Whidbey Island Kayaking: Curating Unique Experiences and Building Community in Washington with Krista Loercher
Langley based Krista Loercher, owner of Whidbey Island Kayaking, is our guest for this episode. She grew up in New York City, came to Seattle in 1996 as a sales rep for the book publisher Macmillan, and moved to the south end of Whidbey after a trip with her mother that started with a New York Times article.
Krista talks about why she bought an existing kayak company after six years on the island, and how a lifetime as a swimmer, lifeguard and open water coach shaped the way she runs it. Whidbey Island Kayaking offers tours, rentals, instruction and repairs, and teaches a water safety and marine biology course for a local alternative high school.
She also serves as an elected commissioner for South Whidbey Parks and Recreation, sworn in at the end of 2019, and sits on a steering committee working to change how tourism works on Whidbey and Camano Islands. She walks through its four pillars: healthy nature, bridge building, access, and a transformational mindset. Her own point to point tours, where guests park at headquarters and ride the van to a launch spot picked for that day’s tides, currents and wind, are one early test of the idea.
Then Krista plans a day on the island: drip coffee at The Commons in Langley, a two hour loop paddle out of Langley or Coupeville, lunch at Pickles Deli in Clinton or the Greenbank Pantry, a walk through the Price Sculpture Forest in Coupeville, homemade ice cream at Kapaw’s Iskreme, Penn Cove mussels, and a stop at Joseph Whidbey State Park to look out at the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
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