Oslo By Kayak & eco-Tourism

Oslo by Kayak - the story behind. I thought I would start with a blog post about how I came up with the idea of connecting Oslo kayak tours and eco-tourism, that later would become Oslo By Kayak and my fulltime summer job.

Oslo By Kayak - the story behind

When my friend asked me to select one childhood memory, which made a positive impact on my life. It took me only a second to decide what to answer.

When I was six years old my mom and dad took me on a sailing trip around the world. When I look at my life today and who I have become, almost everything reflects on this experience. My understanding of the ocean is that It connects the world. It has always taken care of us and we cannot live without it.

However, It seems that we humans forgot that somewhere in our history. Because who else could take the blame for all the plastic waste on our mother earth and our ocean. Even when I was six years old (1990), I could see what plastic waste did to our marine wildlife. And I still have fresh memories of how we had to cut loose a turtle from the plastic around a six-pack of cans. And how his breathing changed after cutting him loose.

Oslo Kayak tours

Today I cant´ say sailing is what I do the most. But the ocean is still a big part of me. And my activities help this relationship grow; surfing, fishing, kayaking is what I do the most. And since I live in a city surrounded by the Oslo Fjord, kayaking is the perfect way to explore the ocean.

As I grew my kayak skills also got better, and I decided to take a four steep kayak instructor program. I was now a licensed kayak instructor. The first four years my job was to give intro courses to people, that gave them the licenses needed to rent kayaks in Europe. But as more companies came along, I need a change my target audience.

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This is when I realized that the volunteer work I have done for so many years, paddling around the Islands of the Oslo Fjord doing beach clean-ups, gave me so much joy and gratefulness. And I asked myself why not give this feeling to others. From that moment I started building my business Oslo By Kayak and my Eco Kayak Tours. And since no other Oslo kayak tour company did focus on eco-tourism, I became the only one in Oslo to do this.

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Later in 2019 I also signed a partnership with Oslo government and the project Oslo European Green Capital 2019. Our goal was to show people how beautiful our Oslo Fjord was, but also how fragile our ocean is and how to keep our ocean maritime wildlife healthy.

By one month, my costumers and I had picked up 20 kg of plastic waste around the Islands of the Oslo Fjord. To be able to see and feel the ocean that I love become even more beautiful and alive because of my business is so rewarding.