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About Discovery Sea Kayaks
Discovery Sea Kayaks is a small professional sea kayak touring and sales company based in the San Juan Islands of Washington State. We are dedicated to providing our clients with unique kayaking adventures of the highest quality with a personal touch. We take great pride in being a small company, the owners are avid sea kayakers who guide and teach kayaking, spending as much time on the water as possible. We believe this sets us apart from other organizations run by managers not paddlers.
Our Philosophy
Our goal at Discovery Sea Kayaks is to offer you a memorable kayaking adventure. We believe small group sizes, unique adventures, professional guides and quality equipment allow us to provide our guests with an exceptional kayaking experience.
Discovery Sea Kayaks features small groups. We believe intimate outings offer our guests a higher quality outdoor adventure. Small groups move more efficiently and produce less environmental impact. We limit our day trips to 6-8 guests and our multi-day adventures to 8 guests maximum. Discovery Sea Kayaks provides the most personalized kayaking experience in the Islands.
Unique Kayak Adventure Trips
Discovery Sea Kayaks offers a variety of unique and interesting trip itineraries, including:
- Westside Day Trips - westside day paddles and our unique sunset paddle in one of the best locations for spotting Orca whales, seals, bald eagles, porpoise and other wildlife on the wild side of San Juan Island
- Deluxe All-Inclusive Multi-day Kayak Adventure - 1st class all-inclusive adventure exploring the islands by sea kayak ( optional charter boat transportation to the more remote outer islands available)
- Guided Rental Adventure - for those with some experience with camping but little or no paddling experience or those on a budget. We provide all kayaking, safety and paddling gear and equipment plus a professional knowledgeable guide for your safety, local knowledge and trip leadership. You provide your own camping gear, outfitting, food and share with camp chores.
- Multi-day Instructional Trips and Lessons - for those who want to learn a lot more about sea kayaking. We offer these trips and classes in single performance British style kayaks. All classes taught by a trained kayak instructor, with wet-suits or dry suits provided. This is a hands on, get wet kind of class and loads of fun while you explore the San Juan Islands.
- Custom Designed Kayak Excursions - Our Specialty! What would you like to do? Custom size group? Special destination? Special needs? Call us with your request and we'll see if we can put together your trip.
Novice to experienced paddlers can enjoy any, or all, of the Discovery Sea Kayak offerings!
Chartered powerboats can transport Discovery Sea Kayaks multi-day kayak adventure groups to remote outer islands, where guests paddle in pristine wilderness environments, far removed from overcrowded campgrounds and overused routes.
Professional Guides
We believe the most important resource an adventure travel company can have is devoted and professional guides. All of our guides are experienced and passionate kayakers. We require that they have advanced kayak skills training from either the British Canoe Union (BCU) or American Canoe Association (ACA) as well as First Aid and CPR. This in addition to our own extensive in house training program. We believe this assures that our trips are led by only the most conscientious and professional guides. Please visit our guides page to learn more about our highly skilled and accomplished guides and leaders.
Safety
Rest assured that before stepping foot in a kayak, you will be given a thorough boat and safety orientation so you can relax while paddling and have fun!
Your safety is our priority. Our guests safety and comfort starts with our pre-trip planning. Because of our small group size, we can easily adapt to conditions and accommodate the needs of our guests. To ensure the highest safety standards, all Discovery Sea Kayak guides are seasoned professionals with First Aid, CPR and BCU training. The British Canoe Union (BCU) is recognized worldwide as one of the premier paddle skills and coaching organizations. Discovery Sea Kayak guides also undergo annual preseason training to insure rescue and First Aid skills are honed.
Quality gear and equipment
When it comes to equipment we believe our clients deserve nothing but the best. We outfit our clients with the same high quality kayaking gear and equipment used by our guides. Our kayak fleet is replaced every season. We use equipment from some of the most innovative companies in the outdoor industry:
- Boreal Designs, providing stable and easy to paddle kayaks
- Werner, makers of lightweight, high quality fiberglass paddles
- Seward Kayaks, providing stable high performance double kayaks
- The North Face quality 3 person tents (for 2 guests) and 2 person tents (for individuals)
- Kelty and The North Face spacious, warm and comfortable sleeping bags
- Pacific Outdoor Equipment for all dry bags, self-inflating foam sleeping pads and camping accessories
- Gul wet suits, booties and gloves
- Stohlquest & MTI life vests
