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Hot Drinks - Stories From The Field


Aug 27, 2021

David Berg began working in outdoor education in 1992 as a kayak guide in the San Juan Islands, just after graduating from college. He then spent several years in Southern California teaching open water kayaking, surf kayaking, and expeditions. David finished his NOLS Sea Kayak IC in British Columbia in 1999. His first course was in Baja the following winter. From there, David spent ten years leading Sea Kayaking and backpacking courses throughout Baja, the Pacific Northwest, Norway, and Patagonia. Still, he spent most of his time in Alaska, primarily in Prince William Sound and Southeast Alaska. David also worked for NOLS Alaska for two summers as the Sea Kayak Program Supervisor.

David was also a high school teacher and now works with a non-profit that assists high schools worldwide in developing good outside-of-the-classroom learning opportunities. In addition, he co-founded ImBlaze, a digital platform that helps schools expand their internship programmes.

David and his wife with their two children live on Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound, where they go hiking, sea kayaking, and sailing on weekends, making more adventure memories along the way.

In this episode:

  •   [3:35] David Berg talks about his experience with Chris Manchester and the students, where he and Chris woke the whole group in the middle of the night to lift their tents so that the tide wouldn’t make the tents wet. Along with the group, he stood with their tents for an hour or so, and he can’t help but still recalls that amazing cold night having to lift their tents as the water touches their feet and ankles. The experience sounds magical to us!
  •   [14:45] David shares his horrifying incident in Prince William Sound, where he lost food bags because of the big wave. A few years later, he and his good friend Doug went back to Prince William Sound with another group. Because of the past incident, he was paying extra attention to the waves since he was terrified that what happened last time couldn’t happen again and doesn’t end up hurting or losing someone in brutal waves. Around midnight David heard the glacier calving; he got up and started yelling for everyone to leave for their tent before the wave hit them. As the wave comes closer, it got smaller and smaller and barely hit the beach. For David, this counted as the most embarrassing moment of his life.
  •   [26:25] David and her wife Suzanne white took two groups on two courses where the first group did a great job, while the second group was with adults and their kids. They paddled out to Cienega glacier when heavy rain started and kept going for a good 2-3 days, which made the kids cold, and ended up parents telling them to evacuate them. The story gets more intense by the end!
  •   [31:06] David tells us about a party called cabin crawl. The party quickly turned into chaos when his fellow instructor and some other guys from another organization got into a fight. The other guy got drunk and was inappropriate with some of the women, leading him into a brawl.