What does Level 4 mean?
In the IRF, the level number shows the most difficult class of whitewater a guide may work on. A Level 4 Trip Leader can lead a multi-boat rafting trip and its guide team on rapids up to class IV.
Founder of Doğadayız
Who Is Mustafa Kaya?
Mustafa Kaya is an instructor, guide and nature and adventure tourism professional who founded Doğadayız in 2012 and grew it around one idea: making outdoor sports accessible to everyone. After training as a physical education teacher at the School of Physical Education and Sports (BESYO) of Niğde University, Mustafa Kaya completed a master's degree in recreation at Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University in 2025. An International Rafting Federation (IRF) certified rafting guide since 2010 and today one of Türkiye's very few IRF raft instructors, Mustafa Kaya turned the activity holiday into a defined tourism product and personally leads Doğadayız's ski and snowboard courses in winter.
At a glance
- Role
- Founder of Doğadayız
- Bachelor's degree
- Niğde University, BESYO — Physical Education and Sports Teaching
- Master's degree
- Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University — Recreation (2025)
- Rafting
- IRF Raft Trip Leader (Level 4) · IRF Raft Instructor (Level 3, provisional)
- First IRF certificate
- 2010 · Cetina River, Croatia
- Winter sports
- Personally leads Doğadayız's ski and snowboard courses
- Areas of expertise
- Rafting, river guiding, guide training, skiing, snowboarding
- Academic work
- A master's thesis and a book (2025) on recreational flow in nature and adventure tourism
- 3
- Level 4 IRF Raft Trip Leaders in Türkiye; Mustafa Kaya is one of them
- 2
- registered IRF raft instructors from Türkiye; Mustafa Kaya is one of them
- 16+ years
- as an internationally certified rafting guide
- 2,373
- winter programme participants (last 4 seasons)
A journey that began with sport
Mustafa Kaya's life in sport began with martial arts in Kütahya. After the sports track at Kütahya High School, Mustafa Kaya completed a bachelor's degree in Physical Education and Sports Teaching at the School of Physical Education and Sports of Niğde University.
During university, training in a range of sports gradually turned Mustafa Kaya's focus to outdoor sports. Summers as a student and later as a teacher were spent at nature and adventure tourism companies, with responsibility for field guiding (above all rafting), operations planning and managing Turkish and international groups.
From 2004 to 2008, Mustafa Kaya taught physical education in Hakkâri, Kütahya and Bilecik. Since 2007, the professional field work has continued without a break, with training in Türkiye and abroad developed side by side with the operations Mustafa Kaya runs.
The activity holiday: from concept to tourism product
To give nature and adventure tours a shared language, Mustafa Kaya brought the term activity holiday (Turkish: aktivite tatili) into the industry's vocabulary by using it systematically across the brand, its products and academic work.
The term describes a complete holiday model that combines accommodation, transport, outdoor sports, instruction, exploration and a social experience. Through the programmes developed at Doğadayız, the activity holiday became more than a tour name: a tourism product that can be planned, marketed and applied to different destinations. Sharing the same programme with like-minded people turns it into a social adventure holiday.
Over time, the term was taken up by travellers, industry representatives and digital platforms, and it helped present different nature and adventure products under one shared heading. Mustafa Kaya and Doğadayız were among the pioneers in developing, applying and spreading this approach.
- Accommodation
- Transport
- Outdoor sports
- Instruction
- Exploration
- Social experience
Fethiye activity holiday →Ölüdeniz all-inclusive activity holiday →Social adventure and activity holidays →
Education and career timeline
1994–1997
Kütahya High School — sports track
Sports-focused secondary education
2000–2004
Niğde University, BESYO
Physical Education and Sports Teaching, bachelor's degree
2004–2008
Physical education teacher
Hakkâri, Kütahya and Bilecik
2007–today
Nature and adventure tourism
Guiding, instruction, operations and product development
2010
First IRF certificate
IRF Raft Guide, Level 3 · Cetina River, Croatia
2012
Founding of Doğadayız
Turning outdoor sports and tourism experience into a business
2017
IRF Raft Trip Leader, Level 4
Dalaman River, Muğla · certificate no. TUR 17 001
2025
Master's degree and book
Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Department of Recreation · book published by Gazi Kitabevi
2025
IRF Raft Instructor (provisional)
Vrbas River, Bosnia and Herzegovina
IRF certificates
The International Rafting Federation (IRF) certifies guide competence through its GTE programme and publishes every certificate in a public register. The information below was taken from that register on 17 October 2026.
