01.23.12
Take the Bull Castrator Challenge!
It is the middle of winter and we are bored... so let's have a contest! 

We use a bull castrator nearly every day as an essential tool for the paddle making process. No lie. We really do!

The first person to guess what we use it for wins a fabulous Whiskeyjack Hoody. We are also giving hoodies and hats for the most creative/funny/original/ answers that get posted... Danny B. will be the judge. 

Visit our facebook page and hit "Like" to place a guess.

12.12.11
Amazing day on "The Big"
After eight months of anticipation, the ski resort here in Whitefish, Montana is finally open again. It was a grey, foggy day in town... but that often means entirely different weather up at the summit of the mountain... INVERSION. About midway up the mountain we busted through the clouds and we're greeted with crystal clear skies and a warm, glowing sun. Inversion days are always my favorite days on the mountain... where the views and scenery are just as spectacular as the skiing.


Looking down on a blanket of clouds from the summit of Big Mountain. Whitefish, Montana.

Joey is all smiles under her face mask with views of Glacier National Park in the background.... Big Mountain. Whitefish, Montana.

12.12.11
Tree cutting.
We awoke to a gorgeous, snowy morning here in the mountains of Montana... a perfect day to drive into the woods to cut down our Christmas tree. We filled the thermos with hot chocalate, grabbed some holiday CDs and jumped in the truck. We have a picturesque spot deep in the forest with plenty of x-mas sized trees to select from. We are a family of five so there's lots of debating and voting before we make our final selection... and it has to be unanimous. In the end we selected a beautiful 12 footer that will look great in our family room.

12.02.11
New gun dog.
I drove down to Cour d'Alene, Idaho to pick up our new hunting dog. (well, hunting puppy actually...) I've always wanted an English Springer Spaniel for grouse hunting and finally made the call to get one. I have hunting partners who have the same breed and I've always marveled at their incredible noses. Watching a well trained bird dog work the woods in search of birds is a thing of beauty. Our little pup has a way to go but I took her out on a favorite grouse trail of mine this weekend to let her get some practice. She flushed her first grouse after just a few hundred yards of walking... it burst out of the shrubs with its noisy wings pounding and startled her good!

10.17.11
Hunting season.
Rifle season opens next week so I've been out in the woods scouting for deer and setting up a stand. I found a beautiful meadow in the wilds of the Montana high country with lots of traffic from various game. There is a high ridge above a winding creek that was the perfect place for a stand. From the stand there are perfect sight lines in three directions... along with an amazing view to enjoy.

This is by far my favorite time of year. The leaves have fallen and the tamaracks are glowing. Nothing beats hiking out in the woods to a remote deer stand in the pre-dawn darkness on a crisp, cold autumn morning.



View from my deer stand.

10.13.11
Pagami Creek Fire.
Just saw this article and photos of the Pagami Creek Fire that raged this summer and fall in the Boundary Waters. Devastating...

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/11/07/photos-pagami-creek-bwca-wildfire-aftermath/

10.11.11
Sneak Peak. Stand up paddle prototype.
Below are some pics of a new SUP prototype we are working on. The paddle features a gorgeous heartwood cedar blade with a carbon powerface and all carbon shaft. We haven't weighed it yet but it is crazy light. We'll have pricing and more info on the new model soon.

10.09.11
Battle for the Paddle.
Congrats to Team Indigo from Indigo Paddleboards for winning the 2nd annual Battle for the Paddle in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The first place trophy was a sweet Whiskey Bootlegger. Congrats!

9.23.11
Zip Line Tour.
With the end of summer fast approaching, Barb and I decided to head up Big Mountain and give the Zip Line Tour a try before it closed for the season. It was an incredibly gorgeous 85 degree sunny day... Perfect for our first try zipping down the mountain at 300 feet off the ground. It was a total rush (especially the 1900 foot line) and we'll for sure get back up to do this again next summer... but for now the resort is closed until ski season starts in early December.

8.16.11
Alaska Bound.
We just got these gorgeous pics from Whiskeyjackers John C. and Tricia K. paddling their Whiskey Apostle kayak paddles in Prince William Sound Alaska. Amazing! Keep the pics coming...

8.01.11
Back from heaven...
We're finally back from summer vacation at our cabin on Hungry Jack Lake at the edge of the Boundary Waters in Northern Minnesota. We had an incredible time but it feels great to be back in the mountains where we belong. Its an amazing feeling to be able to vacation in one of the most beautiful places on the planet... and then get to return home to a place that is also one of the most beautiful place on the planet.

Below are some random pics that didn't fit into any blog entry.


Jo at the cabin.




