Sarapiquí Out Door Center.

Learn Kayaking
Kayak Instruction
Always wanted to learn to kayak, practice your techniques or hone your whitewater skills?
Sarapiqui Outdoor Center, Costa Rican leader in Outdoor Adventure, has assembled a team of friendly professional instructors with in-depth technical training and field experience to offer the best in outdoor adventure instruction.
We offer clinics for beginners to experts from our base in Northeast Costa Rica.
Learn Whitewater Kayaking with Sarapiqui Outdoor Center
Whitewater kayaking or canoeing is a great way to enjoy the outdoors while choosing your level of adventure. Sarapiqui Outdoor Center offers white water kayaking lessons on the Northeast Rivers to suit every level of paddler, from kayaking for beginners to advanced.
Our kayaking instructors are certified by the American Canoe Association (ACA) and tailor every clinic to your needs. Whether you are interested in an introduction to the sport of kayaking or taking your kayaking skills to the next level with a playboating, river rescue or other clinic, our kayak school has a course for you.
Learning to kayak is easy! You can start kayaking at almost any age, and your progress is limited only by your adventurous spirit! Our instructional paddling programs are set up to offer a variety of ways to enter the sport and a number of paths to follow once you are a white water kayakers.

Essential Kayaking Skills
Whether you’re kayaking on a mellow Class I or II river, playing in a challenging Class III rapid or pushing the limits on Class IV and above, the essential paddling skills you need to maneuver a kayak safely and confidently, are the same.
Learning these skills is a matter of taking it one step at a time. Our Sarapiqui Outdoor Center kayaking clinics progress from Novice to Class II to Class III and above, with each step along the way presenting its own challenges and rewards.
If you’re curious about whitewater kayaking, but don’t want to commit the time if it’s not the sport for you, try our 1-day novice kayak clinic. In this clinic you’ll paddle a whitewater kayak and get a taste of whitewater kayaking while starting to learn the fundamentals.
Our 2-day introduce you to the basics including:
Choosing proper equipment and clothing
Carrying a kayak
Entering and exiting a kayak
Essential flatwater strokes, braces and maneuvers
Edging the kayak
Proper body position
River safety
River reading and identifying hazards
Self rescue
Eddy turns, peel outs and ferries
Surfing
Our 3-day novice kayak clinic spends more time on:
Eddy turns, peel outs and ferries
Wave surfing
Depending on the group, we may also introduce rolling
Our 5-day novice kayak clinic gives you more practice time and by the end of the week, students are often:
Running Class II rapids with confidence and finesse
Playing on Class II surf waves and holes with confidence
Rolling
Scouting and running Class III rapids
Our 2-day and 3-day class II, picks up where Novice leaves off by reviewing the basics and then focusing on:
Improving students’ balance, posture and boat edging skills
Applying solid flatwater technique to Class II whitewater paddling
Gaining confidence with Class II eddy turns, peel outs and ferries
Eddy hopping and boat scouting down Class II rapids
Performing basic play moves such as wave and hole surfing on Class II whitewater and stern squirting on moving water
Using waves to cross currents
Depending on the group, we may also introduce rolling
In our 1-day class III clinic, students learn:
How to break a Class III rapid into smaller, less intimidating parts
To plan and execute Class III moves consistently
How to read the finer points of a rapid and execute precision maneuvers
How to paddle aggressively in powerful current
Our 2day class III kayak clinics also cover:
Catching micro-eddies
Rolling on Class II and III rapids
Using waves to cross powerful currents
Weighting and unweighting the bow and stern

Advanced Beginner & Intermediate Kayaking
For whitewater kayakers with previous paddling experience, we offer Class II and Class III kayaking clinics. These clinics focus on the skills needed to advance to the next level of the sport with control and finesse.
Our 2- and 3-day Class II and our one- and two-day Class III clinics offer in-depth instruction to help you refine your whitewater skills and gain confidence in more difficult rapids.
2-Day Class II Kayak Clinic
In this kayaking clinic for advanced beginners, we teach and refine the techniques needed to paddle a kayak safely and confidently on class II rivers. Before taking this kayaking clinic, you should have at least five to ten days previous whitewater kayaking experience.
Whether your goal is to use class II as a stepping stone to kayaking more difficult whitewater or as a destination in itself, the skills taught in this class will serve you well. We work on refining your maneuvering skills, including eddy turns, peel outs, ferries, self rescue and basic surfing.
After a review of the basic strokes, including sweep strokes, forward strokes, draws, and braces, we introduce or improve upon your strokes and maneuvers such as the gliding draw, bracing and edging the kayak.
3-Day Class II Kayak Clinic
In this 3-day kayaking clinic for advanced beginner kayakers, we teach and refine the kayaking techniques, tips and skills needed to paddle a kayak safely and confidently on Class II rivers. Before taking this advanced beginner kayaking clinic, you should have at least five to ten days previous whitewater kayaking experience.
Whether your goal is to use class II as a stepping stone to kayaking more difficult whitewater or as a destination in itself, the skills taught in this class will serve you well. We work on refining your maneuvering skills, including eddy turns, peel outs, ferries, self rescue and basic surfing.
After a review of the basic strokes, including sweep strokes, forward strokes, draws, and braces, we introduce or improve upon some advanced strokes and maneuvers such as the gliding draw, bracing and edging the kayak. Then we head out to whitewater where we work on fine tuning eddy turns, peelouts and ferries concentrating especially on entering micro-eddies, peeling out into fast current , and ferrying across difficult jets of water. We also introduce wave and hole surfing. On the third day we work on rolling, surfing and refining class II techniques.

Kayak Rolling Clinics in Costa Rica
Participation in a kayak rolling clinic is an integral part of learning to kayak. Practicing kayaking techniques such as rolling makes paddling a joy by lessening the fear and hassle of swimming in whitewater.
Learning to roll your boat effectively and quickly can make you a safer paddler as well as making kayaking more enjoyable
1-Day Basic Kayak Rolling
Don’t let an inability to roll hold you back! Rolling is one of the essential kayaking techniques that can make paddling a joy by lessening the fear and hassle of swimming in whitewater. Our instructors are American Canoe Association (ACA) certified and have many years of experience teaching rolling to a variety of students. Their kayaking tips can help you move from practicing hip snaps to learning the paddle motions to rolling in a logical progression.
Our low student-to-instructor ratio assures that you will receive the personalized attention our instruction program is known for. Our flexible instruction method uses both the C-to-C roll and the Modified Sweep roll to accommodate people with different body types and to make learning fast and enjoyable.
1/2 day Fine Tuning Your Roll
Our 1/2 day Fine Tuning your Roll clinics are for kayakers who have already mastered a flatwater roll and are looking to improve their rolling techniques on flat or moving water.
Our instructors are all American Canoe Association (ACA) certified and have many years of experience teaching kayaking, canoeing, and rolling.
Our low student-to-instructor ratio assures that you will receive the personalized attention our instruction program is known for, and our flexible instruction method uses both the C-to-C roll and the Modified Sweep roll to accommodate people with different body types and to make learning fast and enjoyable.