| Certificate | Date | Location | Certificate no. | Assessor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IRF Raft Guide — Level 3Raft Guide · Level 3 | 29 April 2010 | Cetina River, Croatia | HRV 10 018 RG3 | Fabián Alejandro Bonanno |
| IRF Raft Trip Leader — Level 4Raft Trip Leader · Level 4 · Authorised to lead a multi-boat team on rapids up to class IV | 28 May 2017 | Dalaman River, Muğla, Türkiye | TUR 17 001 RTL4 | Mehmet Vedat Vural |
| IRF Raft Instructor (Provisional) — Level 3Raft Instructor Provisional · Level 3 · Authorised to run IRF guide workshops under the supervision of a fully certified IRF instructor | 4 July 2025 | Vrbas River, Bosnia and Herzegovina | BiH 25 032 RI3 P | Sebastian Larcher |
The certificates are valid until 4 July 2028. Verify in the IRF register ↗
How many in Türkiye?
As of October 2026, the register lists 127 rafting certificates issued in Türkiye. Only 3 of them are Level 4 Trip Leader certificates; the one Mustafa Kaya earned on the Dalaman River in 2017 carries the number "TUR 17 001".
Instructing
In 2025, Mustafa Kaya earned the IRF Raft Instructor certificate (Level 3, provisional) on the Vrbas River in Bosnia and Herzegovina. With this status, Mustafa Kaya runs IRF guide workshops together with a fully certified instructor.
Skills proven in the field
A multidisciplinary field of work that spans water, air, mountain and winter sports as well as tourism operations. The IRF certificates are listed in the table above, verified against the public register.
Whitewater and canoeing
- IRF Raft Instructor (provisional) · IRF Raft Trip Leader (RTL4) · IRF Raft Guide (RG3)
- Rescue 3 International — Whitewater Rescue Technician
- GOSF rafting coach
- Turkish Canoe Federation sea kayak tour leader
Diving and water safety
- CMAS Three Star Diver
- Discover scuba (try dive) specialist
- PADI Advanced Open Water Diver
- Turkish Underwater Sports Federation (TSSF) silver lifeguard
Mountain, air and winter
- Turkish Air Sports Federation (THSF) P3 paragliding pilot
- Canyoning and hiking leader
- Ski and snowboard guiding, coaching and leadership
- Turkish Tennis Federation (TTF) tennis coach
Active interests: kitesurfing, abseiling, canyoning and exploration trips
Languages: Turkish (native), English (intermediate)
A river and a community on the Black Sea
In 2025, Mustafa Kaya and Mehmet Vedat Vural, Türkiye's fully certified IRF raft instructor, trained the guides of a newly founded rafting company on Yeniköy Stream in the Of district of Trabzon. The day after the training, the team made the first known descent of Baltacı Stream: a siphon formed by a 10-metre concrete barrier and flood debris called for a boat rescue that meant climbing 20–30-metre canyon walls.
The story, written by the two instructors, was published on the IRF's official website under the title "A Story of Training, a Community, and a Clan". It describes a training built on relationships rather than methods, participants who came away with new confidence, and a company that soon began welcoming one new group after another.
On the same river as Vedat Vural
Mehmet Vedat Vural has been an IRF Trip Leader since 2002 and a fully certified Level 4 IRF Raft Instructor since 2011. In the IRF register, Vural appears as the primary assessor on almost every rafting certificate issued in Türkiye, and also carried out Mustafa Kaya's Level 4 Trip Leader assessment in 2017.
These two are the only IRF raft instructors from Türkiye in the register. What this work of raising guiding in Türkiye to an international standard means at Doğadayız is simple: on our Dalaman River rafting trip, the approach to guiding is shaped through the eyes of an instructor who trains guides.
