Columbia River Kayaking LLC. The talented and motivated guides from Skamokawa Center teamed up with CRK's founder Ginni Callahan to create a new worker-owned cooperative based in Cathlamet, WA. Columbia River Kayaking, LLC offers lessons and tours for all levels on the Lower Columbia River and in Baja, Mexico. CRK is a BCU-endorsed center.

British Canoe Union North America The British Canoe Union is the international standard of modern paddlesport training. Originally formed in 1936 to send a British team to the Berlin Olympics, the BCU has grown considerably, in both scope and geography. The BCU offers 5 levels of recreational skill training including two levels of leadership certification, plus 5 levels of coaching certification, and coach trainer certifications. The BCU covers sea kayaking, canoeing, whitewater river paddling, surfing in little kayaks, and all aspects of competitive paddlesports.

2008 is significant because the BCU program has been updated to better serve modern paddlers, and this is the year the updated program is being introduced to the US. LoCo Roundup is the event on the west coast introducing these programs. Both the Director of Coaching of the BCU and the North American Administrator of BCU will be present offering classes, as well as a tremendous gathering of top national and international sea kayaking coaches. Kayaking professionals are coming from around the country to be "updated", and all levels of paddler stand to learn much and thoroughly enjoy this gathering of talent and passion.

Greenland traditions Modern kayaking draws not only on British traditions, but also on the much older Greenland traditions. Greenlanders were subsisting from the sea in kayaks thousands of years before kayaking became a sport, and the modern equivalent of the Greenland "Olympics" is all about kayaking skills. LoCo has the privilege of hosting several instructors of Greenland paddling and rolling, and will feature a Greenland-style rolling competition, open to spectators. The competition is Saturday night and is called "Sticks and Stones" because the paddle that Greenlanders use was originally made of driftwood and a rock is one of the things used to roll a kayak in the competition.

Skamokawa Center , gateway to the islands of the Lewis & Clark National Wildlife Refuge! They specialize in historic and natural history tours, Elderhostel programs, and provide kayak rentals and lodging.

Slow Boat Farm is a 21-acre former dairy farm on Puget Island with water access. The farm's mission, "deepening the human connection to the natural environment through recreation and sustenance," is uniquely fitted to the place--the access to a network of remote sloughs leading to the Columbia River, the exuberant garden and productive fields. Camping is available in the summer.

Top notch coaches, instructors, and local guides include: Karl Andersson, Jonathan Walpole, Shawna Franklin, Leon Somme, Mark Whitaker, Axel Schoevers, Cheri Perry, Turner Wilson, Matthew Ross, Jeffrey Briley, Matt Nelson, Djuna Mascall, Michael Callaghan, Mike Devlin, Henry Romer, Jen Kleck, Phil Hadley, Ed Christian, Bill Lozano, Andrew Emlen, Levi Helms, Matthew Keilwitz, and more!

About the evening programs

Kayaking as a Tool for Therapy -- Insights for the Coach's Toolkit
If you've ever coached a person, or are a person yourself, this program can offer insights to the beauty and challenges of dealing with the human spirit. Why do you kayak? Does it feed something in you? Do you grow in the process? Involving kayaks in therapy and theraputic awareness in kayak coaching can enhance both realms.

Theresa Doffe works with persons healing from the scars of sexual abuse, addictions and family violence. Addressing the somatic (body-centered) component of psychotherapy, she has begun a pilot project using the kayak as a tool in specific areas of individual and family therapy. Theresa is affiliated with the Canadian registry of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and is an accredited instructor through Paddle Canada.

The Science of Kayaking

Science helps you see the world around you in a deeper, more nuanced way. By reducing kayaking to its basic elements, we gain a better understanding of kayaking and demystify kayaking dogma. And we can do this without complicated mathematics using concepts anyone can understand. This is particularly valuable in a coastal environment where the mechanics of paddling meets wave physics and smashes up against geology. It is this dynamic world we will illuminate by bringing science and kayaking together.

Applications of Science Kayaking

Physics, Math, Chemistry … sounds like hard work in school; not playing in a kayak. But navigation, wildlife experiences, or improving that forward stroke ... it’s all applied science. In this talk, I take the foundation established in my talk on “the science of kayaking” and apply it to different aspects of kayaking. I will select topics from navigation, biology, and paddling mechanics to match audience interests. It will be fun, and could change the way you look at paddling in a marine environment. Pre-requisite: a solid foundation in science or attendance at my talk “The science of kayaking”.

Tim Mattson is a kayak instructor and a scientist; with a Ph.D. in theoretical Chemistry for his work on quantum molecular scattering. Science is more than a career to Tim; it influences how he understands life, the universe and everything. He can’t look at a rainbow without thinking of total internal reflection off the back of the raindrops; or watch the tides change without considering wave velocities across ocean basins. Tim uses scientific principles in his on-water kayak instruction and in lectures to the general public. These “kayaking-science” lectures have been quite popular and are the basis for he is writing on kayaking science.

The Columbia River and its tributaries and sloughs provide a varied venue for all levels of paddling instruction. Protected inter-island passages open to the broad channel, which widens to 8 miles across some 15 miles downriver. Tides govern the direction of the river current and its strength. Summer afternoon wind is fairly reliable. An hour and a half west is the mouth of the Columbia, which is closed to freighter traffic on occasion due to its legendary roughness.
more detailed maps and charts