American Canoe Association and British Canoe Union Certified

About the Program
Level I Lessons introduction, calm water
Level II Lessons refining boat control
Level III Lessons moving water and wind
Level IV Lessons dynamic water, leadership, navigation
BCU Assessments & Trainings
Pool sessions including roll class
Lower Columbia Kayak Roundup week-long instructional symposium in Cathlamet, WA


Instructional Tours
Coaches

Calendar of Lessons and Tours

At Columbia River Kayaking, you will find a contagious passion for learning and having fun! Coaches continue to refine and challenge their own skills. For us, kayaking is a way of life which share because we love to. Let us help you reach your goals!

About the Coaches

Skill Level Rating
based on new (2008) BCU star awards

Level I programs are generally scheduled for mornings or days with little tidal movement, or in protected lakes or creeks. No experience necessary.
BCU One Star - "A Flat water award that demonstrates an individual has basic boat control and foundation skills.The one star can be taken in any kind of paddlesport craft (e.g. sit-on-top, slalom C2, polo boat, sea kayak, racing canoe etc.)"

Level II tours may experience light wind (8kts), small waves (1'), or moderate current (1kt). Level 2 tours build on the basics introduced at level 1. Calm capsize and reentry experience is required.
BCU Two Star - "An improvement award that helps paddlers develop fundamental paddlesport skills on flat water. The emphasis is on gaining a breadth of experience, creating the desired movement of the boat and developing an understanding into how the paddle, boat and water interact. This award is significantly different to the old 2 star, with a change to develop generic movement skills that can transfer to any discipline .... ie. in a variety of craft."

Level III programs take advantage of afternoon wind (15kts, waves 2-3') or greater tidal action (2kts).
BCU Three Star Sea - "Successful performance at this level indicates that a candidate can consider themselves an intermediate paddler rather than a beginner. Unlike the existing award this will be discipline specific with awards in Sea, Surf, Canoe, WW Kayak, FW Kayak and some of the competitive disciplines. The three star paddler will be a competent performer in sheltered to moderate water environments and have the ability to paddle unsupervised, with similar standard paddlers on sheltered water. The new award will look similar in structure to the existing 4 star, but with the skills applicable in an easier environment."

Level IV programs require well-refined paddling skills as they venture into surf, strong wind, or dramatic current. They may require or build navigation skills, and contain strong elements of group interdependence.

Link to BCU star award syllabi

You do not need to hold BCU certification to participate in Columbia River Kayaking events, although we highly recommend it

Square Water Workshop - Roll Class at the Astoria Aquatic Center or Cathlamet Pool
2 hours, $60. max 3 participants
appropriate to any level

Rolling is fun! It's also an important skill in whitewater, surf, and sea kayaking. Having a roll increases your safety in capsize situations. Simply working towards your roll improves your self-awareness and confidence.

Practice in Astoria's heated pool with a patient, encouraging coach. You'll refine techniques for keeping and regaining balance, including bracing. Discover the roll that works best for you, then add others. You can start from scratch, troubleshoot an almost-roll, or add new varieties for safety and fun, including sweep, C to C, storm, extended paddle, back deck roll, various Greenland rolls, hand roll, Eskimo bow rescue, sculling brace, and balance brace. Challenge yourself! Calendar

 

Level II Required: a level-headed wet exit and experience of at least 2 day trips; or new BCU 1-star award or ACA Introduction to Kayaking certification.

Stroke Refinement
6 hours, $125
Pursue the ultimate in boat control as a foundation for open water skills. Use wind, waves, and current as teaching tools. Improve body-boat-blade coordination. Increase efficiency and boat control through use of edging and technique. Take this class repeatedly in varying locations and conditions. There is always more to learn! Calendar

Balance and Bracing
6 hours, $125
Edging is key in maneuvering your kayak, yet comes with certain risks. This class uses games to practice balance, and studies how body and paddle work together to keep you upright even while edging. Calendar

BCU 2-Star Training
5-6 hours, $125
2-days $225
This is an excellent introduction to the British Canoe Union system for those with experience. 2-Star Training includes drills, practice games, and specific coaching to further paddler's safety, confidence, and ability. Learn to apply your core to get the job done with less effort. Refine techniques such as the bow rudder, sculling draw, hanging draw, and forward stroke until they are clean and efficient. Then practice until good technique is automatic. Personal coaching and specific feedback help you focus your efforts.
The great treat of this class is that we also practice in open canoes, exploring the nuances of the single blade.
More info on this award can be downloaded from: BCU star awards link.
Calendar.

