Summer is almost gone, but not in our memories. It has been a long and pretty busy summer. Lots of pleasant meetings with people, paddling, kayak building classes and of course the perpetual production of paddles. The summer began with a blast of a kayak building class. We had in the chapel a group of 7 people from Norway, Nederland, Spain, Sweden and the United States. The group, different as it was, worked great together for long hours with never-failing good spirits and humor. The dinners were fantastic, with a great diversity of quality food and freshly baked bread every day. I think I gained weight during the week.
The kayaks turned out great. Functional, beautiful, and true to original arctic kayak designs. Every student brought home a fine finished or near-finished kayak. Except for our US student Gillian. The shipping options for kayaks oversea are limited. So Gillian took the challenge of taking her brand new kayak frame apart, cutting long pieces into shorter pieces, and fitting everything into a ski bag to take home on her plane. Shortly after, home in New York, she rebuilt the kayak and skinned it. In the picture below she is out paddling on her local waters on a different continent. Respect!
There has been time for some holiday and paddling as well. Jannie and I has been doing lots of short training trips, hiking and paddling. Home and while visiting Denmark. As often, the best of it all was paddling in Northern Norway visiting our friends Kurt and Anne. We did not do any long thrips in the north, but we really enjoyed the good weather, the sea and the fishing and having time off.
Back home, we have filled the time with various little jobs. Rolling classes and paddle making, mainly. We also contributed at the big Southern paddling symposium at Storesand, Ytre Hvaler National park. We taught rolling classes, strokes classes, and general paddling classes. And enjoyed a nice weekend of socializing with paddlers from all over the country. Good Greenland style paddles are always in demand. And we have a great variety of paddles to produce and sell. The take-part paddles seem to be the new big thing, and I can hardly keep up with the demand. So yes, quite a few hours this summer has gone into glueing blanks, planing, carving, sanding, finishing and finally shipping numbers of fine paddles made from local spruce, alder, oak, ash and whatever else is at hand. They ship to all over the world.
There is a special story behind the top paddle in the picture above. It is in the making in this moment, and will be shipped to my friend Bjørn Hesthammer in Tromsø next week. Bjørn has spent his entire summer in Northern Greenland, Qaanaaq, among hunters and kayakers and also out exploring on his own. I have been following Bjørns travel diaries on Facebook, and I hope he will make his writing accessible to a greater audience some day. Very interesting stories from a very dirrerent part of the world. You can see Bjørn in the picture below. He had the chance to use some of the local Greenlander's paddles, as well as his own, and the paddle I make for him now is closely inspired by the North Greenlandic ones. Long, slim and with razor-sharp edged. The object of this design is mainly silent paddling. That is to my understanding much needed when hunting the narwhale.
The last part of August has been spent in the workshop mainly. Apart from paddles and prep work for my next upcoming kayak build class, I have built the nice Iqyax below. The customer, Geir, built his first kayak in one of my classes 25 years ago. It has been one of his favourite kayaks, but now was the time to get a new one. This beauty is tailored to Geir and made for his taste of shape and color. It is inspired by early Alaskan kayaks.
The kayak above, however is rather old. It must have been built in the late nineties. I remember using it while teaching kayaking classes around year 2000. I sold it once to a friend who used it a lot. He later sold it to a friend who used it a lot. At one point it was abandoned on the coast, and suffered from damage to both skin and frame. The owner, Øyvind recently asked me if I could fix it. It is a great delight to make such an old kayak new again. A few ribs and lashings replaced, a coat of oil, new skin and here you go: a beautiful new kayak.
