I've pretty much always been around water since I was a child. Born in Canada I'd crossed the Equator and been blessed by Neptune in the Crossing the Line ceremony by the age of 2. As a boy I watched my umpteeenth model plane crash in the Capes blustery winds and vowed to take up a sport that made use of the wind and so began sailing. Crewing for a school friend on a racing dinghy we spent most of the first season swimming. We got a little better eventually competing at the National level.

Leaving school I went to sea as a deck officer. Serving on various ships in the South African and Danish Merchant Marine I was able to see half the world and most of the seas. I was on leave in winter, watching the wind push white caps across the lake when I saw a capsized kayak. Putting on a wetsuit I swam out to help the paddler and over hot coffee afterwards was hooked on paddling. I bought an old Struer Lancer I used on the rivers and lakes around the Cape and even took to sea with me on my ships. It was while on my leaves that I built my first boat. A 40ft light displacement sailboat to Dudley Dix's design. Galatea took me four years to build between trips. And so after ten years at sea I left the Merchant Navy to do some real sailing.

So in 1987 with my fiancee and some friends, we took her across the Atlantic from Cape Town to Saint Maarten. Working there as a power yacht Captain for a while we left for Alexandria Virginia in 1988. There I was employed for two years as captain of the schooner Alexandria. Which is a story in itself.

With a growing family (Althea arrived in 1993 and Christopher in 1996) I needed to earn a more reliable wage and so turned to the other family business, flying.  Almost all my male relatives since 1920 had been pilots. I started a flight school in 1990 and closed it in 1996 when I was hired as a pilot by Continental Airlines. It was in the early 90's that I returned to kayaking, building my first SOF (skin on frame) kayak. Impressed with its light weight and handling I began the long process of refining construction methods and materials usage that continues to this day. Now after 12 years I'm finally able to offer the public the opportunity to enjoy the pleasures of ultralight skin on frame kayaks.