Canoe tour business expanded

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Tla-ook Adventures, owned and operated by 25-year-old Gisele Martin and her partner, Doug Wright, provides dugout canoe tours with a strong Nuu-chah-nulth flavor. The 34-foot Sa-sit-qua-ees carved by Gisele's father, Joe Martin, was launched four years ago. He eventually gave the canoe to his daughters, Gisele and Marie-France.

Seeing a promising opportunity, Gisele Martin and Wright applied for a business loan from Nuu-chah-nulth Economic Development Corporation and launched a cultural tourism venture based in Tofino.

Tla-ook Adventures officially opened June 21, 2000, National Aboriginal Day. The entrepreneurs and their guide, Dwayne Martin, offer tour packages that vary from short canoe tours of the small islands in Tofino Inlet to three-hour salmon barbeques at picturesque Echachis Island, the location of an ancient Tla-o-qui-aht village site.

The Cultural Mystery Tour is another excursion featured at Tla-ook Adventures. Gisele says the mystery changes, but sometimes a tour might mean a search for wildlife on the islands or viewing unusual trees on Meares Island.

Business grew through the summer and early fall despite the lack of advertising. While there are dozens of tourist-oriented businesses in Tofino, Gisele Martin says there is a lack of genuine First Nations culture-based operations.

"We are getting known because there isn't much going on culturally here," she said.

Relying on word-of-mouth advertising, the team were busy enough to take the next step: business expansion. With a business loan, the Martins were able to commission two smaller canoes from Joe Martin and his brothers.

The first canoe, appropriately named Tsa-walk, meaning 'one,' was launched at Cha-chas on May 4 this year.

Invited guests were ferried to the island on a sunny but very windy Sunday afternoon. Sheltered from the Pacific Ocean in a small cove is a cabin, along with two sheds. Lennard Light lies directly across the cove on another small Island.

Guests mingled, making seats on logs that had drifted ashore, as children frolicked in the frigid ocean.

An hour-and-a-half after leaving Fisherman's Dock in Tofino, the crew of the Sa-sit-qua-ees arrived and joined the rest of the party in a picnic of salads, salmon, halibut and crab.

At about five o'clock, volunteers carried the Tsa-walk from her hiding place in the forest to the beach. The Martin family offered a prayer chant and thanked their guests for coming to witness the launching of Tsa-walk. They said a special thank you to Ahousaht Chief Corbett George for attending this year's launching.

George, in turn, offered a prayer chant and a paddle song with the help of his people. He praised everyone involved for the work that they do. He acknowledged the outstanding craftsmanship of the canoe carvers and praised them for their efforts in keeping the culture alive.

The Tla-o-qui-ahts joined in another paddle song before the canoe, hoisted on shoulders, was carried to the ocean where she glided into the calm waters of the cove. Wright and Gisele Martin watched proudly as people took turns taking the canoe for a ride in the cove.

Dwayne Martin said the new, smaller canoe will come in handy when smaller tour groups want to go out. "We won't have to look for an extra person to help out with a smaller canoe," he explained.

Tla-ook Adventures' owners look forward to the launch of their third canoe, expected in about a month.