Olympic Kayak Tours LLC provides the highest-quality sea kayaking eco-adventures. We have a commitment to excellence in safety, fun, environmental and wildlife sensitivity, customer service and providing an educational experience. We seek to raise awareness that wildlife are subjects and not objects, with priorities of their own. We encourage a love of nature and wildlife with joyful and exciting sea kayak adventures!
Founder
Olympic Kayak Tours LLC was founded by Sam Kaviar in the summer of 2020. Sam first became a naturalist expedition sea kayak guide in 2011 in the San Juan Islands, where he guided through 2015. Sam received a bachelor's of science in Animal Behavior and Zoology, and Conservation Biology from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA.
Sam likes to say he got his first kayaking gig primarily for his biologist skills—and his first professional biology gig in part for his kayaking skills, when he went to work for the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Working for USGS, Sam studied salmon habitat recovery primarily in the Nisqually River Delta, as well as in estuaries throughout Washington State. Sam left the USGS to return to Panamá as a Fulbright research student to continue his work with the endangered pygmy sloths of Escudo de Veraguas. Sam returned to Washington State in 2017, when he founded Kayak Nisqually, providing kayak tours in the Nisqually Delta. He operated Kayak Nisqually full-time until moving to the Olympic Peninsula, and continues to operate it part-time in addition to his work with Olympic Kayak Tours.
