REO Guides
Bryan Fogelman, REO Founder & President
Bryan has been rafting for almost 30 years, starting with early descents down the Salmon and Clearwater rivers in Idaho. In the late 1970's, Bryan started to explore many rivers in British Columbia that had never been rafted. He completed several first descents and introduced commercial rafting on the Nahatlatch, Nahatlatch Canyon, Similkameen Canyon and Chehalis rivers. After completing a Masters Degree in Economics from Simon Fraser University, Bryan headed down to California to work with Bill McGinnis, author of the best-selling book on rafting and owner of California's premier rafting company, Whitewater Voyages. Here Bryan rafted the South Fork, Middle Fork and North Fork of the American River, the Merced near Yosemite, and the upper Klamath.Returning to BC, Bryan started REO in 1983 and focused on running the steeper, more technical Class 4 rivers. The Nahatlatch quickly became Bryan's favorite river. The beautiful jade-green waters of the Nahatlatch, the continuous and unrelenting whitewater, the incredible forest and canyon backdrop, and the hot and sunny summers were simply irresistible. In 1989, Bryan purchased the land and began developing his vision for a world-class adventure-style resort on the Nahatlatch.
Bryan has logged almost 2,000 trips on the Nahatlatch River and still guides, crazy as ever. When he is not on the river, he enjoys playing squash and boxing training. Bryan has also had an illustrious career as a market and financial consultant specializing in the tourism, recreation and hospitality industries. Bryan worked for KPMG Peat Marwick for 5 years and prepared market and financial feasibility studies for resorts, golf courses, ski resorts, casinos, hotels, and tourism agencies. In the mid-90's his consulting work shifted to preparing business plans and raising venture capital for Nasdaq and TSX listed companies. Bryan lives in Anmore, BC with his wife Karen and three children, Bryden (11), Sierra (8) and Tenaya (6). It is Bryan's hope that one or all of his children will carry on the REO legacy.
Mark Bond, REO's General Manager
Mark is REO's General, River Operations, and Multi-sport Manager. Mark has 13 years of outdoor leadership and trip leading experience and has been a REO icon since 1999. Mark is an extraordinary safety kayaker and trip leader, guiding all of our most challenging rivers and expeditions. He runs the guide school and is in charge of the guide training at REO. He is also our Multi-sport director in charge of rock rappelling, kayaking, and hiking.Mark is a 1995 graduate of the internationally known COLT program (Canadian Outdoor Leadership Training) on Vancouver Island. Mark is multi-talented, having held instructor positions in rafting, climbing, whitewater kayaking and sea kayaking.
In April 2003, Mark completed his Bachelor of Education from the University of Victoria, majoring in Physical Education.
In addition to his outdoor pursuits, Mark likes long walks on the beach, girls, having the odd beer (like Extra Old Stock), surfing and going to the gym. He has earned many awards at REO over the years and is one of most popular and requested guides.
Tannah Chernove, REO's Resort Manager
Tannah Chernove is REO's Resort Manager extraordinaire. Tannah guides, kayaks, trip leads, maintains the resort infrastructure, and repairs our buses and trucks. So we keep him very busy.Tannah is an exceptional raft guide and a Class 5 safety kayaker. He started formal outdoor education training in 1994 by completing the Canadian Outdoor Leadership Training program (COLT). The following year he worked as an outdoor education instructor at Strathcona Park Lodge and spent all his spare time and money kayaking the rivers and surf of Vancouver Island. He instructed kayaking, mountaineering, sea kayaking and canoeing for the COLT program for several years.
Tannah has worked at REO since 1998. He is a licensed trip leader who loves technical boating. So you can expect to see him on the Nahatlatch Classic in high water, the Canyon and Stein later in the summer. He has traveled most winters to places all of us would love to be: Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico. He has paddled Class 4-5 rivers in each of these countries and has guided commercial raft trips on over 15 International rivers.
