Dan The Kayak Man

 

We always joke about Dan being a washed-up raft guide, and in some ways this is true, as his raft guiding career was pretty short compared to the rest of the time he has spent on the water...

Dan grew up in Pennsylvania with a family that appreciated the outdoors but not so much into adventure sports. Connoquenessing Creek runs out the back of his family home and it was there, that Dan tells me, he saw some guy in a kayak paddling past his yard and thought it looked fun.

 

Checking out the river before a gorge run, training for Coast to Coast.

 

He saved his pennies while at school from mowing lawns, and bought an old kayak. It was tippy, had a few holes in it and a paddle that was like Fred Flintstones club.

It wasn’t until he went to university to study Parks and Recreation that he met his then professor and later friend Chris, who taught him all about the river.

 

Dan is at the back heading up a mountain with pack raft and paddle, looking for a hidden river in Canterbury's backcountry.

 

Paddles in the creek behind the house turned into week long white-water expeditions. He got his guiding and rescue tickets and soon paddling wasn’t just a weekend sport it was a full-time job for close to 15 years.

 Late nights partying and with long days guiding folks on rivers and lakes, Dan was living the ultimate kayak guides life. The stories he tells us after a few beers on a Friday reveal some of the high lights, he really was living the dream.

 

Pack-rafting the Rakaia River near with Further Faster Athlete Becky Clarke while filing our promo movie.

 

Since leaving the USA Dan has paddled white-water, oceans, and lakes in Europe and New Zealand making the most of all the boats he has collected over the years. Training for the Coast to Coast race he was able to add a multi-sport boat and pack raft to his collection while exploring Canterbury’s amazing rivers and gorges (which if the late starts at work with the excuse ‘I gotta go train for Coast to Coast’ are anything to go by, I would say he is loving it).

 

Showing us how much he loves to paddle by doing it on the snow for the RedBull ad Further Faster Snowpalooza at Mt Hutt.

So, a washed-up raft guide he might be, but a washed-up paddle man? Definitely not! Despite the long hours in the shop Dan still lives and breathes what he loves, and is an expert in all things paddle. He is even getting his brood of kids on the water when he can!

 

The Faber family out on the river in the Canadian Canoe. 

You can tee up a time to talk all things boats and paddles with Dan by either dropping by the shop or calling ahead to make sure he is here and not on the river.

We have a huge range of all things paddle here at Further Faster & Long Cloud Kayaks... with Dan buying it all are you surprised??