Bay Area Rough Water Rodeo – Currents, Open Water, Surf, & Rocks! | Marin, CA

It’s an East meets West Coast collaboration featuring guest coaches Ashley Brown (L5 AOWCK Instructor and L4 IT) and Jeff Atkins (L5 AOWCK Instructor and L3 IT) of WavePaddler instructing alongside the Cali Collective team of Gennifer Gatan and Laura Zulliger.

We’ll spend 4 glorious days adventuring and honing skills with each day featuring one of the best venues the Bay Area has to offer. Every day, students will have the opportunity to choose either the spicy intermediate/advanced version of that environment or the more mild advanced beginner version based on their comfort, the conditions of the day, and individual goals.

Day 1: Surf Zone or Performance Surfing

Day 2: Intro to Rock Gardening or Rock Gardening Skills & Safety

Day 3: Blending Strokes or Intermediate Tide Race Play

Day 4: Open Coastal Journey

This 4-day long-weekend aims to meet students’ needs at a variety of levels, taking advantage of a strong coaching team to challenge yourself and achieve new breakthroughs.

Whether you’re from out of town and have always wanted to paddle in the Bay Area or you’re a local excited to work with new coaches and fresh techniques, this clinic is designed for you.

Prerequisites: Previous surf zone and rough water experience strongly recommended (Intro to Surf Zone, Intro to Tides & Currents, Intro to Rock Gardening). Students should have good bracing skills and be comfortable with wet exits, as well as self and assisted rescues. A roll is encouraged but NOT required.

Location & Timing: Day 1 will most likely take place in Bolinas, Half Moon Bay, or Dillon Beach, with Days 2 and 3 launching from Horseshoe Cove. Day 4 will include launching most likely from Rodeo Beach or another location along the coast.

Minimum 6 students / Maximum 12 students

Pricing: $529 for all 4 days (Friday-Monday) and $279 for the 2-day weekend (Saturday-Sunday)

Please make sure you review our cancellation policy before registering.

Lodging: Ideally, if safe and available, we hope to lodge out of town participants at the Marin Headlands Hostel.

Please Note: Cost does not include kayak and gear rental. We offer boat and gear rentals for students.

Your Coaches

Ashley Brown

Ashley Brown is the recipient of the ACA 2019 Excellence in Instruction Award! She lives in Charleston SC, a beautiful place to paddle. She is passionate about teaching kayaking at all levels and challenging people to test their limits while learning and having a ton of fun. She holds the prestigious Level 5 American Canoe Association Advanced Open Water Coastal Kayaking Instructor Certification and is also an ACA L2 Kayak IT, and L4 Coastal Kayak Instructor Trainer, Canoe Instructor, SUP Instructor. She is an Instructor at many symposiums, mostly on the east coast. She loves to travel, learn from her students, and enjoys welcoming guests from all over the world to paddle in beautiful Charleston waterways, especially the “edge of America”, the Atlantic Ocean off Folly Beach. As much as she loves to paddle, Ashley loves to teach. Her dedication to teaching brought her to the College of Charleston, where she has been developing a university-level curriculum in Kayaking and SUP. Ashley serves as an Adjunct Professor of Coastal Kayaking, Instructor Development, and Stand Up Paddleboard in the Health Education and Human Performance Dept.

Jeff Atkins 

Jeff is an ACA L5 Advanced Open Water Coastal Kayaking Instructor, L3 Instructor Trainer, and an L2 Canoe Essentials Instructor Trainer. After a successful career as a Park Ranger, Jeff is now retired from public service, but continues to work as an outdoor industry professional. He loves coaching and leading trips. As an Instructor for the NC Outward Bound School, he leads expeditions around several parts of the USA. Jeff also holds several certifications including Wilderness First Responder, Leave No Trace Master Educator, and Coastal Master Naturalist for SC. Paddlesports is his passion and he loves to spread the “infectious” recreation activity to others. He believes in having fun and helping others to expand their confidence and skills by while learning. “There is nothing like the feeling of seeing a person smile because they just did something they didn’t think they could do”.

Gennifer Gatan

Whether it be the warm waters of the Philippines where she was born and raised, or the sunny, coastal surf of southern California where she now lives, Gennifer Gatan finds herself completely at home on the water.

Sea kayaking since 2008, Gennifer hasn’t looked back since, enjoying all its facets – day touring, expedition-style trips, rock gardening, surfing. She has combined this passion with a love for world travel; the views from the seat of a kayak are some of the best, after all.

Gennifer works in the local outdoor recreation industry as an instructor and guide, both on water and hiking trails. She’s a British Canoe ASKL aspirant, and holds an ACA-L3 certification.

Laura Zulliger

With over 15 years of coaching experience, Laura is an ACA-certified Level 5 Advanced Open Water Coastal Kayaking Instructor – the youngest woman to earn this level of certification – and an L4 Whitewater Kayaking Instructor.

In addition to sea kayaking, she teaches whitewater kayaking, canoeing, and surf kayaking. As a coach, Laura draws upon this multidisciplinary approach to give students the skills and confidence needed to experience the waves, rocks and swell of California’s energetic coastline as a playground rather than a battleground. To that end, she is grateful for the opportunity to work with paddlers at every stage of their development. She’s the Saltwater Program Director for California Watersport Collective. When she’s not on the water playing in waves and around rocks, she leads marketing and partnerships for an educational travel company. She’s honored to be on the P&H Kayaks Team and serve as a regional ambassador for Kōkatat.