Tyler Dinsdale, REO's Assistant River Manager
Tyler has returned to REO after taking a couple years to travel, guide and kayak around the world. It is nice to have Tyler's experience and skills back at REO in 2008.
Mark Mckay (Maca), REO Senior Trip Leader
Maca is REO's resident Aussie. He is REO's assistant resort manager and one of our most talented river guides. He has guided and trip led hundreds of river trips in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada over the past six years.Maca enjoys surfing, deck parties, and swimming in ice-cold Canadian rivers. Since coming to Canada 2 years ago Maca's main focuses have been keeping his raft upright, studying to become a bus driver, and learning the local dialect - "giver", "stellar", "brutal", and "right-on eh!"
Tara Gray, REO's Shuttle and Guest Relations Manager
Tara is in charge of delivering exceptional service to our guests and hopefully exceeding their expectations.Tara started her whitewater career in 1994 as a graduate of the REO Professional Guide Training program. Though she was the youngest (and smallest) participant, she made it clear to everyone that she was not to be underestimated.
Tara spends her off-season guiding and rafting around the world, most recently in New Zealand and Australia. When she's not on the river guiding, she's been known to sing a few river tunes in front of a delirious campfire crowd. She also loves spending time with her dog, Sadie, baby Caelan and her boyfriend, Tannah. Born and raised in the isolated port community of Kitimat, BC, Tara is surely this town's greatest contribution to the whitewater world.
Fredrik Ellmark (Freddy), REO Trip Leader
Freddy is REO's Swedish superstar raft guide. He obtained a degree in Physical Education in 2001 and has been working in the outdoor industry ever since. He is currently working towards an Outdoor Rec Diploma at Cap College in Vancouver.Freddy has spent the last number of years traveling and working around the world. He is an elite soccer player, which keeps him in excellent physical condition. Freddy enjoys chick flicks, playing X-Box, watching hockey, and meeting girls.
Matthias Melcher (Matze), REO Trip Leader and Safety Kayaker
Born in Northwest Germany, Matze started his life as a normal kid; kindergarten, school, swim team, soccer, etc. But in 1995 everything changed when Matze started kayaking. Soon everything else became unimportant.He finished high school and college, spent two years at university, studying engineering and business before he decided to make the rivers of the world his office of choice.
After some time as a kayak instructor in Germany and a lot of whitewater trips all around Europe, Matze decided to check out South America. After some traveling he became a class 5 safety kayaker in the south of Chile. He worked for two seasons on the world-renowned Futaleufu River before Canada attracted his curiosity. In 2005 Matze took part in the REO guide training, updated his whitewater and rescue-skills and fell in love with the awesome rivers of beautiful British Columbia.
Chris Fisher (Welshy), REO Senior Guide and Safety Kayaker
Chris is from Wales, weird. Despite a funny accent, Chris is very popular among our guests. Maybe that was because he was often the safety kayaker on their rafting trips, and everyone loves the safety kayaker.Chris's expert kayak and river skills allowed him to quickly take to raft guiding. This also allowed him a lot of river time over the past couple of seasons. When not on the river Chris enjoys having a few pops, playing with small dogs, and patching holes in his kayak.
Chris Rhodes, REO Senior Guide
One of our few Canadian guides, Chris is a Vancouver native. Chris's athletic ability allows him to learn new skills very quickly. Raft guiding, kayaking, and driving large vehicles were no exception.Chris is a very talented river guide and has become an excellent kayaker. These skills go nicely with his current interests of surfing, skateboarding, and sea kayaking. He has taken these skills to New Zealand and is now back at school completing his degree in adventure tourism.
When Chris is not pushing the limits of his kayaking ability he enjoys driving school buses and hanging out with friends.
 |
Shannon McCarty, REO Senior Guide |
 |
Danny Bartanus, REO Guide |
 |
Corey Moulton, REO Guide |
 |
|
| Part time guides | |
 |
Justin Morton |
 |
Deuce "Bigalo" Kafka |
 |
Ty Garnham |
 |
Andre Tougas |