Wake Boarding as a Literacy By: Eric Gerbus

Extreme sports do not even begin to describe what wakeboarding feels like. It is the combination of balance and focus that enable one to wakeboard. The skills and literacy needed in order to start or become an expert in wakeboarding describe the literacy practices of this sport. You need to learn the language of the sport and the equipment needed to participate.

In the picture above, you can see that this sport is for both man and women. You can also see equipment that is used to keep one safe while partaking in the sport. The number one thing needed for this sport is a swimming suit. You are going to be in water almost the entire time. The next thing that is needed is the mainly for girls but it is what is known as board shorts. These are a pair of pants that replicate a male swimming suit. These help during a whip out, so your bottoms do not ride up your rear. One of the things that this picture does not portray is a life jacket. This will ensure that if for some reason you become unconscious you will float and not drown. Last but not least it the board and boots. These are separate items even though they are attached to one another. Many people wear helmets but they are not required.

Once you have your gear on you get into the water. You will be handed a rope with a handle that you hold on to for the duration of the sport. Without this rope you will just float in the water. This next video will show you how to start by getting out of the water.

The gentleman in the video does a great job of explaining how to get up on a wakeboard. When being pulled by the boat, most people have the instinct to pull back. This is not what you want to do. The boat will do all of the work for you, you just need to relax. Most of this sport is trial and error. You will never learn anything without falling. You cannot be afraid to fall. There are injuring that comes with the sport but they are considered an occupational hazard.

The language of the sport is probably the hardest to learn. Although you do not need to know this, it will be difficult to communicate with other wakeboarders without it. You will hear a lot about heel side and toe side once standing and the terms only get deeper from there. This next video shows how to control a wake board once standing.

Although it looks very simple, you will have some difficulty with the balancing. In the article “Getting Started: Wake-Boarding” by Mark Anders, Anders talks about board control. This is what he had to say, “To swipe back and forth across the wake, turn your shoulders and hips so they are more open to the boat. Look where you want to go and move the handle slightly to the inside of your forward-facing hip, while transferring your weight to your heels. As you cross the wake, keep your knees bent. ‘Don't steer with the rope,’ says Shawn Watson, two-time national wakeboarding champion. ‘Keep the rope at your hip and your arms straight. It's more of a lower-body movement.’ To cut back in the other direction, slowly press your toes down and push your knees forward toward the water. Turn your shoulders and hips in the direction you want to cut” (Anders).

Most of the beginning stuff is practiced on land before you hit the water. This is because it will be easier to perform the task if you know what you are doing before you get into the water. When I learned to wakeboard, we just got in the water with the equipment on and went at it. Most of the time I would wipe out and have to start again but I eventually learned. I have been wakeboarding for several years now and I still cannot perform the tricks that are shown in this next video.

As you can tell from the video, these tricks are very difficult to perform. They people shown are professional wakeboarders and do this for a living. These tricks were done hundreds of times to look as smooth as they do in that video. Many have ended in wipeouts but that is the only way to learn in this sport. You have to adjust to what you last tried. Many of the tricks performed in the video were close to wipeouts but the boarders were able to keep balance to stay on top of the water.

The ritual used to perfect these tricks is to get up very early in the morning and practice on the clear glassy water. Tina Black the author of “Wakeboarding” talked about how she learned to wakeboard. “Our ritual was to go out alone at dawn before the Coast Guard (or bay pigs, as we call them) came out and found us without the obligatory third person on board. For a few hours, we would catch the flat, glasslike water in the bay, boarding in fast rotation one after the other. Once we learned to stand upright, the rest came quickly. Before long, I was crossing the wake, cutting, carving, starting left- or right-side forward and jumping from wake to wake, getting a respectable amount of air between my board and the water” (Black).

Wakeboarding as a literacy is a language of its own. This language is used throughout a few other sports. The language is not the only way of communication. There a hand signals used to communicate with the boat. A few of the hand signals used are the thumbs up sign to increase speed, the thumbs down to decrease speed, and the hand across the throat mean to stop. These communication skills help the rider to achieve almost perfect conditions in order to perform at their best. Communication is very important in a sport that can result in injury.

Many sports have their own language, but wakeboarding takes it to a whole other level. Without the knowledge of this language, understanding the sport is possible but would be difficult when it comes to talking to other riders. This is a major step in becoming an expert in the sport. You can learn many things but partaking in discourse communities. They teach you valuable communication skills that will stick with you for the rest of your life.

References

Black, Tina. "Wakeboarding." Women's Sports & Fitness (10996079) 3.6 (2000): 42. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 2 June 2011.

Anders, Mark. "Getting Started: Wake-Boarding." Popular Mechanics 186.7 (2009): 30-31. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 2 June 2011.

