At 20, a chronic shoulder injury and some disillusionment with guiding culture brought Stefi van Wijk back to her family’s kayak school, the Madawaska Kanu Centre. The injury kept her from teaching, so she found other ways to help. Soon she was assisting her mom Claudia Kerckhoff van Wijk with the business side of the iconic kayak school in Ontario’s Ottawa Valley.
“I learned a lot that winter,” Stefi recalls, adding that administration in the outdoor industry should be no one’s idea of a backup plan. Still, she says, “It’s a very powerful role, and we are sort of plagued in the outdoors with weak admin.”
A few years later, Stefi decided to approach her mom about a lasting role at MKC. Claudia remembers the conversation vividly. “She came to me one day and said, ‘This is my future. I’m going to run MKC,’” Claudia recalls. Her daughter was adamant her values aligned perfectly with the kayak school, and that she could make a difference.
How this family paddling school navigated an existential transition
Claudia Kerckhoff van Wijk is a legendary figure in modern kayak instruction. She was 10 years old in 1972, when her father and mother Hermann and Christa Kerckhoff opened the family’s Kanu Centre on the Madawaska River in Ontario, one of the first schools of its kind in the world. Claudia grew up at MKC and took over ownership of the business with her husband Dirk van Wijk in 1988, when she was 26. Claudia directed the school for decades, building its reputation as one of the most renowned paddling institutions in the world. By 2016 she had begun to think about her exit strategy. She just didn’t expect it would come in the person of her youngest daughter.
Stefi grew up paddling and teaching at MKC, just as her mother had. By 13 she was already teaching youth classes, and as she grew older she developed her own vision of what kayak instruction could be. After largely stepping away to guide wilderness expeditions for companies including Black Feather, Stefi was home at MKC full-time, preparing to become the next director. There was just one issue as she took the reins of the storied school—the dynamic with the boss, her mom.
“There were so many places where she was really open to my contribution and my efforts and my ideas, and a few things where she was not,” Stefi says. “We’re very similar. We’re both very stubborn and would come up against each other.”
Adds Claudia, “She was scared I wouldn’t let go, and I told her, ‘You’re right. I don’t know how. I’ve never done this before.’”
For the sake of their mother-daughter relationship and the future of the business, the next step they took was one you would expect at a Fortune 500 company, not an outdoor school. They brought in outside help to assist in the transition. Through a friend, Claudia found executive coach Katie Baker.
An outside perspective
Executive coaches develop business leaders’ abilities and often consult about structural changes, including transition plans. These services aren’t exclusive to the C-suites of big city towers, but they are big business—according to a 2023 Economist article, executive coaching is a $2 billion industry in the U.S.
The van Wijks were taken by Baker’s background and expertise. The consultant grew up in a small town, spent a lot of time outdoors, and worked with small businesses such as family farms.
“In a family-run business, these are relationships we can’t just walk away from. So the dynamic really changes, and I think what people find is it can be a very lonely place,” Baker says. “Having someone who is a neutral third party, not in the weeds emotionally with all the things that are going on, can be incredibly helpful.”
Baker says transition planning involves plenty of work with bankers and lawyers, but it’s important not to overlook the human side of the coin. “It’s being willing to sit down and have sometimes very difficult conversations,” Baker says. “That takes a certain amount of bravery.”
Early on, the work with the mother-daughter team included learning to work together, setting boundaries, and communicating under tension. Claudia referred to these sessions as coaching. Stefi called them therapy.
During this process, the two made a list of management responsibilities and a transition plan. Over time, responsibilities would be removed from the director of three decades’ list and placed on the incoming director’s list, until the only designated responsibility left for Claudia would be MKC’s treasured garden.
The process allowed Claudia to gradually step back and see the unique abilities her daughter brings to the business.
“Stefi empowers her team. She puts effort into her team and hears their feedback,” says Claudia, who also credits her daughter with bringing a next-generation perspective to the school. “She turned our slogan around from ‘Rapid education’ to ‘Learn from the river with the river.’ It’s a different approach but similar. Nature and water are amazing in helping people find confidence within themselves, and she sees that.”
Change and continuity
Two years ago, during MKC’s 50th anniversary, Claudia and Dirk decided the time had arrived to sell the business to Stefi and their older daughter Katrina Van Wijk, who leads the school’s instructor training program. The sisters are now the third-generation owners of the Madawaska Kanu Centre. (The Kerckhoff van Wijk family is still seeking a suitable buyer for their other Ottawa Valley business, Owl Rafting.)
The family structured the sale on a 15-year timeline to avoid unduly burdening the business. Claudia maintains a presence at MKC, gently easing away from her life’s work, knowing she’s leaving it in capable hands. For her part, Stefi strives to keep the values that brought her home to MKC front and center.
“Everyone who loves MKC loves it for different reasons, so I’m not changing it,” she says. “I’m letting it be what it is. We are a school that was created to support people in their goals to be more in love with paddling.”
This article was first published in the 2024 issue of Paddling Business. Stefi and Claudia van Wijk outside Madawaska Kanu Centre, based in Ontario’s Ottawa Valley. | Feature photo: Courtesy Madawaska Kanu Centre
