Polar Kayaking

Toby was born and raised on the remote and rugged south coast of Western Australia. Surrounded by national parks and with a family that loved to travel and explore, it is no surprise that Toby entered into a career in remote area guiding.

Toby began his sea kayak guiding career on Tasmania’s remote and rugged coasts and in the decade and a half since, has guided expeditions from equatorial to polar regions including Greenland, Norway, Spitsbergen, Indonesia, Fiji, the Philippines, Antarctica and South Georgia. Toby is also a qualified sea kayak instructor, and has worked extensively throughout Australia with universities, schools and tourism operators as an expedition leader, educator and guide trainer.

Toby’s great passion in life is in learning about and exploring remote and beautiful places and in assisting people to enjoy, understand and experience those places to the full. Toby is also a keen photographer, climber, runner and surfer.

Toby is currently based in Hobart Tasmania after recently completing a Masters of Wildlife and Fisheries Biology in the Southern United States.

Michael started guiding a couple of years after obtaining a degree as a naturalist in his home state of Michigan. Over the years, he found ways of combining his passion for wilderness travel with paddle sports. Sharing this passion is what drives him and has kept him evolving throughout his adult life. He’s led trips all over the world including Alaska, New Zealand, Greenland, Patagonia, Iceland and most of  Central America.

Michael is a British Canoe Coach, an ACA Level 3 Coastal Kayak Instructor Trainer and a Level 4 instructor. He also holds certifications in Canoe, SUP and whitewater kayak instruction. As a lifelong paddler, when other people peer at mountain peaks, Michael’s eyes will wander down to where they meet their neighboring mountains and know there is water flowing there drawing him like a magnet.

When he’s not guiding, you may find him with oars in his hands, rowing a wilderness river searching for trout with his fly rod. Since wilderness travel and backcountry fishing often result in some serious hunger, Michael has also developed interests and a reputation as a skilled wilderness chef, with a backcountry cookbook to his credit.

Michael’s teaching and demonstrations are among the most popular sessions at US kayak symposiums, and his articles appear in numerous paddling print on web media.

Alex was born and raised in Northern California, an area wilder and closer to nature (and colder!) than most imagine. Since he could hold his head up, he was seated in a kayak, eventually beginning to lead tours off the rough and rocky Santa Cruz coastline after graduating from the University of California.

Spending his entire youth climbing and skiing the Sierra’s, surfing, kayaking and boating off the coast, and travelling the world with his parents led him comfortably into a life of guiding. His education in earth sciences at the university inspired an environmentalist attitude, as well as a research-based approach to science and learning. Working among scientists and leading experts has allowed him to make friends with and learn from some of the brightest and enthusiastic members of the industry since the start, and inspired a passion for the birdlife and lichen ecology of the polar regions.

After beginning work with a world-class surf kayaker in Santa Cruz, Alex has travelled the world, continuously challenging himself in and out of a kayak. Guiding month long kayak trips in the Patagonian Fiords, paddling the deceivingly tricky and frigid waters of the Pacific Northwest, and providing hands-on logistical support for whole-season scientific field trips in the High Arctic, among others have provided lessons and experience in leadership and wilderness conduct.

Although these skills are useful for guiding work in polar regions, they also transfer well to Alex’s personal life. When not guiding, he can be found climbing, paddling, skiing and fishing around the Lofoten Islands which he calls home.

Angela’s love for the outdoors began at the tender age of two when her parents brought her on her first wilderness canoe trip. Since then, she has pursued a life as an outdoor guide. Angela has explored many remote and unique parts of the globe as a whitewater kayak guide, sea kayak guide and ski guide.

She spends her winters as a backcountry ski touring guide in the interior of British Columbia and is certified through the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides.

During the summers, she guides sea kayak expeditions to remote locations around the world. Greenland and Norway are two of her favourite places to sea kayak and explore. She is certified by the Sea Kayak Guides Alliance of British Columbia.

Angela spends her time off at her home on the Canadian West Coast surfing and enjoying the rugged beauty of Vancouver Island.

Daniel is a qualified sea kayak guide from the Blue Mountains, Australia. He is drawn to the beauty of wild places; the extremes of cold and light, and the abundance of life that can be found there.

A curiosity for engaging in landscapes both physical and human lead him from growing up in Sydney, to a degree in history and geography and a varied career guiding people through the wilderness. For the last 10 years, he has taught and guided by kayak, climbing and trekking, in remote Tasmania, the islands of Scotland, the coast of mainland Australia and Antarctica. Additionally, Daniel enjoys teaching and training. Both in training kayak guides and instructing risk management and safety practice for operating in cold climates.

Daniel is a keen climber and kayaker, who brings a love sharing human story, remote coastline, and wild creatures to his work and to deepening the experience of others.

