I used to teach on the floatplane 'canyon turns', which as you described are min raduius turns, (slow with power and 2 stage flap C185). It used to scare people to death as they thought slow steep turns = spin in. However, this was a normal procedure in mountain flying. It is not encouraged by many people I know.
your place sounds like my kind of school RV6-VNE. Now that I am back in England the first time I got to fly low, someone rang the CAA to complain.
Formation flyer, you have had some floatplane experience then?
