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We offer two different camps for kids all summer long: Kayak Camps and EcoSplash Camps

Our kids camps are more than just kayaking.  They’re about socializing with other kids, learning to look out for your fellow river mates, learning river rescue skills, and enjoying the simple things in life like swimming on the river and exploring the ecosystems surrounding the rivers here in western North Carolina.  We believe- and the studies support,  the idea that childrens’ happiness can be derived from experiences rather than material possessions.

Kids Kayak Camps

Our annual kayak camps are for kids who want to focus on kayaking.  These multi-day camps give children the opportunity to immerse themselves in whitewater kayaking. They are all about learning and improving river skills under the guidance of our instructors and fellow young people.   All camp sessions are day camps. We look for you to have your kids at our shop at 9AM. And be there to pick them up at 4PM.  Bonus: It’s the opportunity for you to indulge in some Adult Free time!  Take a little time for yourself to kayak, bike, hike,  shop, spa or just taking some time to explore our beautiful part of western North Carolina.  Here are dates for our summer kids camps.

EcoSplash Camps

EcoSplash Camp is for kids who love getting wet and are excited to explore nature.   EcoSplash camp is about collaborative playtime, each day broken into two parts. Part One is river time. For river time, kayaks, duckys or rafts are all options, providing the opportunity for young friends to share time together on the river –using rafts, duckys and kayaks. The second half of the day will be for exploring the local eco-systems with snorkels in the river, and hikes looking for medical plants and edibles.    We have teamed up with Mainspring Conservation Trust for the youth environmental education segment of our EcoSplash Camps. to encourage hands-on educational activities that allow kids to experience their natural surroundings in a way they wouldn’t be able to inside a classroom. Check out our EcoSplash Camp Dates

The goal of our EcoSPlash camps is to help young people appreciate collaborative playtime more than toys or electronic gadgets.  Following the studies of child psychologists like Dr. Margot Sunderland, who has written extensively about the belief that experiences like our Kayak and EcoSplash Camps boost long-term happiness and makes children smarter.  It is the combination of supporting children’s explorative urge and their capacity to play. 

Oh No! Kayak Camp Dates don’t work for your family?

We offer single and multi-day custom camp dates. We understand that summers are crazy busy. So if our scheduled camp dates don’t work, put a group of kids together (minimum of 4) and we will do a custom camp for the group. 

Families that Play Together

Sometimes adults want to be kids and play with their kids.  We offer private instruction year-round that is perfect for families looking to learn together. 

Have questions?  Give us a call and we will talk you through all the options

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• Allow your kids to love kayaking for themselves, not for you
• Avoid creating  “performance pressure”  – setting up your kids to get frustrated because they are not learning fast enough…which leads them to believe they cannot reach your expectations, misinterpreting your frustration because you are not communicating well enough.
• Never forget that paddling with kids is not the same as paddling with adults; you aspire to be a kid at heart, your kids are kids.

So what do professional river staff do when they in turn have kids?  That was the question we asked four years ago.  Identifying that we had a whole group of friends—all of whom were/still are professional river staff/guides/Olympic names, with kids about the same age (10+/- years old) who needed to get into boating, we offered to take over the “wet exit part” of kayaking offering a special Community Kids Camp.

Now in its third season, our Community Kids Camp includes a group of kids all of whom have parents with names that resonate through the annals of southeastern paddling.  Friendships among the parents have spilled over to friendships among the kids.  Reunions have rekindled friendships, Grand Canyon trips have happened, and Endless River Adventures started staff training at an early age!  The group gets together two times a summer to work with our staff (while the parents sneak away to paddle/bike/read a book for a couple of days).

The experience has been so positive that the community insisted we create a second age tier for the younger crew (the 6-years olds +/-).  Originally called the pee-wee group, we have renamed it to the Young Guns group.

This has been such a positive, gratifying experience for Endless River Adventures that when the Nantahala Race Club (NRC) offered the opportunity to co-sponsor the Nantahala Kids Club last year, we embraced it.  The Nantahala Kids Club has provided the opportunity to introduce kayaking to the local Swain County Community; river staff families are involved, as are families whom include parents who have never desired to paddle, but kids who do.  Meeting one afternoon a week for six weeks in the spring and fall, the Nantahala Kids Club has expanded to a two-tiered program: one being fun paddling that focuses on fun and social networking, the second feeding those same kids into more competitive-oriented training for slalom and freestyle.

Is our kids’ kayak program only for our close-knit community? Absolutely not! Our expanded paddling community reaches out to the entire boating community.  The annual 4^th of July Kids Week is one of the most popular kids weeks of the season, and has expanded to additional dates to accommodate those who cannot join us over the 4^th holiday.