Nora Rege : “The customer is always right…I think that’s a bunch of bullshit.”

“The customer is always right…I think that’s a bunch of bullshit.”
An Ethnography by Nora Rege

There is a shared belief among some in the service industry that every person should hold a position in hospitality services for at least a few weeks in their young adult lives before they can have a successful night out. While each reader may or may not believe this, it is not unreasonable to believe that those bar patrons who have experienced giving the service they are receiving will be more understanding and patient with the staff serving them.

Just as there are many types of bartenders, and bartenders fill many roles, there are as many ways to approach those customers who are not quite as patient as others. In two weeks of interviews and observation, I found that there is a maturity dichotomy not only in the way that these customers are approached, but also in the way bartenders choose to express their sentiments about these customers.

My interview subjects included bartenders and managers at the Mt. Adams Pavilion. Interviews took place at both Pavilion and aliveOne, located in Mt. Adams, Cincinnati.

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After speaking with my bartenders, it would seem that no one can understand the motives behind some of the characters that walk in and out of the bar every night. There is no limit on when, for how much time, and to what degree these people will unleash their lack of bar etiquette. According to Raymond Bissonet, a New York-based Professor of Psychiatry, “The phenomenon of role separation tends to prolong artificially the sociological stranger role for the bartender. This is because most bartenders and patrons interact as only segments of their total selves” (98). Bartender Ashley McDowell explains her approach to the “stranger” occurrence. “I feel like the more ‘human’ you kind of talk to [customers] – I feel like some people kind of put us on a pedestal and think we’re not human, that we’re just like worker bees. If you kind of try to humanize the situation, you know, people sometimes just do forget, so I’ll try to remind them that they’re being rude, just in a nice way.” Sarah Fisher explains that there is an aspect of immaturity that plays a large role as well. “You get the people who come in to a bar and get a drink and they appreciate what they’re drinking, they appreciate the alcohol and the craft you put into a drink…then you get somebody who’s just 21 and they come into the bar and as for a beer and throw down a dollar ‘cause they know it’s dollar beer night. They don’t tell you what kind of beer they want. They don’t tell you anything, they say ‘I want a beer.’”

In the course of my research, I was able to interview bartenders of different qualifications, experience, and background. I interviewed some men, some women, some new bartenders, some veteran, some with other bar experience, and some who were mainly bartenders. I noted that the biggest differences between all these people were their manner of communicating when I asked about “unsavory” customers. The responses were as varied as they were enthusiastic.

The younger, less experienced bartenders tended to approach bad customers angrily, but ultimately realized that they were best served to find a manager to take over the unruly situation. The more experienced bartenders saw approaches by “clueless” customers as an opportunity to educate young bar goers about the etiquette of being in public. The men tended to have a “don’t-let-it-get-to-you” attitude toward customers, which also fit with their less-enthusiastic negative answers. The women, I noticed, seemed to be inclined to answer questions about their approaches to these customers with much more fervor than the men. The women, regardless of experience and age all seemed to view bad customers as an opportunity to leave their mark. Said 15-year service industry veteran Ceris Christopher, “If you come to my bar and you act like an idiot, you’d better believe that I’ll let you know you’re being an idiot. And will you ever walk into my bar and act like an idiot again? No, no you will not.”

When asked to recount the stories of their best and worst customers, the women were very quickly able to recall a story regarding a very negative customer, but took about thirty seconds to a minute to recall a good customer, and over half responded to the “best customer” question with generalizations. Only two of the six women interviewed spoke about bad customers in general terms. All three men, however, regarded all customers, both good and bad, in general terms. Similarly, the women held very few qualms about writing about bad customers in public forums - specifically Facebook and Twitter. They viewed it as a means by which to vent or to glean support from friends and coworkers. None expressed to use of specific names or anything that would humiliate or embarrass the customer later, but mostly just looked at social media as a place to joke amongst eachother and also demonstrate the behavior that makes them react in that manner.

Alternatively, the men were very apprehensive. One, in fact, recounted a story of posting a Facebook status poking fun at a DJ, (not even a customer!) who is also his friend, for playing “cheesy Backstreet Boys” music at the end of the night. He said he felt so unprofessional after that instance that he would never use social media to poke fun at anything from work again (Mike Schroeder).

What I found most interesting, though, was the manner of speaking applied to customers in general, when I was asking about neither “good” nor “bad” people. Words with very positive connotations were used, like “guest,” and “visitor,” as opposed to the neutral “customer” or words with a negative slant. While my observation showed that bartenders could quickly get frustrated with customers who are frustrated with them, they ultimately appreciated the persona of the customer and enjoyed having someone to display their talent to. Those customers that appreciate the bartender as an expert in mixing drinks, and also as a person worthy of attention and respect, are the ones who keep these enthusiastic men and women in their professions.

