COEUR d'ALENE - North Idaho College's Outdoor Pursuits offers diverse opportunities for outdoor fun year round.

In addition to kayak, canoe, monohull and catamaran sailboat rentals, the program offers summertime small and keel sailboat, rock climbing and sea kayaking clinics.

"What makes us unique is that our program is available to those who are not part of the campus community," said Outdoor Pursuits Coordinator Jon Totten. "Most outdoor programs are only available to fee paying students, staff and faculty, but we offer clinics and equipment rentals to the entire community.

"You just pay for the class or rent the equipment and go for it."

The facility is also home to courses offered at NIC.

Brianna Nelson is a student enrolled in the sailing class through Outdoor Pursuits.

Cooler temperatures and a stiff breeze across Lake Coeur d'Alene made for a challenging opportunity to try out one of the program's catamarans on Tuesday.

"It's my first time going out on my own," said Nelson, who is majoring in nursing.

Tough course, sailing - she missed some classes and had to get in some makeup credits when she had the chance.

"It's going to be interesting," she said as she tested the wind to see which way to set sail.

Outdoor Pursuits is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week and is a function of Student Activities at NIC. They are primarily funded through rental and clinic revenues, which provide for equipment maintenance and allow for a student staff to run the beach hut during the summer.

Summer programs revolve around lakefront activities, and a complete list of summer clinics including dates, times and fees can be found in the recreation section of the Workforce training tab on NIC's Web site. A complete list of rental equipment is available at the Outdoor Pursuits website.

"Sailing is probably our most popular clinic," Totten said. "The small boat classes are designed for small dinghies and catamarans, and the keel boat class is geared more toward people who are looking to sail a larger boat and, potentially, somewhere else."

For keel classes, Outdoor Pursuits has a 26-foot Colgate sailboat that, Totten said, "performs impeccably."

Fall and spring courses include: White water rafting, kayaking, mountain biking, backpacking, canoeing, sea kayaking, rock climbing and surfing. Winter courses include: Skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, XC Skiing, backcountry skiing and avalanche training.

Totten said Outdoor Pursuits is looking to expand their facilities and equipment, and will be buying new trailers and vans because they travel more during the school year.

"Another thing that's likely to happen this fall is that we will upgrade our beach storage facility by building a proper boat house with a work shop for doing repairs and maintaining equipment," Totten said. "Right now we're at capacity. "We don't have any more room for kayaks or boats of any kind. The deck and building are maxed out, which is awesome because demand has brought us to this level."

Outdoor Pursuits began in 1978 with a few pieces of equipment for local wilderness adventure.

"We've come a long way since then," Totten said. "We now offer dozens of clinics and have an immense inventory of equipment.

"When I first started here we had five kayaks. Now, we've got 16 and classes are full. The diversity of our staff has also increased. We started with one full-time person and now we have two full-time staff members and four interns during the summer months."

Information: 769-7809, www.nic.edu/op