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Expanding Horizons Kayaking |
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Where the adventure begins |
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Staff |
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Expanding Horizons Kayaking, LLC staff are among the some the most highly trained and experienced instructors in the country. They combine for over 150 years of paddlesport experience in a variety of disciplines and can meet virtually any instructional need. |
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Rob “Rooster” Taylor |
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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. 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 and South Carolina. 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. |
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Priscilla Taylor |
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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. |
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Ron Smith |
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· 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. |
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Suzie Smith |
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· 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. |
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Wendy Beckwith |
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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 water experience on the Great Lakes and is extremely effective in conveying her love of the sport and the necessity of risk management. |
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Jim Palermo |
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Jim’s paddling career began with wilderness canoeing in the late 60’s. Since then he’s been involved in freestyle canoeing and for the past 11 years in sea kayaking. Jim has a BCU 4 star award and for the past five years has been an American Canoe Association Open Water Sea Kayak and Traditional skills instructor.
Jim has taken part in trips in Florida’s Everglades, coastal Georgia, coastal Maine and the Great Lakes, with extensive routes on Lake Superior’s shorelines. Jim is part of the teaching staff at the West Michigan Kayak Symposium and the Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium, and is often requested at these events. Jim’s love of the sport is infectious, and his teaching style emphasizes safety and efficiency for maximum enjoyment. |
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Henry Davies |
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Henry has been paddling most of his life. His early paddling involved wilderness canoeing and paddling the rivers of Wisconsin. For the last 16 years he has been primarily sea kayaking in the Great Lakes. He has paddled all over the upper Great Lakes including a week on Isle Royale and many trips in the Pictured Rocks and Grand Island area. Though he is proficient with both modern and traditional paddles, Henry has a passion for paddling with a Greenland “stick”. He is always working to learn new Greenland rolls and likes to teach new rollers.
Henry is an ACA Open Water Coastal Kayaking instructor with a Traditional Skills endorsement. He also holds the BCU 3-star and 4-star paddling awards. He has taught at sea kayak symposiums around the Great Lakes including the West Michigan Coastal Kayakers Association Symposium, Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium and the Door County Sea Kayak Symposium. |
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“KNEADING WATER” aka Steve Bailey, ACA Coastal Kayak Instructor |
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After 40 years on land and a visit to the Detroit Boat Show looking at Yachts, Steve’s interest in boating began. Days later, following an unplanned visit to REI Steve and his wife, Liz, attended a kayaking class. The following weekend they participated in a full day course, followed by a 3 day symposium a week later! He was hooked, entirely by accident! Steve quickly followed with a succession of Symposiums in MI, GA and FL.
When not paddling Steve tries to keep two teenagers out of trouble and runs a veterinary practice for cats, Exclusively Cats Veterinary Hospital. Steve’s wife, Liz, paddles with him still. She claims she works full time, only to pay for his paddling!
A relatively “young” paddler and ACA instructor, Steve humbly asserts he is “just a student with experience to share.” He enjoys paddling year round in Michigan. He has a infatuation for Watertribe Challenges, races of sorts, in which a variety of small boats compete in unsupported long distance journeys with exposed crossings and night-time navigation. Participants are required to have ‘tribal’ names (he shares his name with his boat), ‘Kneading Water.’ Steve explains the name is a blend of themes. First, the paddle blade’s action on the water; next, contented cats purr and ‘knead’ their paws; lastly, Steve’s ‘need’ to get on the water.
He enjoys teaching, especially kids and new paddlers. His dream is to spend more time sharing his enthusiasm journeying by kayak and camping with his family and others. |
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Achievements
2001 BCU 4 Star Award 2001 Rum Runner 100mile/3day race 2002 BCU Canoe Safety 2002 Lake Michigan Challenge (DNF: 200miles,only 4 finished) 2003 Lake Mich. Challenge, 300 miles 2004 Everglades Challenge, 300miles 2004 IDW S. Carolina w/Josh Hall 2004 IDE Lk Superior w/Sam Crowley 2005 Everglades Challenge, 300 miles 2006 Everglades Challenge, 300 miles (2nd in Class) 2007 Everglades Challenge, 300 miles |