Written by Natalie Abriel
Photography by Bri Vos & Patrick Kerby
For a region that seems distant from the rest of Canada, it nonetheless has a bigger and stronger natural connection with the rest of the country than most realize. Wood Buffalo sparkles with the spectacular beauty of the Athabasca and Clearwater rivers1 that reach their confluence at Fort McMurray. And it is these rivers that can convey travellers anywhere in the nation; they are faster than foot, they have much less traffic than highways and they flow along without security checkpoints. All that’s needed are a canoe, paddles and skills like those of Darin Zandee, Borealis Canoe Club President.
Darin and his family are avid paddlers and he is enthusiastic about teaching anyone that wishes to become one as well. In addition to volunteering on behalf of the canoe club, Darin works as a Project Manager with Suncor and he also owns and operates his own business – Nature’s Window Adventures – on the city’s rivers.
“I wasn’t born in a canoe but I might as well have been,” Darin says. He learned about canoes before he learned to walk, where he grew up, on lakes in British Columbia. When he moved to Fort McMurray in 2003, Darin met local paddlers who showed him the city’s rivers and together they created the Borealis Canoe Club. To meet requests from citizens who were not club members, Darin and his wife Jennifer started their business, which offers a canoe rental service, lessons and safety education. The Athabasca and the Clearwater rivers are more than just a network of expansive waterways: In 1778, these rivers led explorer Peter Pond to the area now known as the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.
According to Darin, the Athabasca and Clearwater rivers connect the past with the present and the future and they are a pride of nature that shouldn’t be taken for granted.