Hello!
Hello, I’m James, owner of Ontario Sea Kayak Centre. I was originally draw to kayaking for the remote, pristine and awe-inspiring places a kayak could take me. I wanted to spend my life kayaking and sharing a joy of exploring wild places with others. OSKC was founded in 2008, and has been serving the Canadian kayaking community every since. I have been working as an outdoor leader and guide for over 20 years and regularly guide and instruct kayaking skills and instructor courses all over Canada. I am also a polar certified guide and lead kayaking groups and work as an expedition leader in the Arctic and Antarctic. As a personal pilgrimage to one of the birthplaces of kayaking, in 2014 I went to Greenland to compete in the Greenland national kayaking championships, and won a gold medal. I love to share the skills of the Inuit and have taught many hundreds of people to roll. You can find out more about my trip here. Paddlers Pilgrimage.
Ontario’s home for sea kayak training
Ontario Sea Kayak Centre is one of Canada’s leading sea kayak schools with instructors who are as passionate as we are. What sets us apart is the number of high-level instructors we have in our team. Our team teaches in a judgment-free inclusive and fun manner. We have the most experienced Instructor team in Ontario which is why we are the best school to progress with. We teach Paddle Canada skills courses and have a course that is right for paddlers of all experience levels. During the summer months, we host Paddle Canada kayak skills courses in multiple Ontario locations and offer guided sea kayaking adventures in our Province, Nationally, and Internationally. In September we run Canada’s longest-running traditional paddling event, Ontario Greenland Camp combined with our social Georgian Bay kayaking festival Paddlepalooza.
Our adventures
OSKC has expert instructors as well as certified and experienced wilderness guides. Our speciality is training paddlers and then taking them to some of the world’s most remote and beautiful locations to explore by kayak.
Over the years we have continued to expand our trip offerings beyond our Great Lakes and we now offer trips across Canada from the East Coast to the West Coast, to our pristine Northern waters. Internationally, we travel to explore the culture, mountains, and ocean waters of some World-class paddling destinations. We are certified, skilled and passionate guides who love nothing more than sharing the most breathtaking paddling trips we know of with our guests.
We acknowledge that Georgian Bay is situated on the traditional territories of the Anishinaabe First Nations, including the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Pottawatomi peoples, as well as the Huron-Wendat and Haudenosaunee Confederacy. These lands have been a site of human activity for over 10,000 years, and continue to be home to many Indigenous communities who have a deep connection to this land, water, and all living beings.
We recognize the ongoing importance of Indigenous knowledge, culture, and history, and the ongoing impacts of colonialism and systemic oppression on Indigenous peoples. We commit to learning from and supporting the efforts of Indigenous communities toward healing, reconciliation, and self-determination.
We acknowledge that kayaking was founded as the traditional skill of survival of the indigenous cultures in the high Arctic. We honour this heritage by teaching skills with contemporary and traditional paddles. We also acknowledge that the locations we teach and guide kayaking are the traditional territories of multiple indigenous groups.
