Bear Mountain Boats, Nick Offerman and Canoeroots Magazine

We were so excited to see Bear Mountain Boats mentioned in the 2014 Summer/Fall issue Canoeroots magazine! In the article, Parks & Recreation star Nick Offerman discussed his Jedi-like experience filming our Canoecraft Companion DVD,

With an itch to build a canoe, Offerman went looking for help. "All research pointed towards the book Canoecraft by Ted Moores, who runs Bear Mountain Boats with his partner, Joan Barrett," he says. Moores and Barrett saw Offerman as more than a customer and requested he use his confidence in front of the camera to make a how-to video for other would-be boat builders. "I felt like Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi were suggesting I make a lightsaber instructional video," says Offerman. He visited the Bear Mountain Boats workshop in Peterborough, Ontario to meet the couple and pick up his materials. Back in New York, Offerman began building a red cedar strip canoe he named Huckleberry while filming the process. The 126-minute Fine Woodstrip Canoe Building with Nick Offerman was released in 2008, and won The Reel Paddling Film Festival's best instructional film award.

Nick offers some advice for anyone interested in building their own canoe, as well as some great advice he learned from Ted.

For paddlers interested in building their own canoe, Offerman recommends more than just growing a moustache ("Though it will help," he advises). "A paddle is a great place to start; that's where you can get hooked." Once familiar with the basic tools of woodworking, a canoe is much less daunting. "Ted Moores put it well," Offerman says. "He says, 'Don't look at the whole thing; don't look at the skyscraper as a whole. Look at each piece, one at a time. A concrete foundation, some steel girders - you can only do once pice at a time.' When you break it down like that, it's a lot less daunting. You might feel like, 'God, I don't think I could make a Corvette, but I know I could thread the lug nuts onto that wheel.' Building a Corvette is only a sequence of lug nuts when you get down to it."

What's Nick working on next?

Offerman is looking forward to his next personal woodworking project, a 17-foot sleek and modern kayak design called the Endeavor.