So is the customer always right? Using the slogan “The customer is always right,” abusive customers can demand just about anything – they’re right by definition. This makes the bartenders’ job that much harder, when trying to rein them and their attitudes in. Also, it means that abusive people get better treatment and conditions than nice people. However, it makes much more sense to be nice to the nice customers to keep them coming back. The fact is that some customers are just plain wrong, and that the bar is better of without them. Regardless of the sex of the bartender, their experience, or their approach, some customers will just be unruly. It would seem to me that those customers are looking for a fight, not a refreshing beverage.

Firefighters Use Literacy to Communicate? By: Ali Stigler

        Sirens and pagers going off at all hours of the night are what I have grown up around my entire life. These aspects along with many other features of my father’s career of choice have always intrigued me. Firefighters and paramedics have their own vocabulary and means of communication that would seem completely crazy to anyone outside of their discourse community. My research will be focused around their literacy practices and how they incorporate them with the way they communicate. This project will include the run reports they write, the pagers and radios they use to keep in touch, and the vocabulary they must know in order to understand it all. By interviewing my father and using him as a main resource, I will be able to obtain my goal in this project which is to realize just how much literacy is incorporated into their communication and how they communicate effectively. Through my personal experience, interviews, and on-site observing I have been able to pick up on the literacy practices firefighters use daily that I would not have ever expected.

This is the bay area at the headquarters of the Delhi Township Fire Department where all the emergency vehicles are kept, such as the truck, the ambulance, and the ladder truck. Their gear is also laid out on the floor so they can just jump in it and go as quickly as possible.

        Picking the topic for my research was easy, but digging deeper into what I already knew was going to be the challenge for me. I have visited my father at work since I was a child, however I just knew that he got to wear cool equipment, had to take some classes here and there, and he saved people’s lives, and that is all. The amount of knowledge he has to know in order to perform his job to the best of his ability is more than I imagined. He has to take classes every year called refresher courses that are paid for by his employer to ensure that he knows the vocabulary you need to make it as a firefighter/paramedic. The amount of literacy that is used in any college class is exactly what he goes through each year. This enhances his language which in turn provides the best communication possible among his bosses and co-workers. Many medical terms are necessary to be able to understand in order to complete the daily tasks of a firefighter/paramedic. When I was talking to my dad about it, I asked him if he got upset if any of his newer co-workers said the wrong term or phrase for something and he said “Yes, it can get irritating however we take the newer boys under our wings and just simply ask them to repeat whatever they were trying to say and usually they get that they messed up by that point.” Not only do they have to do in-class training, but also physical training called live fires. They have run down buildings that they use to practice live fires in using all of their equipment; they practice their communication skills using radios during this time. 

This picture is an example of a few of the guys getting ready for a live fire.

       My dad has pagers and radios everywhere; whether they are on a shelf that is custom-built in his Suburban, on his night stand, or on his belt, he constantly has access to whatever is going on within his discourse community. I just figured he was truly passionate about his career, which he is, but these pagers they use are the primary source of communication. While doing some of my research, I found an article on the United States Fire Administration website that focused on radios and communication along with a 71 page study that focuses on radios and their effectiveness. In the article it states that “Firefighters are unique radio users. The life safety of both firefighters and citizens depends on the function and usage of these communication tools in the harshest and most hostile of environments” (USFA). The radio system is much more complicated than I could have ever thought, but after talking to my dad I was able to clear it up. First of all, each station is identified by a number and Delhi Township has three different stations: 30, 33, and 36. Each emergency that is reported is called a “run”, I have no idea why that is just what it is. The primary dispatcher is the Hamilton County Communication System which operates on channel FD WEST and once a run is received the dispatcher says the station number and which fire ground to turn to. Each of these four fire grounds is on the DLHI FD channel and once everyone is on the channel the dispatcher gives, all of the information about the run will be given there. Not only is the information given on the radio but also on the pagers that everyone carries at all times, the full time guys have their own radios and the part time guys have to check theirs in and out once they get to the station. In case this particular run needs back up, the radios have access to 6 different stations that are located in the area, as well as the Delhi Police Department’s station in the case of a stabbing or shooting. The radio and pager system is continuing to be updated as technology upgrades; for example, the radios actually say which fire ground you tune in to as they change between channels so if they happen to be in a building or an area with a lot of smoke, they can at least hear it if they can’t read the screen on the pager or radio. These are key concepts of communication in the firehouse because it is how they receive their assignments and determine how they are going to assess them. So these radios and pagers are a main source of communication, so what about the literacy they utilize and do firefighters even knows what literacy is? The answer is yes and you’d be surprised at just how many literacy practices are incorporated in the lives of firefighters and paramedics.

