Accessibility and Access Keys [0]
Claudia and Dirk Van Wijk have both been intricately involved with world-class and adventure sport. From a young age, both had those experiences with the help of their parents.
Years later, the Van Wijks find themselves in a similar situation. Daughter Stefani is a fourth-year guide with Black Feather Wilderness Adventures, and daughter Katrina is training for the 2012 Olympics in whitewater slalom kayaking.
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” says Claudia while relaxing at the business, OWL Rafting, that is owned by herself and husband Dirk.
“We are so lucky that our children have fallen in love with what we do as a living, from cross-country skiing to paddling. Both girls have fallen in love with Dirk’s and my passion.”
So many chapters of the couple’s history has been deeply connected to adventure on snow or water.
For example, Dirk was chief of course preparations for the 2010 Winter Olympics for nordic combined and cross-country skiing.
His own racing experiences include the 1979 world junior cross-country ski championships. Claudia was a 10-time national whitewater kayak champion. Also, at age 14 she and her dad (Hermann) became the first to kayak the rapids of the Ottawa River just north of where OWL rafting is located.
Fast forward to 2011, and Claudia is giving a tour of the OWL Rafting facilities for a visitor. She passes a series of their cabins that are each named after rapids on the Ottawa River where OWL Rafting rafts, canoes and kayaks do business every day of the summer. The cabins’ names include Coliseum, Roller Coaster, Push Button, Muskrat, and Black Chute.
Claudia planned to be a dentist. But life took her in another direction.
“It’s unique to be an athlete at a high level and shift their athletic career into their business career,” she says.
Their business also have a sense of continuity.
MKC, Canada’s first white water school for kayaks and canoes, is on the Madawaska River just south of Barry’s Bay.
OWL Rafting is located on 25 acres, just outside Foresters Falls, where it offers a variety of paddling, rafting, camping and culinary opportunities.
This year, OWL Rafting and MKC are celebrating their 30th and 40th anniversaries respectively.
The very beginning happened, innocently enough, shortly after Claudia’s dad attended the Toronto Sportsmen’s Show and met the Lamothe brothers from Calumette Island who were running a survival school. They bragged about the huge whitewater in their own backyard.
Soon after, the river became a training destination for MKC weekend sessions.
Claudia’s dad was Hermann Kerckhoff, who competed at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.
Claudia qualified for the family’s second Olympic berth, for the 1992 Games in Barcelona where she would have been gunning for a medal.
But by the time the ’92 Games came along, she had retired from racing. Along the way, Claudia and Dirk finished bachelor’s degrees in business from Ottawa universities.
The couple, which was married in 1985, had purchased the whitewater businesses (OWL and MKC) from Claudia’s parents (Christa and Hermann Kerckhoff), so it was time to take care of life after athletics. There was plenty to do, including the molding and modifying of OWL Rafting.
In the beginning, in the early 1980s, OWL was more a party destination for bus loads of Toronto-area residents. But they soon decided that wasn’t how the company would shine, and the move was started to focus on catering to families.
The focus became people coming to the river for the right reasons, as Claudia puts it, “for the nature, for the river, for the experience.”
And the move has paid off.
With this philosophy the Van Wijks have incorporated a sustainable, green policy that includes composting all food and excrement at OWL rafting, with the help of two large $20,000 bins that work in symphony with thousands of red-wiggler worms.
Visitors at OWL Rafting can also camp overnight while enjoying food prepared on site and the recreational options, among them disc golf, swimming and beach volleyball.
But the main draw remains, for most, what it long has been – the whitewater experience on the river whose water volume, velocity and waves rival those of the Colorado River, but with whitewater that is warmer and interspersed with quiet pools and sandy beaches.
Within a 90-minute driver, customers can also visit MKC, located on the Madawaska River between Bark Lake and Kamaniskeg Lake.
Kayaking and open canoe instruction is available for paddlers at MKC at all levels. Services include first-class cuisine in its post-and-beam chalet, a paddling equipment store, lodging, yoga sessions and massage therapy.
The two facilities also feature instructors from overseas and North America, including 2008 Olympian Sarah Boudens of Pembroke. This year’s instructors reign from such countries as Argentina, Australia, Germany and Norway.
The company’s legacy, hope Claudia and Dirk, is leaving the river settings unmarked and appreciated by educated clientele and getting more bums in boats.
A landmark service is the pontoon boat ride back to OWL, following the river rafting experience, while enjoying a meal and conversation.
Activities during this year’s anniversary celebrations include a July 1-3 customer appreciation weekend and Aug. 13-14 reunion with many of its more than 1,000 staff members over the years.
For details, visit the website of www.owl-mkc.ca