Purple Hayes School of Kayaking

I took the beginner kayak course this weekend and had the best time. Thanks for all the individual support and tip's so everyone in the group was able to achieve their goals and was challenged on their level.Will definitely come back for some of the other courses

Such an amazing time!!!! I don’t know why I waited so long to try. Kai is an awesome instructor with great laid back way of teaching. He took our group from just below Tamihi to just before the Vedder bridge in 2 legs. We hit some great water, enough to feel in control but gnarly enough to feel the adrenaline. I’ll be honest, I thought I was the guy, but I found myself swimming twice but with a quick recovery and back on the water.Great way to spend the weekend, learn some skills and do something exciting!!! I highly recommend!!

Just took the beginner course with a friend and totally enjoyed it. Kay and his assistants were all great to work with; encouraging, and knowledgeable. The course is geared around safety first and building a solid foundation of skills. I whitewater kayaked many years ago before a shoulder injury wiped out my confidence. Kay was so supportive and gentle, he actually had me working on my roll again - something I never thought I would ever do. Thanks Kay. See you in the spring! :)

My boyfriend and I took the Intro course last year and returned for the follow up program this year.The course is well priced and included all the gear, but the follow up program is where we found the most value. We paid a small rental fee for the equipment , and received two full days on instruction in return and learned some new strokes and braces.We haven’t been paddling much and I was especially nervous on day 2 (river day) . The water level was different than I remembered and there were a lot of logs and obstacles. I was going to skip this day after seeing this, but the instructor Kay had additional helpers and persuaded me to try. He was able to breakdown each bend and section to us before I actually paddled it. I felt very safe and the nerves went away quickly!Kay is a great instructor who has wealth of knowledge and experience. While he made sure safety was the utmost important thing, he also knew how to loosen up and assure people so we could all have fun.In the end, I still didn’t master the roll, but we had a lot of fun and we are hoping to take another follow up course before summer ends!!As a tip: Use nose plugs!! They look funny, but made a huge difference!

I took a beginner and a follow-up course with Purple Hayes. Kay and his team are professional and friendly. I really enjoyed and learnt a lot of whitewater kayaking skills from them.

Just finished the 2 day beginners course, had a great time .I would recommended this for anyone,as my wife and I are in our 60s. The instructor's were knowledgeable and very patient, teaching safety FIRST, but adding skills to what you already know, again a great course.

I took the Intro to Whitewater Kayak course and LOVED it! Class was fun and educational. Both instructors catered well to the varying skill levels in our class. I felt very welcomed, safe, and left with a solid base to continue learning upon. I'm keen to come back and level up my skills with future courses.

I had a wonderful time doing the introductory kayak course. I strongly recommend it for anyone who wants to learn a new skill and have fun in the meantime.

An amazing experience. Safety was really important to me. The instructors are very experienced and make you feel really safe on the river as you build your skills.I came as a beginner, and I was able to very quickly in the safe environment.Thanks Kay, Jen, and Hans!

My wife and I took the 2-day whitewater intro class last weekend. It was a busy 2 days, the class started off with the basics and an emphasis on safety. New techniques were introduced as we progressed, our instructor Kai was very good at pushing the class forward with new skills and then drilling them so we could practice.The second day was the most fun and the most challenging, we worked on stuff we had learned the first day plus new skills that made sense to teach on the river. Kai and his staff were helpful and encouraging, we could tell they knew what they were doing (my wife and I felt safe through out the whole course).We had done plenty of lake and ocean kayaking but wanted to try out something different. We feel we got a good/solid intro to whitewater kayaking, it was challenging and fun. We both highly recommend the 2-day class and the school.