Indigenous love for the wild!
Since 2010, Dog Mermaid Eco Excursions has specialized in environmental indigenous education and excursions by means of kayaking, paddle boarding, hiking, dog sledding, yoga, retreats, and kids camps.
Based at Poets Cove Resort & Spa on Pender Island and Mayne Island Resort on Mayne Island, we have easy access to the neighbouring islands, as well as great working relationships with surrounding businesses.
Each of our guides is experienced in all aspects of outdoor excursions. After spending the afternoon or weekend with one or a few of these great souls, you will be left laughing and reveling in the new knowledge you acquire through your adventure. Our certified, professional guides would more than love to take you into the wild!
Our Water Gurus
dog mermaid/ noun : a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals
Echo
The Merm
Derek
The Foster Child
Kirsten
The Pit Bull
Kim
The Wise One
Kye
Boss Goddess
Kayak, Paddle Board and Hiking Guide, Paddle Board Yoga and Kids Yoga Instructor, Kids Camp Instructor, Retreat Guide, Dog Sled Guide (musher)
Kye is not only our Indigenous water and land guru, she is also the founder of the Dog Mermaid chaos. She loves to laugh, play and find weird things in the wild. After spending a day with her, you will be hooked on marine love, winter play, and may even find yourself surrounded by a pod of our majestic blackfish, or you will be well versed in the art, history and humane sport of dog sledding!
Kids camp director
How better to design a great day at camp than to have an avid paddler, dog sledder and goop poker design it for the kids. Echo monitors all our decisions and lets us know if we have it going on or if we simply are a bore. She also helps teach all she has mastered at such a young age. If it wasn't for her and her friends we may still be sitting on the shore scratching our heads...
Kayak guide, shop leader
Derek found his happy place after we forced him to come work in the shop. Since then he has fallen in love with the ocean and paddling and started his guiding journey. You will find him puttering around the shop or at the back of the group on the water. He's our version of Where's Waldo, cuz he is so quiet you won't notice him lurking about. And never make eye contact, you will scare him away...
Assistant kayak guide
K-rock is our rock. You will find her floating around when we have large groups on the water. But don't wander off cuz the pit bull will come after you! She is our safety master and keeps us in line!
Office manager
Kim is our "pretendian" (this word always makes me laugh), but since we adopted her it's ok! She takes care of the paper work and chasing after Kye, which is a full time job on its own. Kim also comes out for kids camps and shares her wealth of nature and Canadian Indigenous knowledge and keeps the kids lined up like ducks.