The sound of little feet racing around at the outpost is heart-warming for us, as is the grateful look of our friends/parents, who return at the end of the day after a well-deserved break! We are inspired by the fact that many of the young paddlers we have introduced to paddling have returned to be valuable team members here at Endless River Adventures—to teach the next generation of young paddlers!

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I often go kayaking in Bryson City, North Carolina. There is a kayaking store called Endless River Adventures in Bryson City.  Endless River Adventures offers kayaking instruction, guided raft trips, unguided raft trips, and fly fishing instruction. They sell Wave Sport kayaks and kayaking gear. ERA is mostly run by a lady by the name of Juliet and also a guy named Ken.

This past summer, Juliet asked me to be a Junior Instructor for Endless River Adventures’ Beginner Kid’s Camp. I was so excited, but I also didn’t know what to expect and was a little nervous. Kid’s Camp is three days and, depending on the day, around seven hours long.

We met at ERA in the morning with Pelle and Ellie, the two ERA instructors who were helping with the camp. When all of the kids got there, they all got in one of the ERA vans and we loaded their kayaks in the trailer behind the van. We drove to the Finger Lake to teach everyone basic strokes and to get them used to their kayaks. When kayaking, you have your paddle and kayak, the gear that you usually wear is a helmet, a PFD, and a spray skirt. A spray skirt is something that you put around your waste and then put around the hole that you sit in in your kayak so water doesn’t pour in. What is good to know how to do in kayaking is how to roll. A roll is when you flip over in your kayak (intentionally or unintentionally) and you use your paddle to flip yourself back up so you do not have to swim, also known as the wet exit. What we were teaching/working on with the kids at the lake was how to swim. There is a loop on the front of your spray skirt that you need to pull if you flip and can’t roll up. Once you pull the loop, your spray skirt should pop off of your kayak and you need to push yourself out of your kayak.

One girl forgot how to pull her spray skirt when we were practicing the wet exit. I wasn’t in my kayak because the instructors were out of their kayaks helping the kids (who were in their kayaks) with the wet exit. The girl was struggling under water and I was the one keeping an eye on her and helping her at the moment. The other instructors were about fifteen feet away and didn’t notice what was going on. I swam over to her and she put her hands on my shoulder and got her head out of the water so she could breathe. I pulled her spray skirt for her and she swam out of her kayak.

Later that day we went on a small portion of a fairly simple river called the Town Tuck (Tuckaseegee). We ran only one rapid that day because the kids were mostly new to kayaking and were pretty tired from being at the lake for most of the day. I sat in an eddy (calm water behind a rock) in my kayak above the rapid so if anyone had trouble and flipped I could paddle down and help them. The instructors all went down and the last little boy to go down the rapid in his kayak got scared and paddled into the eddy next to me. “I don’t think I can do this.” He told me, his voice shaking with nervousness.

“You’ll be fine, I promise. You’re one hundred percent skilled enough for this rapid. Once you run it you’ll be so proud of yourself and you’ll realize how much fun it was. I swear, you’ll have an amazing time running it.” I told him.

I talked to him for a long time about what we were going to do in order to go down the rapid successfully. After a while of encouraging him, he finally followed me down the rapid and, like I had promised him, he did brilliantly. It felt really good to see him paddle into the eddy at the bottom of the rapid with a huge grin on his face. “I told you that you’d do really well! Aren’t you glad that you ran it?” I asked him.

“Yeah!” He replied, stilling smiling like crazy.

That day I learned so much about teaching and how good it felt after you helped somebody learn something. I made lots of friends and a couple of them I became really good friends with and I will most likely see them next year at the Kid’s Camp.

Throughout the next two days of the camp, I helped kids learn the technique of strokes, balance, rolling, and just having fun kayaking. It felt really good helping people learn. Not only did I teach them something, they taught me something: how to be a good instructor.

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The Nantahala Race Club (NRC) is committed to increasing youth participation in slalom, freestyle – and just kayaking in general.  This year will bring in a whole new set of programs for slalom, freestyle and recreational boaters to enjoy.

This spring will bring in the third season of the Nantahala Kids Club (NKC) sessions. NKC is a six-week program designed to promote paddle sports among young people in local Nantahala community. The aim is to provide an opportunity for participants to have fun and build friendships while challenging themselves and developing as athletes. Sponsored by the NRC, Endless River Adventures and NOC this program has really generated enthusiasm in the local community.

This year, the NRC will schedule a calendar of Youth Slalom Mini-Camps.  Open to the public, the mini-camps are intended to introduce young paddlers to the competitive aspects of paddling in a fun, supportive atmosphere. Designed for kids who already have a grasp on basic paddling mechanics, Mini-Camps focus on key river-running skills: balance, precision, and introductory slalom technique. While NRC’s Mini-Camps have been predominately slalom-focused in the past, the goal is to branch out to other disciplines in the coming months.

