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Doug Van Doren began sea
kayaking in 1990. Prior to that he was an
avid outdoorsmen, and enjoyed kayaking and
mountain hiking. Once becoming interested in
sea kayaking he began researching various
types of sea kayaks and paddling techniques.
"Traditional" paddling was then only done by
a very few people outside of Greenland, and
mostly for rolling rather than distance
paddling. It was thought to be inferior by
the vast majority of American and European
paddlers. Doug didn't believe this. He
trusted native people's wisdom in developing
this technique over 5,000 years. He assumed
the problem was not that "they did not know
what they were doing, but that we did not
know what they were doing." He read as much
as he could about traditional paddling and
watched some old movie footage of paddling
in Greenland, then practiced copying these
styles of paddling. Especially helpful was
the research of John Heath, dating back to
the 1940s and information from Al Anderson
of Betsie Bay Kayaks.Over several years,
Doug learnt that the traditional paddle
along with a traditionally shaped kayak are
extremely efficient for all types of
paddling conditions, especially for distance
and rough water.
 In
1995 Van Doren wrote, produced and was the
on-camera teacher for the instructional
video, "'Greenland' Style Kayaking." He
holds "Level 3 coach" certification by the
British Canoe Union. He
teaches traditional kayaking and does
rolling demonstrations at many symposia and
instructional events across the United
States. He makes his home in Grand Rapids,
Michigan near Lake Michigan, one of the
"Great Lakes." He paddles a great deal in
the Great Lakes, and has paddled many
coastal areas of the United States in both
the Atlantic and Pacific, as well as the
coast of Wales.
He is married to Colleen and has an 8 year
old son Aidan. Kayaking is an avocation, not
a vocation for Van Doren, who is a clergy
person, pastoring a large congregation.
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