David "DJ" Jeremiason

DJ founded the Paddle Folk kayak club and has been guiding kayak trips for 9 years. You'll find him on the water most every day of the summer teaching kids to kayak at Clearwater Forest which is a camp & conference center in the Brainerd Lakes area. Kayaking has taken him to some amazing destinations including the Apostle Islands and North Shore of Lake Superior, the Yucatan in Mexico, North Sea of Sweden, Puerto Rico, the Inside Passage of Alaska and countless bodies of water around the Midwest.
We welcome two new instructors to Paddle Folk!

Martha Leisch

Martha was drawn into kayaking without knowing how this sport was going to change her. She starting by learning the basics in a pool and a few months later began a job with Ascending Adventures as a guide in the Apostle Islands in 2007. Martha was scared out of her mind the first time she paddled on Lake Superior in 2-3 foot waves, needless to say, she survived and was hooked! Martha ended up guiding for Ascending Adventures for three summers and volunteered as a guide with the College of St. Scholastica’s Outdoor Pursuit program for two years. She realized that paddling had a unique ability to build confidence, relationships and personal strength like nothing else that she had ventured in before.

Kevin Shangle

Kevin started kayaking in 2007 when he was hired as a guide for Ascending Adventures. He spent three summers with Ascending Adventures and another summer as a whitewater instructor with Black Mountain Expeditions in North Carolina. Recently, he has become interested in Greenland style paddling and technique. Following some of the tradition of Inuit paddlers, Kevin has learned how to carve Greenland paddles and begun to embark on the long list of Greenland rolls.