Crosscurrents Kayak is a sea kayak instruction and coaching company owned and operated by Caroline Ross, a certified Paddle Canada instructor based in Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Caroline specializes in helping new and intermediate kayakers learn and refine skills on and off the water.
About Caroline… Originally from Northern British Columbia, Caroline began kayaking in Ontario in the early 2000s and is now well immersed in the paddling community on Vancouver Island. Besides coaching, she works as a kayak guide on multi-day trips in Vancouver Island waters, administers a rough water paddling group in the Nanaimo area, and formerly served as Chair of Skills and Education for the Nanaimo Paddlers sea kayak club (2019-2023). She most enjoys long day paddles in the Gulf Islands, playing in tidal currents, surfing local standing waves, and rock gardening on the west coast. In 2025, she launched the Islands Circumnavigation Project, a personal project to kayak around all the major Gulf Islands and Discovery Islands.
Caroline is a technically driven kayaker and is known for her calm, clear, student-focussed coaching style. Her goal on the water is to hone your strengths and correct your weaknesses so you can improve to your highest potential. Whether it’s a confident wet exit, a new arsenal of rescue techniques, a refined draw stroke, navigation skills or tactics to tackle wind and current, Caroline will work with you to define and achieve your specific kayaking goals, from start to finish.
Caroline’s Credentials:
- Paddle Canada Level 2 Sea Kayak Instructor
- Paddle Canada Rolling Instructor
- Paddle Canada Level 4 Sea Kayak Skills
- Sea Kayak Guides Alliance of British Columbia Assistant Overnight Guide
- Wilderness First Aid (40-hour) and CPR Level C
- Mental Health Wilderness First Aid Standard (16-Hour) Training
Up your skills. Up your confidence. Up your fun.
Crosscurrents Kayak 