Building a skin on frame Qajaq

I recently attended Qajaq USA's sypmosium in Michigan in August of 2008. My friend Sharon had been telling me about it for a couple of years. So I decided to attend after making the switch to a traditional wood paddle and learning how to roll.

I was a little wary of the weekend as I was such a newbie and didn't have a hard chine boat or the traditional Inuit paddle. I should have been more worried about being drawn into the darkside even further. The club had qajaqs, paddles and tuiliks for those to borrow who didn't have their own equipment. Everyone was so helpful and nice that I had an unbelievably good time. So much so, that when I go back next year I'll be bringing my own sof qajaq!

I have joined a group of 10 people who are each going to build a skin on frame qajaq. Some of us love to paddle and have no woodworking skills, that includes me. Others are woodworkers and jumped at the chance for a new project, can you believe that? Then there is Chuck, who came up with this crazy idea to ask people to join him and share the cost of renting a building space. He will be working on only his second sof. It is a historical qajaq that has never been built before. Talk about taking on a challenge, what was he thinking?

Chuck will not be an instructor, no teachers here, so hopefully all of us have been busy reading all the great books that are available out there. There are also some very nice people who have also built a qajaq or two that have offered to help us. Hope they stop by the shop soon.

Did I mention we only have the space for 2 months? Guess where I'll be every weekend, but it will be totally worth it. In the end I will have a beautiful boat built just for me.

Just last night I helped set up the work space. Thankfully Chuck has all of the tools we will need. I also went shopping in my neighbor's garage and found every hand tool pictured in the books for the build. Once I got everything set up I actually got a head start on my qajaq...boy is this going to be fun. Can't wait to meet the rest of the group and hope they feel the same way.

I've been kayaking for years, I can't even remember the first time I tried one out. I do remember the first time I rented a tandem kayak with an ex boyfriend. It was the first clue I had that things weren't going well for us. We just kept bouncing off the opposing shorelines like bumper cars. I'm sure we would've been going in circles if the river had been wide enough. That boyfriend might be gone, but not my passion for kayaking.

I've always had a love of the outdoors and water in particular. For 10 years I rented and attended kayak demos. In 2005 I went to Alaska on business for 2 weeks and had the chance to go on a kayak tour. It was an awesome experience. Even if I didn't see any wildlife and once again found myself in a tandem kayak...with a total stranger. We managed to keep the kayak from going in circles, go figure. After I got home I got serious in my hunt for my first kayak. I knew I didn't want a plastic tub from a sports store, I'd just grow out of it too quickly. I found a used Eddyline Nighthawk 16' online. My life has changed trememdously since I met a total stranger in a parking lot outside Columbus with a lot of cash in an envelope.



That was 2 years ago and my first introduction to what awesome people kayakers are! He spent alot of time with me getting my new boat onto my Xterra and showing me how to tie it down. I was just a little worried about accidently losing my new boat somewhere on I-75 during the drive back to Michigan. That was a terrifying experience, I actually slowed down on the expressway. Don't worry, you can now find me doing 75 mph on any Michigan highway and I haven't lost my kayak yet.

My next new experience was meeting people online to kayak with. Of course I didn't know one single person with a kayak. Can't say that anymore. I now have a whole new group of friends that are amazing and a little crazy. They've taken me to the darkside, I now use a Greenland paddle and hope to someday build my own skin on frame kayak. Something I've learned, is once you get started kayaking, you just want more. More boats, more paddles and more gear. Especially since they have introduced me to camping, something I had never tried before.

We now plan a big kayak camping trip every year and lots of other short trips throughout the year. I also bought a drysuit and went on my first winter paddle last February. Between the camping and winter paddling my family can't believe how much I've changed. Yeah, I'm now broke, but I have lots of new things that allow me to enjoy the outdoors like I never have before.