Challenge yourself physically and mentally while exploring the stunning Maine islands by sea kayak.
Maine Sea Kayaking courses are an incredible opportunity to both work as part of a team, and develop and hone your own skills on the water. Learn seamanship skills such as navigation and weather observation while traveling between remote islands and wild peninsulas. Each day you’ll learn the sea kayaking and expedition skills necessary to safely traverse the rugged Maine coast, passing traditional fishing and lobstering communities. At night you’ll sleep in tents developing backcountry cooking and camp craft practices. Sharing your goals and concerns, your group will work as a team to plan each day’s activities and choose an appropriate itinerary. The skills and practices learned on these expeditions will serve you for life, whatever challenges lie ahead.
NOTE: For the health and safety of students and staff in the COVID-19 pandemic, students may be required to travel to course start by private transportation. Please work directly with your Course Advisor for your course for the most up-to-date and regionally-focused travel options. All students and staff must provide a current negative COVID-19 viral test result before arrival to course and/or consent to having a COVID-19 test administered at course start. Outward Bound requires students and staff to follow COVID-19 protocols for 14 days prior to course start and while traveling including physical distancing, wearing a mask in public, and frequent and thorough handwashing.For complete “Health and Safety Practices for Outward Bound Expeditions,” click here.
This course starts within the next week. Please call us at 866-467-7651 to assess the possibility of applying for this course!
Classic Courses
Are you ready to take a journey that will change your life? You won’t look at day-to-day drama the same way after you’ve conquered a high mountain ridge, heard the echoes at the edge of a vast canyon, or slept under the stars watching bats swoop overhead. Joining an Outward Bound expedition changes you. Your crew, your Instructor, your route and your adventures will have a profound and lasting impact on you as you rise to meet exhilarating natural challenges in some of the country’s wildest places.
Build skills, form connections: Learn and practice wilderness, teamwork and leadership skills. Find connections with your crewmates based on support and respect (and fun too!), and in the thick of challenges, discover there is more in you than you know.
Value strengths and strengthen values: Uncover your unique character strengths, develop your leadership abilities and learn how to let compassion into everyday life by pushing your own limits and working alongside your peers.
Demonstrate mastery: As you gain confidence in new skills, take on more decision-making responsibilities. Work together to achieve team goals, solve problems and succeed both as individuals and as a group.
What you’ll learn: For High School students, the opportunities to carry more weight (literally and figuratively) and make impactful decisions with accompanying consequences fills the expedition as you go through numerous trials and triumphs. It’s all about independence.
After you come home, many of the character, leadership and service traits you uncovered on your expedition stay with you, helping you navigate your daily life with more resilience and success.
Photo courtesy
of Luke O'Neill
Photo courtesy
of Luke O'Neill
Photo courtesy
of Luke O'Neill
Photo courtesy
of Luke O'Neill
Photo courtesy
of Luke O'Neill
Sea Kayaking
Sea Kayaks are an intimate and accessible means of traveling the coast, creating opportunities for both independent skill development and teamwork. Students will have the opportunity to paddle both single and double kayaks, learning the techniques necessary to handle each craft.
Students will learn to:
Maneuver and propel a sea kayak using paddles and foot rudders
Navigate and plan routes using charts, compass, and other navigation materials
Learn to understand the impact of weather, tides and currents on both navigation and travel
Camp in rugged wilderness maritime environments
Leave No Trace ethics
Being part of an expeditionary team including: campsite management and upkeep, kayak and gear management on shore, food preparation and cooking for the whole team, cleanup/ maintenance/ repair of gear.
Photo courtesy
of Amber Bolduc
Photo courtesy
of Amber Bolduc
Photo courtesy
of Amber Bolduc
Photo courtesy
of Amber Bolduc
Rock Climbing
The granite that made the Maine Coast famous as a source of building material a century ago now provides the setting for some outstanding rock climbing or rappelling from the sea cliffs. Students learn to use climbing equipment, tie knots, climb and belay each other, while Instructors provide overall supervision of the site. Climbing hones and develops balance, coordination, flexibility and grace on the rock and presents many individual challenges for students, while the team must work together to set systems up, communicate clearly and support each other throughout the climb. Rock Climbing is offered as part of the curriculum on our 15-day Sea Kayaking course only.
