Kayak Scotland

Sam Weir - As well as running Kayak Scotland, Sam works full time in the outdoor activities industry coaching and guiding a wide range of outdoor activities. He has been kayaking since 1979 and has paddled extensively in Ireland and Scotland. He has also paddled in Austria and both the East and West coasts of Canada. Sam holds BCU coaching awards in Sea, Inland and Open Canoe he also holds RYA Senior Sailing Instructor and Powerboat Instructor qualifications, he is a Rafting Trip Leader a Summer Mountain Leader and a Mountain Bike Tutor. He has lived in Scotland since 1990 and during that period has worked with a wide variety of user groups from corporate training and development programmes, groups with special needs and members of the public wanting to experience the outdoor environment.

Donald Thomson - Donald has been expedition paddling in Scotland and abroad since the mid 1970s, and an active coach in both sea and river paddling since 1977 when he became the youngest Senior Instructor in Scotland.  He holds BCU level 5 Coach Awards in both Sea and Inland kayaking. He has kayaked to all the inner and Outer Hebrides and many of the Northern Isles as well as paddling in Canada and Nepal.  Donald is one of only a few who have kayaked the Orkney-Fair Isle-Shetland crossing, and was expedition leader for the first successful return kayak trip to St Kilda, 42miles into the Atlantic Ocean.  His Coaching activities are split between club activities and coaching expedition leaders and coaches.

Colin Calder - Colin has a BSc in Zoology and a PhD in Animal Ecology, and takes great pleasure introducing Kayak Scotland clients to the diversity of birds, whales, dolphins, porpoises, and coastal wildlife to be found around Scottish waters. He has been sea kayaking in Scotland since 1996, most frequently on the local North Sea, but regularly paddling the islands and sea lochs of the Hebrides on the west, the north Atlantic coast, and also further a-field, Norway, and South America.    Colin holds the BCU 5* Sea Award, and as well as paddling he is an enthusiastic student of sea kayak history and kayaking equipment, building and paddling with traditional Greenland paddles, and designing and building kayaks.

Anne Young - Anne is a sea kayaking enthusiast who started sea paddling while at school in Ayr. She hold's a BCU Level 3 sea coach award. Anne is an active member of the North East Sea Kayakers club, and through the club she has introduced many club members to the joys of sea kayaking. She has paddled extensively on the East & West coasts of Scotland and looks forward to exploring other parts of the world. A geology graduate, presently working as a coastguard, she has an extensive knowledge of many of the less well known areas of the Scottish coastline.