The Outsider Coast

The Outsider Coast was established in 1996 as subsidiary company of The Outsider. It was there that Annick Claeys and Geert Uytterhoeven, business managers of The Outsider Coast, found each other.
The Outsider Coast is a cooperative company that is specialized in organizing sport events. Some of these activities are fixed programs but we can also customize plenty of our activities according to the wishes of our guests. Our participants are mainly youngsters between 10 and 30 years old. They sign up per group, mostly these are sport clubs, groups of friends, schools, youth movements, sport federations, etc.
Due to the huge demand, we decided to establish an event service that would focus mainly on organizing sport events for companies. Purpose was to offer sport events and active leisure time at the coast and in the West Flemish hinterland. Beside sport activities mainly in Westende and Nieuwpoort, we also offer excursion trips of several days, with the passenger ship Karel Cogge in West Flanders and Northern France.
At the beginning, everything was coordinated from the central office of The Outsider but after a while, due to the increasing number of activities and customers, this was no longer possible. So in 2000 we opened a new office in Diksmuide. And systematically we also got more staff. The last years we could always count on a constantly growing core group of enthousiastic seasonal employees and some independent guides.

That’s why the centre “Calidris” in Westende trusted us with the elaboration of sport and educational programs. Several other centres (Hoge Duin in Oostduinkerke, Home Delhuzo in Middelkerke, Duinenzicht in Westende and Octopus in Koksijde) included activities of the Outsider Coast in their fixed program. Since 2001 the office of tourism of Ostend appeals to us for organizing secondary activities to the seminars. The foundation Vlaams Erfgoed (Flemish heritage protection association) asked us to elaborate an incentive program in one of their top-class locations: the Fortress Napoleon in Ostend.
A little later we elaborated a program in Damme concerning Till Eulenspiegel.

In 2002 in collaboration with vzw De Boot, the new ship Jeanne Panne started sailing. This completely new hotel boat offers more luxury and replaces the Karel Cogge for the sailing programs. The Karel Cogge got a fixed mooring in Nieuwpoort where it functions as original place to stay.

In 2005 we started building our centre ‘t Kraaienest in Nieuwpoort. In collaboration with “Waterwegen en Zeekanaal” (Waterways and sea canal) we changed the isle dramatically: new embankments, a slipway and inlet dock, and moorings for our two ships. With the support of the province and tourism of Flanders we provided an exceptional and multifunctional building:  reception building with sanitary facilities, cafetaria and storage space,…everything we need to further develop our programs on inland waterways. In January 2007 we celebrated the official opening.

We kept on expanding our offer of activities and since 2007 we are permanent partner for events and incentives on the Yser Tower: For the daredevils we offer the highest abseil of Flanders here, an incredible height of 84 meters. With the addition of 5 catamarans, we expanded our own "fleet". Now we are able to offer you the opportunity to discover this really exciting sport in Ostend.

In 2010 another new format was born : " The Outsider Cooks". We can now supply that little something extra and different to end your teambuilding with a bit of catering.

In Westende one of our priorities now is to build, in collaboration with VVW Westende, a completely new water sport centre. And although building on the beach is always a difficult task, we do see some progress: in exchange for the removal of two dilapidated buildings, all parties have now agreed to the construction of this new centre. In 2011 the works started and we expect to celebrate the opening in the spring of 2012.