About West Coast Kayaking Ireland
West Coast Kayaking is owned and run by Martin “Mad Dog” Duffy who is originally from Dublin. However the countryside was always calling and he has since moved to Leitrim to be closer to the outdoor life. He has been coaching kayaking for 15 years as well as paddling all over the world in destinations such as Wales, France, Italy, Switzerland, Corsica, USA, Zambia and Panama. He has worked on and led trips for Canoeing Ireland both in Ireland and abroad.
Originally starting out as a river kayaker and gaining his level 5 proficiency and level 4 instructorship in the French Alps a looong time ago the lure of the sea has been calling over the last few years and he has gone on to gain the highest levels of sea kayaking qualifications also. This means that you get top quality instruction and experience on every trip and also an enjoyable trip with excellent safety standards.
Martin is also a qualified archaeologist with a degree from UCD and a Masters in Geography from NUIM and often incorporates this love of our heritage into the trips he plans – its simply amazing the amount of our heritage than can be seen by kayak that can’t be seen very easily any other way – our trip to Inishmurray and the internationally renowned early Christian monastic site is just one example of this.
From time to time we will also have guest instructors working on a trip but you will have to wait to meet them !
Qualifications:
- Level 5 river kayaking proficiency
- Level 4 river instructor
- Level 5 sea kayaking proficiency
- Level 4 sea kayaking instructor
- Winner of the Liffey Descent (C3 class)
- Two time winner of Lower Liffey ranking race
- Winner Jacksons BoaterX team event
- 3rd place Cork freestyle event
- REC 3 qualified including cardiac first responder
- Child protection certificate and Garda vetted
