Expanding Horizons Kayaking

Where the adventure begins

Staff

Expanding Horizons Kayaking, LLC staff are among the some the most highly trained and experienced instructors in the country.  They combine for over 130 years of paddlesport experience in a variety of disciplines and can meet virtually any instructional need.

Rob “Rooster” Taylor

Co-founder of Expanding Horizons Kayaking, Rob Taylor has been an active outdoor enthusiast his entire life, participating in running, road biking, mountain biking, camping, downhill and cross-country skiing, scuba diving, and kayaking.  He has over 15 years of wilderness canoeing, 9 years of whitewater kayaking, and 10 years of sea kayaking experience.  He has been a certified ACA Open Water Kayaking Instructor since 2001, teaching classes through Black Parrot Paddling, LLC, Riverside Kayak Connection, the West Michigan Coastal Sea Kayaking Club Symposium, the Great Lakes Sea Kayaking Symposium, and privately.  Rob is an active member of the Great Lakes Sea Kayaking Symposium Planning Committee.  He has been on extended open water trips in Alaska, Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, the St. Lawrence Seaway, and off the coast of Georgia.  Rob likes to share his love of the sport and his desire is to help others develop their skills, so that they too may enjoy the sport in a safe and effective manner.

Priscilla Taylor

Priscilla is a co-founder of Expanding Horizons Kayaking who too has enjoyed the outdoors her entire life.  After many years of canoe tripping, Priscilla started kayaking first on rivers, then moved on to sea kayaking on open water.  She has paddled on much of the Great Lakes, with whales on the St. Lawrence Seaway, and in the surf off the coast of Tybee Island, Georgia.  In 2006, she became a certified ACA Basic Kayaking Instructor and has been teaching in the Brighton area and at sea kayaking symposiums across Michigan.

Ron Smith

· Co-founder of Black Parrot Paddling, LLC, Ron is an ACA Flatwater, Moving Water and Coastal Kayaking Instructor. He is also one of a half dozen ACA Coastal Kayaking Instructor Trainers in the Midwest Region of the ACA. A BCU Coach 3 (Senior Instructor), Ron started kayaking in 1992 in Alaska. Ron and his wife, Suzie, migrated from backpacking, to whitewater rafting, wilderness canoeing, and long distance cycling before adopting sea kayaking as a mutual passion.

While Ron still does just enough white water paddling to keep his skills reasonably sharp his passion has become long distance sea kayaking. An ocean racer since 1998, Ron has won 9 medals in as many races over the past three years. This includes three first place finishes in 2001 and a second place finish in the grueling 2001 Rum Runner Challenge, Key Largo to Key West, 105 mile race. Ron & Suzie have paddled in Alaska, parts of all five Great Lakes, the coast of the Yucatan, Mexico and the Florida peninsula.

Suzie Smith

· Suzie is co-founder of Black Parrot Paddling, LLC, and an ACA Flatwater Coastal Kayaking Instructor. Suzie is one of our instructors in our women’s programs and enjoys teaching students in a variety of situations. Suzie along with 9 other women completed a 100 mile Canadian North Shore expedition of Lake Superior in 2000.

Wendy Beckwith

Wendy is an ACA Open Water Kayaking Instructor, and also holds an ACA Adaptive Paddling endorsement and and a BCU 3 Star paddling certification. Wendy is an experienced instructor teaching in a variety of venues around the Great Lakes region including the West Michigan Michigan Coastal Kayaking Symposium, the Inland Seas Symposium, the Great Lakes Sea Kayaking Club Symposium, Ladies of the Lake Symposium.  Wendy also works as the lead instructor for Eastern Michigan Unversity’s kayaking course, serves as a kayaking consultant and staff trainer for YMCA Storer Camps, and frequently is helps teach pool sessions in southeastern Michigan.  Wendy has rough w