About

The Outdoor Adventures family is an experienced group of guides, instructors, support staff, and interns

Your Adventure Starts Now!

In addition to our work in the outdoor industry, many of us are also nurses, teachers, police officers, firefighters, contractors, students, and parents.

The Corson family and their extraordinary team will help you plan an adventure to remember. Learn more about us.

Join the team! Guide training programs for rafting and sea kayak instructors are available year-round. We offer guide tryouts each spring for seasoned and aspiring sea kayak instructors, raft guides, river kayaking instructors, and adventure support positions. Complete our job & intern application and send us an email with any questions.

The OA Difference

Outdoor Adventure’s experience…  our core staff has been guiding people on mountains, rivers and coastlines since 1976 and outfitting in the Northwest since 1985. Our vision continues… we exist to lead people on wild and scenic adventures that can change the way they see the World.

  • Each year 6 of our core river staff (C.S.) each spend approximately 259 days outfitting trips, guiding or instructing.  The majority of these days are spent in Class IV-V whitewater.
  • Our 6 Sea Kayak core guides (C.S.) each spent more than 180 days outfitting the San Juan Islands, Hawaiian Islands or West Coast trips, adventures and instruction .
  • The other 4 core guides (C.S.) each spent over 150 days outfitting trips or instruction on lakes, rivers and trails throughout the Northwest.  This does not include the days our other 30 plus trained guides spend assisting on these trips.

The Difference is…. our 14 Core Staff Guides/Instructors spent more time outfitting, guiding and instructing than any other adventure company in the Northwest.  We are proven by our T.O.W. (time on the water) and our T.O.T. (Time on the Trail)

Outdoor Adventure’s dedicated staff continue to bring incomparable passion and integrity to every adventure for over 25 years.  We are a family, an experienced team of outdoor adventurers.  We spend 365 days a years working together.  Our 10 member Leadership Team has worked together season after season for the last 12 years, shaping the vision and direction of O.A. We support and enforce a no drug policy with our guides and instructors.  All of our Core Staff receive yearly background checks.

Outdoor Adventures has an unprecedented support team. On every O.A. outing there are a number of trained guides/staff coordinating logistics behind and through each adventure/class. Their focus is to assure that safety and an enjoyable experience will be the result of their synergistic work with our lead guides and instructors. Our core staff often rotate through each position so that all phase of expeditions have the unique O.A touch. Each year our guides prepare over 1250 gourmet meals in adventure locations and over 3000 on our Skykomish River adventures. All of our meal ingredients are purchased from local growers and suppliers. We prepare our gourmet vegetarian meals each day of our adventure season.

Outdoor Adventures continues to set the pace on outdoor safety. Our river team rescues more rafters each year from competitor companies than any other rafting company. Other adventure companies continue to look to O.A. to provide our trained and experienced safety crew to lead daily kayak rescue support. O.A. Core staff hold certifications in American Canoe Association, Rescue 3 International, ASHI, Wilderness Medical Institute, Leave No Trace, and the Wilderness Kayak Institute.

Youth is at the heart of where we started and is the strength of O.A. Our team of Guides and Instructors are the youngest, strongest team in the Northwest. Our team of certified instructor’s average age is 28.

Why Choose Outdoor Adventures?

Outdoor Adventure Center is THE PLACE to get hooked up and connected to the latest adventure information. Our desire is to inform, connect, and equip you with sea kayaking, rafting, whitewater kayaking, hiking, climbing, and snowboarding in and around the Northwest.

Outdoor Adventures Mission Statement

“We exist to provide trainings, environments, experiences, and resources that lead people especially youth in exploring the outdoors.”

About ACA Pro School

As an American Canoe Association (ACA) Pro School we are able to offer the quality instruction and certification courses that you are looking for. We are one of only a handful of organizations in the world with ACA Pro School status and we are eager to serve you; whether you are looking for the best in safe and effective paddling instruction, or a certification of your kayaking skills.

OUR GREATEST ASSET IS THE DEPTH OF OUR ORGANIZATION:

Outdoor Adventures, “OA,” started out as a sea kayaking outfitter in 1985 which serviced the San Juan Islands and the Seattle water front. Now, Outdoor Adventures not only outfits one to twenty-one day expeditions in the San Juan Islands, but also services kayaking around the Kirkland waterfront, the Washington Water Trails, the Hawaiian coasts, and Alaska’s inlets. New for 2005 is Outdoor Adventures’ partnership with Tofino Expeditions which has given Outdoor Adventure regulars the ability to paddle out of states in both Vancouver, BC & Baja, Mexico.

Outdoor Adventures has experience! For over 25 years the core staff of the Outdoor Adventures team has guided adventurers on wild, exciting, and scenic trips to destinations around the world.

 

Outdoor Adventures is well versed! Sea kayaking may be our specialization, but OA guides have always been cross trained instructors. American Canoe Association (ACA) open ocean, adaptive, flat water, & whitewater kayak instructors, Wilderness Kayak institute sea kayak guides, Orion Expedition and Wave Trek river raft guides, Reachout Expedition rock climbing technicians & high/low ropes course leaders, experienced snowboard instructors, seasoned mountain bike guides, first aid & CPR trainers, Rescue 3 swift water rescue technicians, avid backcountry leaders, certified divers, life long surfers, marine biologists, history buffs and naturalists. Our staff’s wide knowledge base and years of experience, compounded by certifications in specialty skills, safety practices and medical trainings, gives us the ability to outfit expeditions in almost all wilderness conditions and areas of interest.
Outdoor Adventures is focused on safe & solid instruction! The passion, experience, and diversity of our staff provides a dynamic and rich safety based instruction that make up every class, clinic, tour or expedition that Outdoor Adventures offers. Our comprehensive cross training in various fields allows our instructors to deliver the most current methods, styles and practices while at the same time mixing what is tried and true. Outdoor Adventures offers classes in beginning, intermediate, and advanced sea kayaking, whitewater kayaking, snowboarding, & mountain biking as well as single day trips or multi-day expeditions. We offer sea kayaking, white water rafting & kayaking, mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking, snowboarding, surfing, and diving.
Outdoor Adventures is active in our community! OA has and is very active in the Eastside’s at risk youth. Outdoor Adventures staff led by Bill Corson has helped in the building of the tagging walls to help the youth express its self legally. OA has helped in the formation of teen centers, teen feeds for the Eastside homeless youth and has created numerous programs for the at-risk youth like soccer programs and after school programs. All of Outdoor Adventures staff are involved in these activities, donating their time and efforts toward the alternatives that outdoors has to offer: we are building up the next generation of adventurers.

Outdoor Adventures is a piece of a bigger puzzle! OA is Affiliated with the following organizations, clubs, and associations: Wave Trek, Tofino Expeditions (WKI), Orion Expeditions, Reachout Expeditions, Glacier Bay Expeditions, Outdoor Recreation Opportunities, Redmond, Kirkland, and Issaquah Parks & Recreation, American Canoe Association (ACA), Leave-No-Trace, Washington Water Trails Association (WWTA), Rescue 3 International, American Heart Association, Washington Kayak Club (WKC), Trade Association for professional paddlers (TAPP’s), Professional Paddle Sports PPA, and Cascadia Community College.Please feel free to email any questions to: info@outdooradventurecenter.com