Employment

The core season runs from May to September. While many guides new guides start in May, it can be a slower month. Depending on your preferences and the needs of Paddle West, work can begin in May or early June.

Similarly, not all guides stay until the fall shoulder season. Mention in your application if you would be interested in working until the beginning, middle, or end of September. Limited guiding is available after the beginning of October.

Paddle West offers staff accommodation at a prime location, 5-minutes from Tofino center, 5-minutes to Tonquin beach, and 10 minutes from the Paddle West dock. 

Staff housing consists of private rooms for more senior guides, as well as bunk rooms. No more than 2 guides will share a room, and no more than 6 guides will occupy a unit.

Please include in your application if you require staff housing.

Paddle West offers a variety of day trips — head to the day trips section of the website to check them out. You will be paid for 30 minutes of prep before your trip, and 30 minutes of clean-up afterwards. For example, a 2.5 hour Islands Tour is 3.5 hours of work for a guide.

Typically, a full day of guiding is an 8.5-hour day consisting of an Islands Tour and a Rainforest Tour. Less commonly, a full day could be a 7-hour full-day tour (Lemmens or Vargas), two Islands Tours (7 hours), or two Rainforest Tours (10 hours). 

The shack manager will try their best to give you a compact day of guiding (morning tour + afternoon tour, or afternoon tour + evening tour) — however, sometimes you may need to work a split day. In these cases, you may have one tour in the morning, and one tour in the late afternoon or early evening. This is a great opportunity to get in a mid-day surf — many guides come to love these days!

Yes — while there are required certifications to guide for Paddle West, there is also in-house training specific to Tofino and Ucluelet. 

Tofino training typically takes place in early June over 2-3 days. It is important to be present for training days to hear from local experts, naturalists, historians, become familiar with the local waters, hone kayaking skills, and bond as a team. 

During this period, a team bonding kayak camping trip takes place on Vargas Island.

A few days after Tofino training, there is a 2-day Ucluelet training period for guides working from our Ukee location.

Yes! Paddle West is lucky enough to have docks in both Tofino and Ucluelet. 

While the bulk of our team guides solely from Tofino, there is the opportunity to work in Ucluelet and northern Barkley Sound as well. 

Mention in your application if you are interested in working at one, or both locations. 

Each day that you are on the schedule, you will be assigned a number from 1-5. This number represents your guiding priority. If only one tour books, only guide #1 may work that day. In high season (mid-June to mid-September) expect to receive work when on the schedule — barring cancellations due to weather. 

In the event you are scheduled, but have no tours booked, you will be on call until 30 minutes before your scheduled tour times. 

Yes — but hopefully not tipped out of their kayak. Our guests often decide to tip their guide when they have a great day of sea-kayaking. 

While tipping is common, it shouldn’t be relied upon. You could go days without getting tipped and then receive a $100 bill — just like kayaking, it can come in waves!

To begin guiding at Paddle West you will be required to shadow veteran guides to learn the ropes. As you become more comfortable, you will slowly take on more responsibility until you are leading the tours. 

Typically, we aim for 10 shadow trips for a new guide to be signed off to head out on their own. 

Shadowing can begin before the in-house training takes place.

In the high season (mid-June to mid-Sept) a typical schedule consists of 8.5 hour days of guiding, 5 days a week.