Growing up in Canada, Lisa developed an early love for outdoor life, especially spending time on the water. Canoeing since she was a child, she fell in love with sea kayaking and has developed into a dedicated kayaker, coach, and guide.

She is an American Canoe Association (ACA) Level 3 Coastal Kayak Instructor and holds ACA Level 4 Open Water Coastal Kayaking Skills as well as British Canoe Union (BCU) Four Star Sea Kayak and BCU Three Star Canoe awards. She is comfortable in sea and surf kayaks, canoes, and stand-up paddleboards.

Lisa has spent many years exploring the waters and guiding trips in the Everglades and Florida Keys and has guided, paddled, and camped around the world including Wales, Greenland, Iceland, Alaska, Canada, the Great Lakes, and Central America.

Now drawn to colder climates, Lisa especially enjoys the opportunity to share wildlife sightings and explore remote vistas with others. She is also proficient in fly fishing and spends time each fall in the Yellowstone area chasing trout. Prior to full-time instructing and guiding on the water, Lisa, who holds two doctoral degrees, was Dean of the Nova Southeastern University College of Pharmacy. She now considers northern Michigan her home, where she has taken up cross-country skiing in the winter, photography, and foraging for local foods.

Frank’s passion and love for the outdoors was first sparked when he left his homeland of Germany in 2006 to travel and live in numerous countries around the world. Making a more permanent move to Canada and starting out as a dogsledding guide opened the doors to becoming an outdoor leader and kayak guide. The west coast of Vancouver Island has been his home for 9 years now.

While being out by the coast, he spends his time as a contract sea kayak guide for multi-day expedition style tours and outdoor educational programs for schools. Frank also works to restore wild salmon habitat for a nonprofit organisation in his home town, Ucluelet.

Frank holds a Level 3 Kayak Guide certificate issued by the Sea Kayak Guides Alliance of British Columbia and is working towards becoming a guide trainer.

One of Frank’s favourite quotes that inspires him and influences him in many ways is: ‘You often feel tired, not because you’ve done too much, but because you’ve done too little of what sparks a light in you’.

Matt loves exploring! Wanting to find out what’s around the next corner or at the top of the next mountain has enticed Matt to some of the most remote destinations on the planet.

For more than a decade he has organised and conducted custom adventures for keen expeditioners from across the globe. leading them on; kayaking expeditions to Iceland, Greenland, Svalbard, Antarctica, Fiji, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Alaska and British Columbia, skiing expeditions to Iceland, Antarctica, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Norway, Greenland and Canada, and surfing expeditions to Morocco, West Papua and Northern Vancouver Island.

Matt started his career in adventure by taking the Thompson Rivers University Degree in Adventure Studies. He is a certified Backcountry Ski guide through the Association of Canada Mountain Guides and a certified Sea Kayak Guide through the Sea Kayak Guides Alliance of British Columbia and a Surf Instructor through the Canadian Surf Association.

Matt tones down his adventurous travels in his sleepy home town of Ucluelet on the West Coast of British Columbia, where he spends his summers relaxing and surfing, and the Canadian winters working as a Heli Skiing Guide with Last Frontier Heli skiing or preparing for his spring ski touring expeditions (if you can call that relaxing!).

Matt is excited to welcome you onboard and looks forward to the sharing his genuine passion for adventure, keen sense of humour and love of life, as you discover some of the most wonderful wilderness areas on the planet together.

Russell grew up in a sea kayaking family on the rugged west coast of Canada with parents that pushed him and his brother to get out there and challenge themselves. He tries his best to do that on a regular basis and it seems to get him to some cool places and in some interesting situations.

For the last decade Russell has bounced around British Columbia working as a ski patroller in the winters, guide and outdoor educator in the summers, and pulled off some large scale expeditions in between. The most impressive of these being a 6500 kilometre seven month sea kayak trip from Brazil to Florida with his brother.

Russell has recently shifted gears in life and become a paramedic with the British Columbia Ambulance Service. While working part-time, he still manages to hold onto his passion for the outdoors through guiding and exploring the mountains, rivers, and oceans whenever possible.

John has spent much of his life exploring rivers and oceans in kayaks and rafts. He has led commercial sea kayak trips on remote waters in Australia, Fiji, and The Solomon Islands. He has guided the most wilderness rafting trips in Australia from the Franklin River in Tasmania to the Herbert River in North Queensland. His padding and mountain adventures have taken him from Australia to India, Nepal, Fiji, America, Russia and New Zealand.

In 1989, John led the Australian Whitewater Rafting team to a competition on a freezing river in Siberia. In the years following, he lived in Russia travelling extensively in forbidden, remote and untrod mountains. He was presented with the Australian Geographic Young Adventurer of the Year award for his adventures. In 2005, John led a film crew back to the Alati Mountains in Siberia to create a film about whitewater rafting in Russia. The film was shown internationally and won numerous prestigious awards.

