I consider myself somewhat of an expert on cold weather paddling. I’ve paddled year round- at least once every month- for the past 19 years. Living in New Hampshire and paddling in the winter might seem like things that don’t go together. Our coldest day on the water last winter was 3 degrees. But it’s […]
Facebook reminded me this week, as it does, that nine years ago this week, I molded the first Blackfly boats. That first boat, Blackfly #001, still hangs in a place of honor, along with Option #001, in the Blackfly shop. Looking at those early boats now, it’s pretty obvious that I’ve gotten slightly better at […]
I hope and imagine that most people who read this over the long weekend following Thanksgiving do so before or after an adventure in the outdoors. I’m a fan of the #optoutside idea over the mark-down fueled spectacle is that is Black Friday. But this cultural event has given me pause to think about my […]
After seeing the response to last week’s blog post about the the idea of doing a kid’s boat, this week I started taking pre-orders for the Mosquito Burrito. There are two competing factors leading me to take this approach. 1) I really, really want to make this boat. The more I think about it, the […]
My son is five, and I guess it should come as no surprise he already has a taste for canoeing. He really likes paddling in the bow of our Octane 92, which he has dubbed “Splasher.” He already thinks boofing and rock spins are cool. This summer I decided I might as well get […]
Last week I wrote about our new video series “Where We Canoe.” This week I wanted to write a bit more about the river featured in the first episode, the community around it, and the effort I’m involved with to bring the two together.
I’ve very fortunate to have some very talented filmmakers on the Blackfly team and I’m excited to launch a new video series this week. It’s fairly easy to shoot eye catching video of canoes running big drops and hard rapids and drop a music track over it, but we’ve heard the criticism time and time […]
I’ll be straight, I have an agenda to sell boats. I do it for a living, it should be obvious that I have a bias. If you ask me for my opinion on my boats vs. other boats, I’m going to try to give an honest answer with a spin toward my boats (but I […]
With apologies to Sir Mix-a-lot for that title, I though this week I’d look at why Blackfly boats are “funny looking” for canoes, and why it works better. I get the question pretty commonly, “Why are the ends of the boats so bulbous?” To answer that, let’s fire up the Way-back machine and take a […]
Fall seems to have come on quickly in New Hampshire this year. The maples around the shop and along the rivers are turning fiery yellows and reds. There’s a chill in the air and the fall rains have returned. The rivers a coming up a bit. And I’m thinking forward to winter and trying to […]
