of IKO. think there would be somewhere on the internet. maybe someone can help me out.

[NYKiter]

Kamil Peterek?

[letsgoflyakite]

In uk, IKO means nothing now. Despite being affiliated, no student really cared, but at least there was a standard of practice, not that all instructors adhered to it. I gave up on IKO as their backup was about nil. Why do you feel the need for IKO ? Just leave them to it, they are a crumbling company. Think a lot of instructors in UK are now BKSA not IKO.

[UKSurf]

at one point he waited till the wind stopped then said if the trainee instructors could not fly the trainer kite on apparent wind alone they would fail the course.

Sounds like he has been watching too much Star Wars I wouldnt waste you money on the IKO. Just find some other organisation that will let you use their letters and wont charge you as much. Students wont care as long as they are getting safe instruction.