In 2005, when I had been an assistant kayak guide for Skamokawa Town Center for one season, I was put in charge of hosting and organizing a WMA Wilderness First Responder course in Skamokawa, so that all the kayak guides could get their WFR certification and be better equipped to deal with medical emergencies on our guided kayak trips. I continued to be in charge of hosting those classes, for the Town Center, and then for Columbia River Kayaking, and between 2005 and 2014, I took the full course six or seven times, since it was right there in my own backyard, and it was a good way to keep up on skills and practice. From 2006-2009, I was also an EMT, but ended up not doing much with that, and let the license expire when my renewal came up. In 2014, I was encouraged by one my teachers to apply to become an instructor for Wilderness Medical Associates. I was accepted into the 2015 training, and rushed off to Michigan to take my WEMT course, since it was a requirement for getting into the training, and starting to work as an instructor. Expensive to rectify! I went to the training in 2015, and started working a little bit for WMA that year on one of my own sponsored courses, held in Portland. In 2016, in addition to working on my own local, hometown course, I traveled all over the place, working that year as an assistant instructor, mostly in the upper Midwest. I also managed to get the first ever WFR course in Greenland going, and got to travel overseas for the first time in my life to help teach that class. At the beginning of 2017, I was upgraded to a lead instructor, and also was granted "Instructor Sponsor" status with WMA, making it possible for me to more formally get my own business going running WMA courses in the PNW. Cascadia Wilderness Medicine is the result of this journey, and with my new financial and logistical relationship with WMA, I can afford to offer more courses in the PNW, including five day WFRs, recertification courses, and custom courses for various organizations around the PNW.
