Cape Falcon Kayak

kayaking the john day river in a skin on frame F1

Sometimes You Just Have to Go Paddling…

May 2014June 20236 Comments

I think we all have this idea that an epic vacation might act as a pressure release valve to mitigate the stress we accumulate in our lives. With an S.I. injury I’m desperately trying to stabilize the logical solution seemed to get as far away from work and boating as possible, so I headed...

Modifying an F1 kayak to paddle with injury

Designing for Injury

May 2014January 202110 Comments

Two important things happened today: 1) I started seeing a new physical therapist, and 2) I decided that if I want to get back on the water this year I’m going to have to start thinking outside the box. Owing to the lightweight and infinite modifiability of skin-on-frame, individuals with injuries are a big part of...

Where our Wood Comes From

March 2014June 2023Leave a comment

As both a woodworker and an environmentalist,it can sometimes be difficult to reconcile how I make my living with the harm it causes a dwindling resource. In the case of the oak I use to make kayak coamings and ribs, it’s estimated that 99% of the oak savannah that once blanketed the Willamette valley is now...

Teaching at the NW Maritime Center

March 2014February 20232 Comments

For anyone with an interest in traditional wooden boat building, Port Townsend is one of the last places on the west coast where you can see traditional shipwrights plying their trade. Home to the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building, The Boat Haven Shipyard, The Northwest Maritime Center, and the Annual Wooden Boat Festival,...

Everything Old is New Again: Designing a Skin-on-Frame Whitewater Kayak

March 2014June 20238 Comments

As much as we like to think design is progressive, it’s often cyclical. As every sport is fractioned and specialized, so much is focused on what is being gained, until one day, someone stops to notice what we have lost. You get back on that old Centurion ten speed with 27 inch wheels, and...

First Class of 2014: A Week at Westwind

February 2014June 2023Leave a comment

Living out here on the rugged Oregon Coast, there are few places that rival my home stretch of sand for sheer beauty, the mile long beach and estuary directly south of Cascade Head is one of them. I first saw this idyllic place when I made the mistake of landing a kayak on the...

Changes: The Cape Falcon Kayak 2013 Winter Update

December 2013June 2023Leave a comment

2013 was a tough year. Beginning with a brutal sports injury that left me barely able to walk for eight months, just as that started healing I woke up in the middle of the night and shook my fiance awake, “Somethings wrong, my heart isn’t beating right.” Snapping back into paramedic mode, this time...

Harvest: The Cape Falcon Kayak Fall 2013 Update

October 2013June 2023Leave a comment

As anyone who reads this site knows, I like to dive right into the important issues of life before moving onto the trivialities of kayaking and whatnot, and as such I feel compelled to ask my readers if they saw the latest larger-than-life sci-fi/monster movie Pacific Rim yet? Dude! Giant monsters fighting huge robots...

skin on frame kayaks with different dye colors

Big Projects and Little Projects: The Cape Falcon Kayak Summer 2013 Update

September 2013June 2023Leave a comment

I’ll begin by getting the ‘poor me’ portion of this update out of the way. The injury still sucks, and despite my best efforts with physical therapy, massage, trigger point release, acupuncture, deep breathing, essential oils, prayer, seances, ouija boards, and voodoo…. It STILL f***ing hurts. Slight improvements over this spring include: the ability...

Hooking Up at the Bar: A Tale of Pursuit

September 2013June 2023Leave a comment

As the summer grinds to a close my favorite time of year draws nigh, that would be surfing-crabbing-salmon-mushroom-deer-elk-steelhead hunting season. Otherwise known as Autumn. Unfortunately, no one told the fish to wait patiently while I finished up the last classes of the year, and ever since I got wind of the bite a couple weeks...

Unforeseen Difficulties: The Cape Falcon Kayak Winter/Spring Update

April 2013June 2023Leave a comment

This winter began as most any other, with a giant sigh of relief as I settled in for some much deserved time alone with a fishing pole, pouring rain, and endless miles of solitude on the river. I woke to a familiar rhythm, darkness, coffee, the cold and the wetness, the rumbling engine of...

Creeking Goes Coastal: Two Weeks of Low and Dry Force Us onto the Only Water that’s Left

December 2012June 2023Leave a comment

Normally the entire state of Oregon is pounded by sideways rain from November to April, occasionally we’ll get a sunny patch, but this December has been weird. I normally hang up the sea kayak for the winter, but after two weeks of solid sunshine and there was little to no creeking left to be...

Full Speed Ahead: Boating the North Fork Nehalem at Maximum Floodstage

November 2012June 2023Leave a comment

With a howling wind ripping important pieces off my house and rain coming down in buckets I talked to Brandon on the phone, “…I just soloed the whole thing with the water coming up flipped twice and had to do a crazy difficult scout and then I was running parallel with this massive old...

The Big One

November 2012June 2023Leave a comment

5:30 AM. BLEEP….BLEEP…BLEEP…BLEEP… I’m jarred awake. Despite a warm and attractive woman curled up next to me, despite a volley of wind and rain spattering against the pitch black windows, despite a moral conviction that no one should ever wake up earlier than 6am, I get up. Carefully picking my way down the stairs in the dark,...

Rain: The Cape Falcon Kayak Fall Update 2012

November 2012June 2023Leave a comment

First, to answer the question that I’m sure half of America has been on the edge of their seat wondering…. No, I did not kill an elk this year. At the conclusion of twenty consecutive days of stalking the coastal forests with minimal nourishment and maximal exertion, I returned home without the trophy that...