New BCU 2-Star Assessment
3-5 hours, $105
Assessment is an excellent way to check how your kayaking skills are progressing. Skills include forward stroke with torso rotation, emergency stop, reverse paddling to a target, moving sideways, preventing a capsize by bracing, ruddering, edging, a low brace turn, assisted reentries, and more. After performing these, the specific individual feedback you receive helps you set a game plan for continued practice and learning. Candidates should bring a log book showing their paddling experience. BCU star awards link.
Calendar

Moving Water Introduction, a BCU 3* Sea training
$135 1-day
$250 2-days
$350 3-days
With a foundation of good boat handling skills, explore how you can use the wind, current, and waves to your advantage instead of fighting them. The 3-day course also includes basic kayak navigation.

Sample itinerary:
Day 1 Isolate and play with the mechanics of paddling during a body-boat-blade workshop designed to reveal the how & why behind boat control techniques. Build a more instinctive mastery of them. Evening review of BCU system, and personal goals.
Day 2 Games & drills to review boat edging and blade use. Refine boat handling skills. Individual coaching. Evening Navigation session and planning final day's journey.
Day 3 A trip down the WA bank to the Astoria Bridge with current, standing waves, eddies, and afternoon wind. Paddling in such conditions is a good check of how instinctive those boat handling skills are dynamic environments. And of course it's lots of fun! Debrief and action plan before leaving, usually over a beer at the local pub.

Calendar

Efficiency in Wind & Waves, refinement of 3* Sea skills
5-6 hours, $150
Have you been working on those boat handling skills in wind? Feel like you're ready for some challenge and feedback? Head into your assessment confidently. More importantly, head out into exposed inland waters with a greater margin of safety.
BCU star awards link.
Calendar

Safety Weekend
3 days, $350
Combine the programs listed below into a 3-day weekend: Foundation Safety & Rescue Training, and Coastal Navigation & Tidal Planning, and a day of practical on-water navigation. This natural progression reinforces learning in a fun environment. Detailed descriptions of each are below.
Calendar

BCU Foundation Safety & Rescue Training
6 hours, $150
Risk reduction is what it's all about: personal safety, setting priorities, avoiding incidents. Learn and practice ways to help a person in distress while protecting yourself and others. An excellent training and award for any paddler in a position of responsibility, or simply wanting to improve safety. This award is given for the training; there is no separate assessment. It is a prerequisite for any coaching or leadership training in the BCU program.
More info on this award can be downloaded from: BCU awards link. Calendar

BCU Coastal Navigation & Tidal Planning
6-8 hours, $125.
Have you ever looked at a map, or a nautical chart, or photos of someplace alluring and dreamed of going there? This classroom course provides a foundation for planning your own trips in a coastal or tidally influenced environment. It's considered one of the safety modules in the BCU curriculum. Become aware of the factors, and use your resources to plan a reasonable trip. Practice using nautical charts, tide tables, current charts, and compasses. This course is a prerequisite for BCU 4* Sea Leader training. Go ahead, dream! More info at BCU awards link.
Calendar

Practical Navigation
6-8 hours, $125.
A very practical course set among the islands of the tidal lower Columbia River. Read a nautical chart, and relate it to what you see while you're paddling. Calculate tides, distance, and speed. Learn to pilot (follow a shoreline while keeping track of yourself on a chart) and dead reckon (calculate speed, direction and time). Locate yourself on a chart using only landmarks, or using a compass. Locate hidden campsites. Use landmarks around you to check progress or drift, and create ferry angles to compensate for cross current or wind. Create strategies for success if lost or stranded. Do all of this while touring the islands of the Lewis & Clark National Wildlife Refuge. It's not magic; navigation really is a fundamental skill for those who paddle unguided in places beyond a corridor or a lake (even if you have a GPS). And it's fun! Calendar

BCU 3-Star Sea Assessment
6 hours, $150
The new 3-star Sea award entails taking a journey in moving water. The standard is high. Boat handling must be precise and efficient in challenging conditions. The new BCU 3* Sea award is similar to the old 4*. Candidates should also bring a log book showing their paddling experience. This award is proof that you can comfortably handle wind to 15knots and seas to 3', including maneuvering and performing rescues. Three-star Sea award is a prerequisite for more challenging trips worldwide, including some of CRK and Sea Kayak Baja's exciting expeditions. More info on this award can be downloaded from: BCU star awards link. Calendar

Required: BCU 3-star award, ACA Coastal Kayak certification, or instructor approval

Surf Play for Sea kayaks or surf boats
4-5 hours, $150.
Surf is an excellent teacher of bracing and instinctive boat control. It's also great fun! Practice surf launches and landings. Broach and side surf. Learn the basics for safety in this extremely dynamic environment. Ride waves. Get a great workout and that elation that only a full day of surf brings! Calendar