       This board looks like a dry erase board with a bunch of numbers and letters on it to anyone besides someone who works for the Delhi Township Fire Department. This is their primary tool of communicating who is in charge during that shift on that day and if one day you happen to see one of these, you will understand just what it means. First, there are 5 people on a shift at a time per station. On the upper left hand, the Q33 means quint 33 which is their station number and quint is another name for their fire truck. Underneath that, FAO means fire apparatus operator, which is just a fancy name for the person who is in charge of driving the truck. Next to that is the CO which is the company officer and he is the guy in charge of that shift. FF1 means firefighter one and he is next in command after the company officer and sits behind him in the fire truck, FF2 is firefighter 2 and he sits behind the fire apparatus operator in the truck and FF4 is firefighter 4 who sits across from FF1. The FAO and FF2 are in charge of search and rescue/ventilation which means they break windows and pry car doors open if necessary. FF1 and FF4 are the ones who attack the fire and actually go inside to fight it. On the other side, M33 means Medic 33 which is the station number and medic means paramedics which are firefighters who also have been certified through a program to perform advanced medical procedures on patients. There should be 3 paramedics out of the 5 people on the shift. This crew is in charge of the ambulance and the driver is pretty self-explanatory. The medic is the also called a chaser and he is the guy who gets in the truck and follows the ambulance to the scene. BLS 33 stands for Basic Life Support and this person has to be a paramedic and he floats between the fire truck, ambulance, and truck and basically goes wherever the rest of the team needs him to. SCBA means Self Contained Breathing Apparatus and each person has their own and is in charge of it to ensure that the level of air in their tank is maxed out, and if it isn’t, they have a filling station on site to fill it up as soon as they get there. This dry erase board is one of the many literacy aspects they used in order to facilitate the flow of the shift on that particular day. 

Mailbox Wall

        Other literacy practices that are incorporated at the firehouse are e-mailing, letters in each other’s mailboxes (see picture), texting, post-it notes on random things, bulletin boards around the station, and run reports. Their e-mail system is one that they can only use at work therefore it is their responsibility to check it while they are at the station in order to be updated on any news around the station. They have a wall of mailboxes where all the paperwork for each employee goes. Texting and post-it notes are simple ways of communicating that everyone uses, but still a literacy practice. The bulletin boards that are hanging up around the station are home to thank you cards, pictures, and newsletters that allow the firefighters to know what is going on in the community they are serving and protecting. This newsletter is published every Thursday in order to be as updated as possible. I believe the run reports are the most complicated form of literacy practice they perform and this is where many of their vocabulary and knowledge of language is incorporated.

Bulletin Board

        The run report is larger than a normal 8x11 sheet of paper (see hard copy attached) and has tons of information on it. While talking to my dad on the phone one day, I asked him what exactly this run report was and how vital it was. He said, “A run report is documentation of EVERYTHING you did on the run.” He also told me that their motto is “if you didn’t document it, you didn’t do it.” That to me signifies the importance of the information on this document. Information such as the person completing the report, the name, address, chief complaint, social security number, date of birth, phone number, medications, allergies, and the treatment of the patient is all recorded on this sheet of paper. To give you a better idea of what information has to be written about what happened once the firefighters and paramedics arrived on the scene, my dad wrote a fake run report for me to show the type of vocabulary he uses and how you have to document every detail about the accident. The run report is of a 26 year old male who seems to have overdosed on Oxycontin and he uses abbreviations throughout such as pt. (patient), b.p. (blood pressure), b.p.m. (beats per minute), u/a (upon arrival), b.v.m. (bag valve mask), and a few others (see hard copy). The way it is written is formal and describes each step of the process in detail and also provides some background information in order to provide a better understanding of the situation at hand.

         After reliving my personal experiences, partaking in interviews, and on-site observations, I can say that I now know exactly how many literacy practices are incorporated into the lives of firefighters and paramedics. These literacy practices that they use daily are the way they communicate with each other and with other firefighters all across the country, while they might not use the exact same terminology, they are all part of this discourse community that stress the importance of public safety and all work together in order to save lives. Without the use of the literacy practices and means of communication they make use of, these firefighters would not be able to serve their community like they do today.

References

Henderson, N. D. (2010). PREDICTING LONG-TERM FIREFIGHTER PERFORMANCE FROM COGNITIVE AND PHYSICAL ABILITY MEASURES. Personnel Psychology, 63(4), 999-1039. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.2010.01196.x

USFA. (10 June 2010). U.S. Fire Administration home page.  <http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/fireservice/research/safety/communication.shtm>.

Voracek, M., Pum, U., & Dressler, S. G. (2010). Investigating digit ratio (2D:4D) in a highly male-dominated occupation: The case of firefighters. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51(2), 146-156. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9450.2009.00758.x