A SOF rests among the driftwood on San Juan Island

Explore and Push Your Boundaries with Style

Together let’s explore the pristine coastlines of the great Pacific Northwest by skin-on-frame kayak! Our guided trips are unique, as we travel in ultra-silent handcrafted kayaks and paddle alongside orca whales, seals, porpoises, sea otters, and bald eagles!

I was lucky enough to go on a 6 day kayak trip in the San Juan islands with Seawolf, Kiliii and his handmade boats a few years ago. I’m forever grateful to Kiliii and his boats for this life-changing experience! -Marya, 2010

An eagle from San Juan Island, 2006

A black bear from the north coast of Vancouver Island, 2009

We will live in splendor, camping along the most beautiful beaches in the world. We will also push the boundaries and have some excitement and learning as well. Our guides are trained naturalist and wilderness survival experts. You will gather wild mustards and greens, fresh clams and oysters right off the rocks, and even catch amazing fish like lingcod offshore!

We packed our boats and set out on our 11 day voyage [along Vancouver Island's North Coast]. When we launched, our boats sailed straight as our Greenland style paddles cut through the water… We paddled for hours… [and late in the day] the waves grew… But our boats were sturdy and balanced, and each paddle stroke moved the boats through quickly.

After that first day it was easy sailing. The sun was out and every day we caught a dozen fish using hand-lines with lures. We moved from island to island relaxing on the beaches… Now, whenever I take my boat out on the water I always remember that first trip we paddled. Out in the open ocean, my kayak and I were one. -Sam, 2009

Kayak Adventures and Learning

We want to have a great time. We want to be safe. We want to push our boundaries but not fall off a precipice. Seawolf is flexible in how we create our kayak adventures, balancing the need to push our boundaries with what we’re each comfortable with. We tailor our trips, even pre-scheduled ones, to everyone’s abilities and goals. This may mean going out farther past the bay or reducing the daily mileage on our voyages. Kayaking is a personal adventure!

A bounty of seafood available by kayak

Local crabs are a lot of fun to catch!

Make your Kayak Adventures Sustainable

It’s even hard to compare tropical beaches to the untouched beauty and vastness of areas like Vancouver Island’s West Coast. Let’s keep them beautiful, and keep the rest of our world green enough to hand to our children without being embarrassed! Our expeditions are planned to be as sustainable as the First Peoples who inhabited the region. Our boats are handcrafted of local cedar, with no terrible compounds like PVC. We harvest from the ocean in a respectful and caretaker manner. Most of our food is local from the Pacific Northwest!

Top of the Line Equipment

Our equipment is never second-rate. You paddle the same top-of-the-line kayaks that our guides do, use the same equipment and safety gear. Our kayak fleet is composed of 17′ Stellar Sea Kayaks, built for the purpose of touring on the ocean efficiently, with great stability and ease, even in the wind. We use our handmade Greenland style paddles, which put less strain on your shoulders and arms over long distances. We also supply all the major camping necessities, and give you the chance to focus on the joys of paddling and the challenges of expeditioning.

The Skills to Keep Us Safe and Happy

We have been offering kayak expeditions in remote regions for four years now, and have a perfect record of safety and happy paddlers! Our guides are trained with safety in mind and have spent a great deal of time developing their skills in rough waters specifically in skin-on-frame kayaks. While experience alone can be helpful, our emphasis is on well-trained, efficient, and highly-skilled guides rather than simply ones with decades of experience on flatwater. The ocean is an amazing place, but to spend time on it requires an in-depth knowledge of tides, currents, and winds. You too will learn these skills as we expedition.

That was nothing short of an incredible experience for me. I appreciated your guiding hand, your skills, and the opportunity to paddle your amazing boats.  You have natural gifts, and I’m glad you’ve found a path that lets you exploit them for your personal growth, and share them with others.

I thought you did a wonderful job handling men in their middle age — this is not always the easiest demographic to deal with.  We think we know what we are doing at this point in our lives, and don’t always take advice gracefully.  But you dispensed your knowledge and instructions with an even, unbiased, and gentle hand, and let us discover for ourselves that you indeed knew much more than we did. -Ben, 2010

Harlequin Sea Ducks on Vancouver Island

Indian Paintbrush Flowers, Vancouver Island

Local raccoon kits from San Juan Island

An oystercatcher on the rocks from the San Juans

Birdwatchers, Nature-Lovers and Photographers Rejoice

Our guides are more than just paddlers. They join us because our goal is to learn to see the world from native eyes, and that includes knowing the ecology and wildlife of the Northwest Coast. We often spend our time slowly sneaking up on sea otters in the fog, watching puffins or murres nesting, or tracking wolves on the beaches! You will have the opportunity to get closer to most wildlife than you have ever been by kayak. Indeed, in our experience many marine mammals such as seals, orcas and porpoises will approach our skin-on-frame kayaks curiously and swim with us for quite a while. Those are the experiences that, in my humble opinion, make a life well-lived.

Campfires and good food make up most of our kayak-borne evenings

Love Food? We do too!

There are few things as satisfying as making sushi on the beach from fish you have just caught, seasoned with wild greens like the beach mustard we call ‘wild wasabi’. Our guides put a lot of effort into planning amazing meals for us each day, from Thai curries and bacon-wrapped oysters to fresh seaweed salads. We also give you paddlers a chance to cook one night of the expedition if you like, though be prepared as the competition can really heat up!

A sunset over Turn Island, San Juans

More than just a regular kayak outfitter

At Seawolf Kayak, we want our expeditions to touch our souls deeply. As kayakers, we are much more than just visitors to the great outdoors. Like the loon and the harbor seal, we are a part of the natural world.

An orca comes up to swim next to my kayak off San Juan Island