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Dirk, Claudia, Stefani and Katrina Van Wijk -- Owners

About Your Hosts. . .

Paddling whitewater has deep roots in our family.

My parents, Hermann and Christa Kerckhoff had the incredible foresight to start both; Madawaska Kanu Centre in Barry’s Bay – Canada’s first whitewater school for kayaks and canoes in 1972, as well as OWL Rafting on the Ottawa River in 1981. This is how I grew up, paddling rivers across North America and falling in love with the rush and tumble of wild currents.

My parents, immigrated in the late ‘50’s to Canada from northern Germany. I heard stories of my father and his sister paddling the whole length of the Rhine River in their teens. But, it wasn’t until arriving in Canada…in Toronto, that my mothers best friend, at Honeywell where she worked as an accountant, asked her to join a kayaking river trip with the Ontario Voyageurs Kayak Club (OVKC) that weekend. This changed the path for my parents, and river trips became a weekend routine for the entire family – I have two other sisters – we all piled into the VW micro-bus for distant river destinations - sometimes competitions, sometimes exotic river trips, like the first whitewater kayak descent of the Grand Canyon in ’68 and then to the World Championships in Italy, and finally to Munich in ’72 where my father represented Canada at the first Olympic Games that included whitewater kayak slalom.

It was competing on the Rouge River in Quebec, 1969 that sparked the dream of starting a whitewater paddling school. Both parents, my mother Christa in the Women’s category and my father, Hermann in Men’s had just won the Canadian Championships. They felt they should do something with this title – the idea of getting more people into the sport through creating a paddling school immerged. Little did they know, that Madawaska Kanu Centre would become the first whitewater paddling school in the World, three years later.

The middle section of the Madawaska River was the chosen spot after much research for its ability to have ‘guaranteed’ water all summer long – due to an amazing co-operative arrangement with Ontario Hydro, now OPG for daily water releases from the upstream, Bark Lake Dam for the perfect set of learning rapids on the middle Madawaska River. An A-frame Chalet with cedar siding from the BC forests was erected…and if the idea of a paddling school didn’t take – we would have a cozy family cottage, we were told. Friends, my parents made on the ‘international racing circuit’, world champions from Europe, came to MKC to teach and help build the present-day week-long program. This is still the most popular course at MKC as a week allows enough time for new skills to be mastered. And the staff still boast an international staff, providing a unique atmosphere to MKC. Not much has changed from these early days, except that open canoes now represent 50% of MKC’s clientele and boat designs have allowed a quicker learning curve, as well as nixing the need for an on-site repair shop. J

New, in recent years is the addition of sea kayak instruction on Bark Lake, the large body of water that feeds the Madawaska River and boasts an abundance of undiscovered nooks, beaches and wilderness – ideal for learning this booming new activity.

It was thanks to the neighbouring booth at the Toronto Sportsman Show, that lead us to the wonders of the Ottawa River….the Lamothe Brothers from Calumet Is, Quebec mentioned that ‘big’ whitewater was found in their backyard. Our whole family headed up to the Ottawa Valley in the spring of 1974. I was 14, and already Canadian Women’s champion, a title I held for 10 years – full of confidence – to paddle the hidden-from-anyones-view rapids with my father. My mother, with my newly born sister Ina in her arms and 11 year old sister Annette, chose to walk-in to watch us ‘half-way’ down the run. They panicked after hours of waiting, and never saw us. We, it turned out had paddled the Main Channel of the Ottawa’s Rocher Fondu rapids, and my mother had hiked in to Garvin’s waterfall on the Middle Channel. At day’s end, we did meet up – elated beyond explanation, for having ‘discovered’ a whitewater paradise !

For the next 5 years we brought our advanced MKC students to paddle the Ottawa on Friday’s river trip. After securing land at the top of the rapids, a place we continue to offer as free river access - The Put-in, and after some thought, my parents decided to expand our operations to the Ottawa River and start OWL Rafting – acronym for Ottawa Whitewater Leaders.

Rafting has been a part of our offering from the beginning - the same year the school started, 1972, we ran rafting trips down the Madawaska River. Rafting is the greatest way to enjoy the thrill of whitewater when you don’t possess the skill set to paddle it on your own. It takes years to become a proficient whitewater paddler…and rafting provides a great ‘natural’ roller coaster adventure activity that brings anyone out into the wild – no previous experience necessary, because your experienced raft guide is in control of your boat. And wild the Ottawa river is !

It didn’t take long for rafting to take off on the Ottawa River. The river trip compares is volume and magnitude to the Grand Canyon, yet can be enjoyed in a day trip.

Dirk Van Wijk, my boyfriend at the time, now husband for over 25 years, started OWL Rafting for my parents in 1981. Dirk’s vast canoe-tripping experience, his hands-on rafting know-how from guiding previous Nahanni River trips as well as amazing people skills has helped build OWL into the wonderful experience it is today.

On a side-note: Interesting ‘destiny’ saw Dirk as a youngster paddle this river section of the Ottawa seated in the middle of a canoe with his parents paddling re-tracing the fur-trade routes of the French Canadian Voyageurs with historian Eric Morse back in the 1960’s. Twenty years later he helps thousands of others discover the beauty of this incredible piece of whitewater.

As in many things in our lives…he did beat me too it !

Something we are more thrilled about than all our experiences is that our daughters have also fallen in love with the sport of whitewater.

Katrina, has three Canadian Slalom medals to her name…third generation of women in our family to gain this honour. She has her own website: www.katrinavanwijk.ca and is training hard to make the 2012 Olympic Team.

Stefani, celebrated her 17^th birthday on the banks of the Nahanni River, guiding canoe groups for her summer job ! Two more trips are on this summers agenda through Blackfeather Wilderness Trips.

Both inspire others to pick up this amazing sport, called whitewater !

Hope you too are caught up by it’s addictive inspiration….come join us on the river this summer !

Claudia Kerckhoff-Van Wijk

….a whitewater tradition !

Sidebar:

XC Skiing is our winter sport…and we have become proud owners of the Nakkertok Ski Club in the Ottawa area in recent years. Dirk’s knowledge gained from racing on Canada’s National Team, as well as building a world-class ski trails at our Club had VANOC request Dirk to lead the Olympic Grooming Crew for all XC Ski event at the 2010 Games in Whistler, BC. If keen to read more about this fantastic journey, check out our blog: www.claudiavancouver2010.blogspot.ca

If you ever watch whitewater kayaking on TV during the past four Olympic Games…then you’ve seen and definitely heard my voice, as CBC commentator - whitewater slalom analyst CBC Sports.

Catch our very own Katrina Van Wijk, one of many athletes highlighted by the Ottawa Riverkeppers and Five2Nine productions.

Five2Nine Productions - Ottawa Riverkeeper - Ottawa River Summit from Five2Nine Productions on Vimeo.