Who am I? What am I?…Where am I?

I’m in a bit of a quandary. I need a bit more involvement with my fly casting certification organisation. I am an FFF certified casting instructor, all well and good. I like their ethos, I have a lot of friends who are FFF, there are online discussion groups and there are lots of resources on their web site. My problem is that, at the moment, they do not have a very big presence in the UK, and, to be honest, in the rest of Europe. They hold regular workshops and an annual conclave, but, they are all in America. I believe this will change as the FFF membership grows in Europe. The trouble is I am not getting any younger and by the time all this comes to pass I may well be in my dotage and ready to be put out to grass.

 As I see it I have three options; wait for the FFF to find it’s feet in Europe; join AAPGIA; work my way through the GAIA system.

 I am not political in any sense of the word but there are some background politics involved with both AAPGIA and GAIA. I don’t really know what they are, I don’t want to. All I want is to do is to be able to teach fly casting without being concerned that one or the other looks on me as being somehow less than they are because I am not a member of their organisation. It’s just ridiculous, it’s not rocket science, the world isn’t going to end tomorrow because I am one or the other, we teach fly casting for Gods sake, not brain surgery.

 I am slightly more inclined towards GAIA at the moment. From what I have seen they have made huge improvements in their certification process. I have seen a qauntum leap in their casting program, which, to be honest was a bit of a joke not so long ago and they appear, from where I stand, to be the ones on the move.

 I have a huge respect for most of the AAPGIA instructors I know and it wouldn’t do me any harm to work my way through their system either.

 Or, I could take my FFF Master’s and use that to help increase the FFF’s profile in Europe. I don’t mean that Mike Heritage becoming a Master would raise the FFF’s profile, I mean that being a Master would allow me to help with certification of CCI’s.

 I hate decisions, but I am going to have to make one soon.