The amazing ultralight kayak

Building a kayak in your 11/2008 Portland workshop was one of the best creative experiences of my life, so I encourage others to enroll. This is a project that could change your life. -Val, 2010

Humpback, British Columbia, August 2008

Nothing beats kayaking for tranquility and helping us see the beauty of the world we live in. At the same time there is no thrill as great as when the wind picks up and sea gets rough. A kayak that only weighs 28 lbs means that you will actually be out there for the experience.

Estevan Point, British Columbia, August 2008

A good sea kayak thrives under both sunny days and adverse ones. Skin-on-frame kayaks invite sea turtles and orcas to come investigate, as our friends from Hawaii tell us. They keep you upright when the sea turns dark suddenly. Once you build a skin-on-frame kayak, you will probably find that your 55 lb fiberglass and 65 lb plastic boats stay dry in the garage while you’re out having fun. Women particularly enjoy being able to carry and load their own kayaks with ease.

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Building a kayak with your own hands

Spending days constructing my boat, I learned that a beautiful, handmade kayak is more accessible than I ever imagined. Working with Kiliii was a charm. He quickly demonstrates his experience through passionately explaining each step of the way. Just don’t let him tell you that mortising by hand is fun… I would say if you get a chance to create your own kayak, do it. -Noah, 2009

Building a skin-on-frame kayak means more than you first imagine. When you bring a boat to life in the traditional fashion, you create stories just as the first kayakers did and still do. You learn complex building techniques, but also how to understand wood, lashings and hand tools. In class we talk about kayak history, native history and paddling adventures. We learn about the original Greenland kayak and the popular Aleut baidarka kayak forms. Paddling a kayak you build with your own two hands connects you with the most ancient and basic human needs and feeds our spirits.

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Building Highlights

Over eight days we cut and bend wood using nearly all  hand tools. We use steam to bend amazing curves into wood, even the elliptical kayak coamings (cockpit rings). We learn to sight and see the hull shape as it forms. We lash the pieces together without any metal, then sew the skins on in the traditional Greenlandic style. We use both tape measures as well as body parts to measure.

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Traditional Paddles

Modern paddles, often called ‘Euro-Paddles’ have come to the shape that they are today because of history. Derived from the British canoe paddle, the first European paddlers that began using kayaks in the Western World took with them what they knew.

Today we know that traditional paddles designed for native kayaks offer significant advantages over ‘euro-paddles’, particularly for long-distance touring or paddling for over an hour at a stretch. With a lower resistance blade surface, traditional paddles like Greenland paddles require increased cadence, building aerobic strength but removing high strain to the shoulders and arms. Additionally, Greenland paddles allow a much wider variety of strokes for maneuvering kayaks.

At Seawolf, we believe that there’s a reason that the world record set for circumnavigation of British Columbia’s Vancouver Island (23 days by Joe O’Blenis) was done with a Greenland paddle, or that the only circumnavigation of Iceland was completed by two paddlers who champion Greenland paddles. They work, and they won’t wreck your body in the process. We offer two options in our workshops since we include a paddle, both a standard Greenland-based paddle, and a paddle replica used by native kayakers from the Norton Sound region of Alaska.

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