Benjamin Donner

www.aavameri.fi

E-mail: benjamin@aavameri.fi

Telephone: +358 44 980 77 88

Base of operation: Turku

Ben is the owner and head coach of Aavameri, a Finnish sea kayaking company with most of Europe’s greatest kayaking waters as its playground and work field. Ben has over 1500 nights in the open air behind him, instructing sea kayaking, sea safety and survival, white water paddling, leadership, winter mountaineering and more. Much of his work focuses on guide coaching & assessment, but he as much enjoys taking groups out kayaking in his favorite waters and arranging international expeditions. He has guided and coached around the world since 1995, with places such as the Norwegian Lofoten and Helgelandskysten area, northern Wales, western Sweden, Cornwall, Greece, Scotland and of course his own top pick,  the Finnish Archipelago Sea with its 40.000 islands as regular playgrounds.

Ben holds the highest level coach and assessor certificates in Finland and is amongst others a BCU 5 Star Sea Leader and WMA Wilderness First Responder. He has created the biggest Nordic sea kayak symposium Hanko Sea Kayak Gathering (HSKG) and brought the Nordic Sea Kayak Instructors Certification body NIL in Finland, but today focuses on his company which offers courses, expeditions, day tours, expedition support in Finland.