For many years, John led young people on long self-contained wilderness expeditions, both mountaineering and rafting, aimed at building confidence and character. John delights in helping others to find inspiration through wilderness travel.

Having recently run his own outdoors retail and tours business, John has returned to his passion for leading trips to the world’s most remote and inspiring places.

John has also brought his passion to the Aurora Expeditions head office as Manager - Activities.

Tory has always been an ocean lover and self-professed ‘water baby’.

She grew up in Brisbane, Queensland, and has spent most of her time chasing water, whether it be frozen or flowing. Tory is a qualified Level 2 Ski Instructor through the NZSIA, having spent almost 8 years travelling in New Zealand, Japan and Canada doing back to back ski seasons. She then relocated to Hobart, Tasmania, where her love for paddling flourished.

Gaining her Australian Canoeing Sea Guide qualifications, Tory has worked as an Expedition Sea Kayak Guide for 8 years in many remote parts of Tasmania’s rugged south west coast and Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, Flinders Island in the Bass Straight, Western Australia and Queensland.

Tory spends the cooler months working in outdoor education programs for schools and instructing future outdoor guides in vocational education. She has a drive to upskill and she’s continually building on her knowledge and experience. In her spare time, Tory enjoys swimming, rafting, and sailing.

Tory’s love for unique marine environments, her passion for educating and sharing unforgettable experiences in wild places, along with her sense for adventure will bring great energy and experience to your polar explorations.

Growing up on the South Coast of NSW, the coastline and its beaches were always a second home to Eamon. He would explore the coastline either kayaking, snorkelling, or surfing during ocean swim events. Eamon bought his first kayak with a friend at the age of 13 years old and has had more than one type or another ever since.

The canyons and cliffs of the Blue Mountains soon called to him and a long love of climbing and bushwalking followed. The amazing people he met in the mountains would shape what he wanted to do and become in life.

Eamon transferred from electronics tech industry to outdoor guiding in 1994, and he has been involved in outdoor education, guiding, training, instructing and assessing people in a variety of adventurous pursuits and first aid courses ever since.

He is truly rewarded seeing people enjoy new activities, experience different cultures, and be affected by beautiful natural environments. For years Eamon has lead student teams to Peru, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, NZ, Fiji and Nepal. These expeditions encourage the students to grow in independence, resilience and awareness.

For the last 10 years, he has also been working as a sea kayaking guide in Fiji and beyond. Back at home he continues to guide, teach and share his love of the outdoors with adult and student groups.

His passion for languages, travel and adventure has made for a wealth of great memories and stories.

Peter's career has taken him down several unusual paths, from a stint in the military, to Civil Engineering, to working on TV survival shows, and to life in a Tanzanian National Park working for a well-known wildlife conservation trust. But he now spends his winters heli-skiing as one of the head guides for Bella Coola Helisports and at several backcountry ski-touring lodges. In the fall he spends much of his time guiding guests to view grizzly bears in the Bella Coola valley.

He also guides rock climbing and sea-kayaking trips. Born in Montreal, and having lived and guided for many years in Europe, the lure of endless white-capped mountains and the pristine Pacific Ocean enticed Peter to British Columbia where he can live his passions everyday and share his love of wild untouched places with others. He spends every possible moment exploring and adventuring in the backcountry on skis, in a kayak, trail running, climbing or surfing.

Peter is always up for a new adventure, the more remote, the better. His down to earth, relaxed demeanour and wealth of experience make him a great companion in the mountains or on the sea. Peter loves practicing his Spanish.

He is certified through the British Canoe Union as a 5-star sea kayak Leader and through the SKGABC as a Level 3 guide. He has guided trips all over Canada, Scotland, Norway and Iceland.

Danny O’Farrell is a natural resource management specialist, biologist and wilderness guide with over 15 years of experience in a variety of areas related to marine and freshwater fisheries, wildlife, forestry, traditional knowledge mapping, environmental consulting, natural resource management and ecotourism.

Danny has been involved in many different projects across North America and Iceland with indigenous groups, government and private sectors. He also completed the first biological study of its kind, regarding the potential impacts on the range expansion of European Flounder, Platichthys flesus, on native salmonid populations in the Westfjords of Iceland due to influences of climate change.

Danny has experience working as a hiking, skiing and kayaking guide in Iceland, Canada and West Papua. He is an experienced climber, recording numerous first ascents in both rock and ice throughout Canada and Iceland. He established one of the longest sport climbing routes in Canada in the summer of 2018 and recorded over 20 first ascents of new waterfall ice climbs along the West Coast of Canada in the last few years. He is also an avid surfer and has pioneered new breaks along the North-west coast of Iceland Westfjords region.

When Danny is not traveling and guiding, he is a fisheries biologist focusing his efforts on salmon restoration and ecology in Canada’s pacific northwest working with indigenous and governmental organisations.