Not wanting to leave out the grown-ups, the NRC will also schedule a number of Friday evening sessions for folks interested in training in slalom. Stay tuned for more!!

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Well while y’all were styl’n the Upper Ocoee and the Gauley I got to spend an awesome weekend with Olivia on the Nanty as she took part in the slalom Clinic with the Nantahala Racing Club. This is a great clinic and is the second one she has taken. The NRC has really put together a great program and the kids really seem to enjoy it and get alot out of it.

My role was to act as safety and while they do the river run later in the day give a few pointers here and there.

The first part of the day started with Slalom and the kids were all looking good. Olivia was making the gates and working hard. After the gates session we took a break and then made our way up river and began a trip of catching eddies and doing ferries. Olivia was having a great day with everyone and especially her friend Jenna. Something in the back of head was telling me this would be the day that Olivia would get the opportunity to try for a combat roll.

After stylin some of the rapids Olivia and Jenna were doing a great job selling thier instructor Scott on the benefits of launching thier bodies off of the jumping rock into 50 degree water. Scott looked at me and I quickly came up with a test that if they attempted then they could jump off the rock. See I know what you all are thinking, the dad comes up with the challenge and this is where she flips and the dad lets out an evil laugh! Well that is not what happened – all the kids styled it and the girls were thrilled at the thought of jumping off the rock. So a few hundred jumps later the shivering and slightly blue girls got back in thier boats.

After working our way through the next rapid I lead all the kids into an eddy behind a big old rock. And that is where it happened; the beast (Olivia) peeled out and dropped her up stream edge and the river present the opportunity – I knew it and by the look on Olivia’s face she knew it too! Quickly I paddled to her and as soon as I reached her she was up and all smiles! Her smile was met with cheers and a paddle 5 from Dad.

Olivia beamed all the way down river and then today while surfing the river gods put her to the test again and just damn she pulled it off again!

So I look back over this summer and think about the missed runs on the Ocoee or the new rivers left unexplored and I really am glad I missed all that! No river run could ever be better than time on the river with your kid and watching her grow into a strong paddler and confident person!

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If you have not heard of young kayaker Zoe Ross yet–you may in the future.  She is a 15 year old girl from Athens,TN who fell in love with whitewater kayaking.  Her 9th grade year, Zoe had the opportunity to attend the New River Academy (NRA).  NRA is a co-ed secondary school, offering accredited college-preparatory courses, with an extra-curricular focus on whitewater kayaking.
What an opportunity to attend a school in which you are surrounded by like-minded students and passionate teachers–and pursue your passion for kayaking.  Zoe’s year at the NRA was such a rewarding educational experience that her family’s financial constraints have not slowed her dream down of returning to NRA.

Rather than pout about her parents “not letting her go to kayak school,” she decided to take it upon herself to raise the tuition money needed to return for another year.  She has had the help of good friends and well-wishers.  TeamZoe was created.  A now-sold-out t-shirt was designed.  Marlo Tollett Wright  donated a painting to be auctioned off.  And with each project, Zoe comes closer to her goal.

TeamZoe fundraising campaign t-shirt

Zoe caught our attention when we started hearing through fellow kayakers about how enthusiastic she is about paddling, and how supportive she is of other boaters on the river—many much older than she.   We thought it was time to learn a little bit more about this little kayaker with big dreams!

So Zoe, what got you into kayaking?
– I have gone swimming at the Tellico with my friends and family almost every summer. One day, when I was around 8, we were swimming at Baby Falls and I saw some female kayakers run it in kayaks. It amazed me, and I told my dad that I wanted to do that one day. A few years later, when I was 14, I got in a kayak for the first time and that’s how it all started. 

What is your favorite aspect of kayaking?
– If I’m sad, as soon as I get on the river and start paddling, it seems all of my problems go away and I’m in my own little world.

What about some goals for kayaking? Where would you like to paddle/rivers would you like to do?
– I want to paddle the Green River Narrows and later, race it.

You are embarking on a fund-raising project. What is it for?
-It is to help me return to New River Academy, a fully accredited, traveling, and kayaking high school, that my family can no longer afford for me to attend.

What do you need to achieve your goals for this?
-Any kind of donation or support.

We wish Zoe all the luck in the world reaching what we know will be the first of many goals she reaches.  If you want to keep up with Zoe’s endeavors, keep up with her on her TeamZoe Facebook page!

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Anticipate that kids get:
Hungry
Cold
Tired
Hungry
Emotional
Scared
Frustrated
Hungry
Anxious
Bored
Cranky

Did we mention hungry?

Approach paddling with your kids the same as you would reading a book with them: you entrust teacher to teach your kids the A,B,C’s, you in turn reap the rewards of sharing a nighttime story together.

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