You have a code of practice. Safety is supposed to be a positive not a negative thing. There is a very good reason for having a level 3 cert for taking gear to run stuff. Basically if you could borrow gear without it, the person lending the gear to you would now be taking on the responsibilty of saying your able or not able for a river. In otherwords you hurt or god forbid drown on a trip the committee would be brought up and could be made liable for your death due to your stupidty of doing something you couldn't handle. A level 3 does not make you a better paddler, it does not make you able to judge water and it does not make you any wiser, it is however granted by the governing body for the sport in the country as such you are expected to be of a certain level to get it. Therefore the committee can use it; instead of having to make that particular judgement call. They are still responsible for your safety if you use club gear on a private trip, so give the guys a break. They will get you to level 3 as soon as is humanly possible and this is completely possible within a few club trips.
You do not learn when you are scared, as such you learn techniques on easier rivers or easier settings. The way some people carry on, you would think that we should teach people by giving them final year papers on the first day of college and expect them to pass. Learning doesn't work like that. Yes there are extreme exceptions to this rule but they are really rare.
