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City Women Spring 2002

Competitive Spirit-Champion Kayaker
-- Claudia Van Wijk navigates success on and off the water --

When she was 13, Claudia Kerckhoff became the Canadian slalom Champion in the 1974 whitewater kayaking competitions, a title she held for an astounding 10 years. She added Canadian Downriver Champion, North American Champion, Pan-American Champion (second place) to her collection along the way, and placed from third to twelfth in the World Whitewater Championships between 1979 and 1983. From 1971 to 1975, Claudia was part of the Ontario Junior Team in cross-country skiing, winning bronze, silver and gold in the Canadian Ski Marathon from 1974 to 1976. And, she won the 50-km Classic at Gatineau Park’s Keskinada Loppet ski race from 1997 to 1999 and the 25-km race in 2000.

Claudia’s score sheet also includes the success of OWL Rafting on the Ottawa River and the Madawaska Kanu Centre (MKC) near Barry’s Bay, both of which she co-owns with business partner and husband Dirk Van Wijk. While Dirks operates OWL, Claudia manages MKC, Canada’s first whitewater kayaking school, which her parents opened in 1972.

She’s the proud mother of two girls, Katrina (11) and Stefani (9), who also show interest and capability in their parents’ chosen sports. About her daughters, she says, “I had a lot of one-on-one with my parents, so now my big goal is to have time with my kids.”

On the surface, it seems surprising that one person can achieve so much, juggling countless professional, recreational and parental balls in the air. However, after hearing her talk about her upbringing and personal drive, it’s hardly surprising that Claudia – the eldest of three girls – should be such a competitive achiever.

As we chat on MKC’s cedar deck on a sun-drenched day, I realize that Claudia’s spare physique echoes her keenly focused mind. A no-nonsense, closely cropped hairdo is undoubtedly eminently practical for her chosen sport and lifestyle, yet it also attractively frames her athletic good looks.

By her own admission, Claudia was raised like the son her parents, Christa and Hermann Kerckhoff, never had, and “missed all that girly giggly stuff”. In her eyes, she says, “I was his hope.”

“This gave me incredible self-confidence as a person, female or male. I have never had that problem of ‘Oh, I’m a female, I can’t do that’ in my life. I’ve grown up being equal…in a very male-dominated activity.”

Her parents did not merely encourage self-confidence. They fostered a keen ense of adventure and gumption – and instilled in their passion for whitewater kayaking. Christa and Hermann caught the kayaking bug in the early 1960s in Toronto. Racing on the Credit River evidently inspired her folks.

“They got into competition Fiercely,” Claudia emphasizes. ‘The culmination of their efforts was in 1969 when they both won the Canadian Whitewater Championships. My mum won the women’s title and my dad the men’s. Standing on the podium together was thrilling, and they said to one another, “There are not many people who do this sport; let’s start a school.”

And they did. After countless “kitchen table” brainstorming sessions, in 1969 the Kerckhoff’s purchased 10 acres adjacent to the Madawaska River and started the world’s first kayaking school. Consummately practical, the first MKC school building (which still exist as the main part of the lodge) was designed so that if the idea didn’t fly, it could be the family cottage.

They needn’t have fretted.

During 1972, their first year, they had 25 students; the next year, 100. “it really grew exponentially,” recalls their daughter happily.

Today, Claudia welcomes more then a 1000 men, women and children to MKC every summer, and almost half the students are female.

“Now if you look, it’s 50 percent females who take courses in kayaking. That’s not how it was in early years. If there was 10 percent female participation, that would have been normal and you were treated like, “Oh, you’re a girl, you don’t have to do this,’ Kind of attitude.”

According to Claudia, it’s not surprising that kayaking is growing in popularity among women. “Even though overall the men paddle faster and do the faster race results, kayaking is such a technical sport! And that’s where we women are equals. And, I almost say we’re better because we cannot rely on our strength.” It’s in the power of the mind that women do well, she asserts. The female attention to detail, for which women are noted, really comes into play in whitewater kayaking.

Claudia notes, “We women have to rely on our other strength, which is analyzing the technique. We can’t fight the water. We are quicker, as females, to understand this fact.”

And because of societal changes, where by fathers and partners don’t mind looking after the children for a weekend or even a few days mid-week, MKC is getting increasing number of women who are mothers. Claudia feels that this is a huge, notable shift and exciting one to be celebrated, for women are becoming more equal players in our society. As well, men want to help at home perhaps eager to embrace parenting on their own for a weekend and let mum kick back and enjoy herself through challenging outdoor fun.

During our interview, a crowd of clients men and women who resemble CEOs through to wired kids who look thrilled to bits with their morning kayak lessons – chow down on chili and freshly baked delights. While we chat, Claudia looks up, grins at a youngster, calls out a friendly ‘Hey there, how’d it go this morning?” to a guest. I’m impressed: she calls everyone by name.

Frankly, this consummate athlete-cum-businesswomen and mother is charming, friendly, focused and not a little inspirational.

Not a bad mentor, I muse, for her staff whose numbers are as close to 50 percent mail, 50 percent female as she can get. Claudia takes great pains to give equal employment opportunities. She believes it encourages best performance in either gender and, importantly, female staff members provide healthy professional and outdoorsy role models for both male and female clients.

One staff person, Leslie Dickson, has returned to OWL and MKC for four consecutive years. She hopes summer 2002 will be her fifth. “I would really like to have one more summer fun-filed summer on the beautiful Ottawa and Madawaska Rivers before I start looking for work related to my biology and environmental studies,” she says.