Service
Service projects are often incorporated into Outward Bound courses through coordination with local land managers, conservation groups, government or social service agencies. While on expedition, students are encouraged to practice service to the environment and their team by sharing responsibilities and following Leave No Trace ethics throughout the course.
Solo
The Solo experience provides an important break from the rigors of the expedition and gives students the opportunity to reflect on their Outward Bound experience. With sufficient food and equipment, students will set up camp at sites of their own, using the wilderness skills learned during the first half or two-thirds of the course. The time students spend on Solo depends on the length of the course. On one-week courses, Solo is four to12 hours long; on two-week courses Solo will likely be an overnight.
Often located along beautiful shorelines or on an island, campsites are chosen to offer as much solitude as possible (yet be within emergency whistle-signaling distance of other group members). Most students spend their Solo time journaling, drawing, or just thinking and resting as they process lessons of the course to focus on their goals for the future. Instructors check on each participant at least daily and are within whistle-distance at all times.
Outcomes
Students return from their Outward Bound journey often ready to fully participate and positively engage at home, at school, at work, on teams and in their communities.
An age-based curriculum and course length help to adapt the Outward Bound program to meet the needs of each developmental stage. Our Instructors work with each group to make sure that the balance of challenge and success matches the group's level of ability as much as they can, and they expect the students to work with them to do so.
While every course provides significant learning opportunities and high-impact outcomes, we encourage students to select the longest course that fits their schedule, because the successes, rewards, learnings and memories will be greatest.
Photo courtesy
of Luke O'Neill
Course Area
The coast of Maine, with its intricate and indented shoreline, is a unique segment of the North Atlantic seaboard. It is known among ocean travelers for its picturesque beauty, iconic lighthouses, abundant bays and harbors, rocky islands and quiet coves. We sea kayak in an area that covers roughly 200 miles of the Maine coast - with countless rivers, bays and islands to explore.
The rocky, spruce-covered islands are the summits of a prehistoric mountain range; many generations of inhabitants have made their livelihoods here. Evidence left behind on the islands reveals the historic presence of indigenous Abenaki camps, pre-colonial fishing communities, post-colonial timber and farming operations and early 20th century granite quarries. Cold, nutrient-rich waters flow from the Canadian Maritimes and make the Gulf of Maine home to a wide range of sea birds, seals, porpoises and whales. These regions are the ancestral lands of the Wabanaki Confederacy, which includes Abenaki/Abénaquis, W∂last∂kwiyik (Maliseet), Penobscot, and Passamaquoddy nations.
SAMPLE ITINERARY
8-Day Course
15-Day Course
DAY 1
Travel to course, welcome, equipment issue and check, introduction to Maine coast
DAY 2
Orientation and skill building
DAY 3-4
Sea Kayaking expedition
DAY 5
Service project and Solo
DAY 6
Final Sea Kayaking expedition
DAY 7
Return to base camp, Personal Challenge Event, equipment clean-up and de-issue
DAY 8
Course graduation, depart
DAY 1
Travel to course, welcome, equipment issue and check, introduction to Maine coast
DAY 2
Orientation and skill building
DAY 3-6
Sea Kayaking expedition
DAY 7
Service project
DAY 8
Rock climbing
DAY 9-10
Solo
DAY 11-13
Final Sea Kayaking expedition
DAY 14
Return to base camp, Personal Challenge Event, equipment clean-up and de-issue
If you are ready to enroll on a course click the enroll button next to the course you wish to select or you can enroll over the phone by speaking with one of our Admissions Advisors (toll-free) at 866-467-7651.
To secure your spot on a course you must submit an enrollment form and $500 deposit that is applied toward the total cost of the course and includes a $150 non-refundable enrollment processing fee.