Leadership Workshop
5-6 hours, $150.
2 days $250 (FSRT & Leadership Workshop)
This class is designed for guides-in-training or anyone who seeks to improve safety on the water in a group setting. The Leadership Workshop day builds on the Foundation Safety & Rescue Training with more practical application of risk management skills. Leaders plan the day based on tides and weather forecast, then lead it, taking out up to 6 paddlers per leader. Leaders practice thinking ahead, preventing issues, managing real situations when they do come up, and responding to staged scenarios. Whether you're leading trips or just want to be an asset to your paddling group, this is a valuable experience. Also available as a custom course for organizations. Calendar

Night Navigation
4 hours, $85.
Experience the Columbia River at night--the lights of the channel, the dark quiet bulk of mountains, the movement of invisible water. This exciting instructional tour is scheduled the day after full moon, so the almost-full orb will rise about an hour after sunset, while we're on the water. Calendar

Dynamic Water Workshop
1-day $135
2-days $250
3-days $350
Focus on boat control, safety, and planning in moving water such as surf, moderate current, wind waves, and clapotis. An excellent course for those aiming to paddle the open coast. On longer courses, we use various locations to refine skills in a number of different conditions.

Sample Itinerary
Day 1. Paddle in tidal current concentrated through narrow areas, and in expansive waters where the effect can be more deceiving. Expect wind, wind waves, and the chop of wind against tide. Study chart and compass, tide tables, and current tables. Plan a journey in waters with tidal current.
Day 2. Practice boat control in coastal surf. Expand awareness and comfort. Learn not only entry and exit strategies for launching and landing through surf, but also how to maneuver and play in the breakers.
Day 3. Paddle on a coastal journey that seeks to incorporate the variables studied on the previous days. Depending on ocean conditions and weather, this will probably be either at the mouth of the Columbia River or on the north Oregon coast.

New BCU 4-Star Sea Leader Assessment
1 day, $150
Prerequisites: Old BCU 4-star award or New BCU 3-star award; Foundation Safety & Rescue Training; Coastal Navigation & Tidal Planning; current first aid; comprehensive BCU membership.
The new BCU 4* Sea Leader award is as much about managing risk for a group as about personal paddling skills in rough water. This is an ideal goal for guides, for club leaders, and for paddlers who like to go challenge themselves with their friends in the fun water. It's also a prerequisite for CRK and Sea Kayak Baja's most challenging expeditions.
More info on this award can be downloaded from: BCU star awards link.
Calendar
Coastal Journey (listed on Day Tour page)

BCU Assessments and Assessment Training

The British Canoe Union has offered an internationally respected standard of kayaking for over 40 years. The program is based on cycles of training, practice, and assessment. In training, you are introduced to skills and concepts. Then follows a period of practice with periodic coaching. Once the skills are mastered to the level desired, you take an assessment. After passing assessment, you may train at the next level.

An assessment is like a checkup on your paddling skills. Depending on the level of the award, you are asked to do specific strokes, or maneuvers, or demonstrate judgment and boat control in various conditions. The assessment lets you know where your skills are against an international standard, and more than that, lets you know exactly what needs improvement.

Specific Trainings, Workshops, and Assessments are listed above with each level they pertain to. Also see Lower Columbia River Kayak Roundup which incorporates a spectrum of BCU courses.

Link to BCU star award syllabi

CRK coaches hold American Canoe Association and/or British Canoe Union certification. The American Canoe Association is the largest US organization for water sports. The ACA certifies coaches, educates paddlers, promotes water access, provides insurance, and more. The British Canoe Union provides the most comprehensive training program in sea kayaking today. It formed 40 years ago to coach British olympic athletes and continues to be rigorous because recreational sea paddlers in Britain face rough and dangerous waters. The Pacific Northwest can present equally hazardous conditions with surf, wind, and current.

Environment. The diverse Lower Columbia River region is a paddler's paradise. From protected sloughs to the coastal surf, it offers something for everyone. The wildness of this lightly populated area surrounds paddlers in stunning scenery. The Lewis & Clark National Wildlife Refuge alone encompasses 35,000 acres of mid-river islands, which is an ideal classroom for navigation classes. World-class paddling on the Oregon Coast rewards the paddler with bold cliffs, offshore rocks, sea caves, and fun surf rides.

History. The native peoples here before us had a water-based existence. Canoes were the cars of today, and much more. Water was the highway, not the divide. Even to the early European-derived settlers, the river was the central conduit and resource. Although nature has reclaimed much of the evidence, the stories and the river itself remain. Paddling is a teriffic way to connect with history of this place.

Equipment. All scheduled tours and lessons include kayak and paddling gear: paddle, PFD, skirt, pump, wetsuit & paddle jacket if necessary (specify size in advance). Available kayaks include: Wilderness Systems Tempest 165, 170 & 180, Tsunammi 145; Necky Eskia, Zoar Sport, Looksha 4, Looksha Sport & Amaruk double; Eddyline Merlin LT.

Guides & Coaches

Directions to launch sites. Calendar page lists the launch sites of each class.