Canada’s First-Ever Female Paddle Canada River Instructor Trainer | 3x GoPro Mountain Games Champion | Founder of CANRVRSUP & Lead Guide/Instructor

Certifications:
​Paddle Canada
Advanced Flatwater Instructor
 Advanced Flatwater Instructor Trainer
River 1 Instructor
River 2 Instructor
 River 1 Instructor Trainer
River 2 Instructor Trainer
 Touring 1 Instructor
 Touring 2 Instructor
​
Rescue 3 - Raven RSM
Swift Water  Rescue Technician Instructor
Swift Water  Rescue Technician Advanced 
​Ice Rescue Technician
Technical Ropes Operator
Wilderness First Responder

What Makes Reta Stand Out?
Reta is a trailblazer in North American paddlesports and Canada's first-ever female Paddle Canada River Instructor Trainer. As an elite, highly decorated river SUP athlete and Swiftwater Rescue Instructor, she bridges the gap between peak athletic performance and advanced river rescue. Reta is the creator of the Flat to Flow™ methodology, a masterclass curriculum designed to progress paddlers safely from calm, flat lakes to the technical, high-consequence currents of flowing rivers.
Elite Athletic Resume
A proud Badfish SUP, Kokatat, Werner, Arcteryx sponsored athlete, Reta's dominance on the water is recognized globally:

• 3x Defending Champion – GoPro Mountain Games SUP Cross (The world's largest whitewater SUP event)
• 3x National Champion – Whitewater SUP Slalom Canadian National Championship

Her passion for running rivers has taken her across North, Central and South America. While she has paddled world-class whitewater internationally—including her favorite big-water lines on the Pacuare River in Costa Rica—she remains deeply rooted in her home waters: the Kananaskis Valley in Alberta and the Trail Wave on the Columbia River in British Columbia.
Professional Foundations & Community
First introduced to the sport in 2010, Reta believes stand-up paddleboarding is a limitless discipline that is exactly as challenging as you want it to be. In 2020, she founded CANRVRSUP to share her knowledge and skills to foster a safe, highly skilled community of river stand-up paddlers through standardized quality instruction.
When she isn't competing or training the next generation of instructors, Reta simply lives to go with the flow—whether she is singing her way down a river behind a set of raft oars, crushing bigger lines in her whitewater kayak, or tamining her inflatable alligator through monster waves.

The stoke is always high for Reta when she's headed to 2theRVR.

Meet Reta the Athlete

LISTEN TO A PODCAST INTERVIEW

If you haven’t met Reta she’s like whiskey in a tea cup, not what you expect when you take that first sip and she can knock you off your feet. In a good way she is SUP’s biggest cheerleader when it comes to getting women stoked to get on the water. It’s hard to say no to her.”
- Lisa Stocking

Reta gives 200% in everything she does.  She is passionate about safety, increasing skill level, and maintaining our beautiful natural spaces while having fun. She is extremely generous in sharing her knowledge, leaving nothing out for “next time”, so as a participant in either a trip or a course you feel satisfied.  She is a great teacher seeming to have a natural sense of how to read and rate her students' progression in a logical manner; which coaxes a person out of their comfort zone, without pushing someone past their ability level so they feel confident in doing so and crave more progression.  Reta is always “on”, her enthusiasm for the sport of River SUP is infectious.  I am looking forward to more river trips guided by Reta in the future."  - Trish Rasmussen

Follow along with Reta from ​Flat to Flow™