What inspire Leslie to return? Partly, it is the variety of skill-building jobs she can master, from office administration and computer work to work on the rivers as raft guide and kayak instructor. The jobs flow fluidly from OWL Rafting to MKC and back again, providing variety which, as we all understand, is the cornerstone spice of our lives.

I ask Leslie whether Claudia has helped her personally. “Yes, she was a big help to me my first season at MKC, taking breaks from work to paddle with me,” Leslie explains. In fact, Claudia’s unquenchable spirit and support represent the main reason Leslie wants to return.

“She really pushed me to become the kayaker I am today. Even two years ago, I wasn’t really interested in kayaking any longer (it kind of scared me), but she pushed me and now I am very confident. If it wasn’t for Claudia and MKC and OWL, I can’t imagine what I would be doing – possibly working at a much less enjoyable job. I’ve also learned a lot from her about responsibility and running a company.”

Referring to that other important skill of teambuilding, Leslie adds a final thoughtful comment: “Claudia organizes different events every summer where staff get together and do something. Usually they are active and outdoors events, like hiking, rafting, kayaking or canoeing, and they usually involve a good meal and a few bottles of wine after!”

But hang on just a moment: inspiring others, managing her business, being a wife, mother…. Surely all of these demands upon Claudia exert a toll?

They do. But apparently the key to her sense of well being is physical conditioning, which in turn tunes her mind and spirit as well as her body. While listening to her detail her activities, however, Claudia’s comment that ‘being active and being in good shape is really important to Dirk and me’ rings with understatement.

Why? Because after Claudia and Dirk shut down their, seasonal businesses on the Madawaska and Ottawa River in September, they look forward to their off-season stretching from mid-September through April. Sure, there are significant tasks to be accomplished such as program analysis year-end accounting and marketing. But far more significantly, the ‘off-season’ allows time for them to refresh themselves and celebrate life together as a family without anticipating or catering to the daily demands of clients.

This is when Claudia and Dirk take their children on their annual 10-day to tow week holiday somewhere in the great outdoors. Although in their pre-kid years the couple kayaked such offshore destination as Costa Rica, nowadays they remain in Canada.

“Normally we go on a family outdoors holiday. We pop the kids out of school and off. Georgian Bay is our favorite destination; it’s empty that time of the year, so simple. This year we canoed the north shore of Manitoulin Island.”

After this family time, which sees Katrina and Sefani actively joining their parents canoeing, biking or participating in a similar sport, they return to their home on First Avenue, in the Glebe, overlooking Patterson Creek. A nanny steps in to look after the the children while Dirk and Claudia depart for their annual adult-only trip, always with friends, where they re-energize as a couple. This October saw them biking in Denver, Colorado to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Then the entire family heads out again end-November.

“For the last 3 years we’ve gone to Silver Star Resort in Vernon, BC, for early snow-on-glacier skiing. We take our kids out of school with eight other families and bring huge knapsacks full of homework, so part of our day is doing school in the resort. But Dirk and I love skiing: it keeps us fit, and I’m excited personally because I’m still getting better every year. It’s just an amazing feeling to go ‘Oh! I knocked a few minutes off my time compared to last year!”

They return from this family trip with friends refreshed, recharged and in shape for their winter passion, cross-country ski racing.

Claudia hired a coach, a Slovakian trainer who not only encourages their daughters to stay physically fit through a series of fun exercises and games, bit also designed a fitness schedule for her and Dirk. This sees them exercising in Gatineau Park, for example, where they can be seen roller blading along the parkways until the snow flies.

And so times passes and before she knows it, the summer season is upon then once again.

But what about opportunities for reflection and repose? Surely the contemplative part of her soul needs nurturing too, not just the active mind and body?

Claudia is quick to say that the sheer seasonality of her business is refreshingly restorative. As summer winds down MKC and OWL close, the family looks forward to their holidays and winter sport season. As winter fades to spring and summer, adrenaline pumps, for all are now eagerly anticipating that start of familiar as well as new classes – or events.

Case in point is summer 2002, where on July 6 and 7, MKC is hosting the Canadian Whitewater Championships. Because the Madawaska is challenging but not dangerous river and because there are so many up-and-coming young kayakers registered to compete this year, Claudia was asked if MKC could offer their site for the competitions. She eagerly agreed – and voila, yet another project zings onto her radar!

But I ask again: what does she personally do to restore her soul, calm her mind? Claudia pauses, tilts her head to one side and smiles a warm, almost secretive smile. “I paint!” she announces.

Her choice is water colour, a technically demanding technique that she obviously enjoys thoroughly. “I take my paints everywhere with me on holidays,” she adds. Her framed works are hung throughout her spacious home, well illustrating this diversely talented women’s capabilities in the field of art too. “I love swamps!” she blurts out, adding wistfully. “Someday I want to do black and white photographs of swamps. A series.”

Challenges are always ahead for us all, and Claudia is no exception. Whether her goal is to delve back into photography or buy a little piece of wilderness heaven beside a tumbling stretch of whitewater, somewhere far removed from her world of MKC and OWL, no one who knows her will be surprised about whatever she attempts.

“My only fear is failure,” she confesses. Perhaps this is so, but “failure” is a word that one wouldn’t associate with this women, who truly is a champion Canadian, a legend in her own time.

Considering Claudia, I think, is to reflect upon a crystal, whose shape has multiple, clear and brilliant facets. And she herself, at 40-something, is becoming more reflective. She is now conscious of time passing, of not having the energy she once had.

“I’ve achieved all my goals,” she adds. “And I’m not sure what my next one will be.”

Whatever it is – for there definitely will be one (or more) to tempts her – it’s bound to be a success. Claudia’s competitive spirit wouldn’t allow any other option.