Ski and snowboard instructor
The sports education at BESYO is where Mustafa Kaya's work in winter sports began. In Doğadayız's winter programmes in Erciyes, Sarıkamış and Bansko, Mustafa Kaya personally leads the ski and snowboard courses, which are designed so that adults skiing or snowboarding for the first time can ride the slopes safely within a few days.
- 2,373
- winter programme participants (2022–2026, 4 seasons)
- 1,776
- participants started from scratch on a basic course package
- 75%
- share of participants on basic courses
Source: Doğadayız booking records; confirmed participants in completed winter seasons.
Ski and snowboard course packages →How to start skiing →How to start snowboarding →
Academic work
Mustafa Kaya also backs up field experience with academic research. Its focus is the flow experience in nature and adventure activities: the state of complete absorption described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which arises when challenge and skill are in balance and time seems to disappear. The research examines how this experience relates to participants' loyalty to a brand, to recommending it passionately to others (brand evangelism) and to the intention to buy the same experience again.
Book · 2025 · in Turkish
Doğa ve Macera Turizminde Rekreasyonel Akış Deneyimi ile Marka Bağlılığı ve Davranışsal Sadakat
Recreational Flow Experience, Brand Loyalty and Behavioural Loyalty in Nature and Adventure Tourism
Mustafa Kaya, Prof. Dr. Hamdi Alper Güngörmüş, Arş. Gör. Onur Ceyhan · Gazi Kitabevi, Spor Bilimleri Serisi (Sports Sciences Series) · 1st edition, Ankara 2025 · ISBN 978-625-8571-32-5
Book record ↗Master's thesis · 2025 · in Turkish
Doğa ve Macera Turizminde Rekreasyonel Akışın Tekrar Satın Alma Niyetine Etkisi: Marka Evangelizminin Aracı Rolü
The Effect of Recreational Flow on Repurchase Intention in Nature and Adventure Tourism: The Mediating Role of Brand Evangelism
Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat Üniversitesi, Graduate School, Department of Recreation · Advisor: Prof. Dr. Hamdi Alper Güngörmüş
A study of how recreational flow in nature and adventure tourism affects repurchase intention, and of the mediating role of brand evangelism in this relationship.
In the field, this perspective shapes how Doğadayız designs its training: basic course packages in skiing and snowboarding and level-appropriate river sections in rafting are all built around keeping every participant at the point where challenge and skill are in balance.
Roles and titles
- Founder and managing director of Doğadayız
- Travel agency manager
- Hotel manager
- Dive school director
- Commercial rafting company manager
- Tour and activity holiday package designer
- Product and route developer for nature and adventure tourism
- Mentor and team leader
- Coordinator of a nature and adventure tourism specialist committee (İhtisas Başkanlığı)
Brands founded and run
Over a journey of more than 14 years: complementary services from instruction to accommodation, from diving to rafting and transport.
01
Social adventure and activity holidays
02
Outdoor sports guides and glossaries
03
DSD Dive Centre
Dive training and scuba diving
04
Fethiye Rafting Kano Centre
Rafting and canoeing
05
Doğadayız Nature and Adventure Hotel
Seril 2
06
Aktivite Tatil
Transfers and transport services
A voice for rivers
In 2017, when a planned dam and hydropower project on the Dalaman River threatened to end rafting there, Doğadayız and the region's rafting companies submitted a joint appeal to the authorities, first and foremost the Governorship of Muğla. The news report names Mustafa Kaya, as owner of Doğadayız, among those behind the initiative. Gazete Ayvalık, 2017 (in Turkish) ↗
Sources
- IRF — Certified Guides / Instructors (register) · accessed 17 October 2026
- A Story of Training, a Community, and a Clan · International Rafting Federation, 3 August 2025
- Dalaman Çayında Rafting Bitmesin · Gazete Ayvalık, 7 September 2017 · in Turkish
Outdoor Academy
Guides and glossaries built on Mustafa Kaya's guiding and teaching experience: from your first day on skis to rescue techniques in rafting.
Outdoor AcademyRafting glossarySkiing glossarySnowboarding glossaryAll glossariesAbout us