Honeymoon Bluff on Hungry Jack Lake.


Barb and Max hiking the Caribou Rock Trail.


Pink Sunset on Hungry Jack Lake.

7-22-11
Blueberry Time.
The raspberry crop this year Up North was pretty cruddy... so we didn't have high hopes for blueberries. But we got word from some friends that the blueberry patches surrounding the massive Ham Lake fire from 2008 we're looking good. So we hauled the family up the Magnetic Rock trail in search of these delectable blue jewels of the Northwoods. The crop was awesome. Huge, succulent berries dangling from hundreds of bushes. Jo Jo, Barb and I we're able to pick a gallon's worth in just over an hour. And that's with the twins constantly grabbing handfuls from our pails as we picked.

Picking blueberries in the burn.

7.16.11
Gunflint Canoe Races
We headed up to Gunflint Lake today for the annual canoe races at Gunflint Lodge. This is one of the funnest events of the summer up the Gunflint Trail. There's a variety of racing categories (tandem, solo, broken paddle, backwards...) that are blast to watch. Besides the races, there's a pie eating contest, raffles and minnow races for the kids (which Jo Jo loved.) All of the proceeds go to the Gunflint Trail volunteer fire dept.



Canoes on the water for the female tandem race.


Jo preparing her minnow for the minnow races.

7.13.11
Some like it hot... some don't.
The heat wave that is hammering the U.S. crept all the way north to our cabin. With temps in the mid 90s, it was too hot to fish, so we just shut it down and headed to the beach at Hungry Jack Lodge. The lodge burned down several years ago and has just recently been completed. They did a beautiful job and we really enjoyed spending four sweltering days swimming and getting cold drinks and lunch at the bar and grill.
Dan in front of the re-built Hungry Jack Lodge.

7-8-11
Jo Jo's first rainbow.
Jo Jo and I headed over to Lake Wish-You-Knew in search of Rainbow Trout for a fish fry. Fishing on Hungry Jack Lake has been slow so we packed up the canoe and portaged over to a lake known for its rainbows. The hard work paid off almost immediately. Within 2 minutes we both had large rainbows on the line and we caught our limit in just 30 minutes. 2 hours of paddling and portaging and just 30 minutes of fishing. That was cool with us.

Jo Jo was all smiles as she won both the "First Fish" award and the "Biggest Fish" award. I was all smiles just to get to spend an afternoon on the water fishing with Jo. After years of bobber fishing with her on the dock with her Scooby Doo rod, she's now old enough to get out on the water and do some "real" fishing with me.


Jo and her award winning rainbow trout.


Fish fry tonight. 7 trout and a walleye.

7-7-11
It's not all fun and games at the cabin.
There's a hornets nest under the cabin. I get the lovely job of crawling under cabin to do battle with the evil swarm. Armed with spray and my hornet armour (army boots, double ply rain gear, head net and a hail mary...) I bravely faced my enemy and was ultimately victorious. There must be something alluring about the area under our cabin. In the past we've had a pine marten den down there, a hibernating bear, and now this huge hornet's nest.


Danny getting ready to do battle with the hornet's nest.

7.4.11
July 4 on Whitefish Lake.
Jack and his posse tied some canoes together and paddled out onto Whitefish Lake to enjoy the fireworks show. Canoe floatilla, tiki torches and cold beer. Enough said.

God Bless America... and PBR.





6-20-11
Wicked Nice Ottertails.
Just shipped out these gorgeous custom ottertails to Brent W. and Bill S. in Michigan. I really love this shape and am considering bringing this into the full line-up for next season.

05.27.11
Redwoods are shipping.
The first few of the limited edition redwood paddles we've been working on are shipping. Many of you have been following the progress on our Facebook page. Now the finished product is ready to go. These were a blast to make and it was super-cool to post the pics on Facebook and read all of the reactions.

These are definitely some of the nicest paddles we've ever made.




Final Redwoods... ready to ship

05.22.11
A Whiskey Bender for Me...
I've been making Whiskey Benders, our premier canoe paddle, for 8 years... but I've never actually owned one myself. They always seem to get snatched up by customers... leaving me paddling cosmetic blems. So this year I decided I would treat myself to my own Bender and finally got out to paddle with it last week.

I headed out to Lake Wish-You-Knew to paddle and fly-fish. The lake is an amazing, secluded alpine lake surrounded by the shimmering mountains of the Whitefish Range. I landed a half-dozen cutthroat trout that were rising to the surface sipping bugs from a recent hatch... just glorious. It was the perfect setting for my first day with my new Bender.


Danny's new Whiskey Bender canoe paddle.

05.16.11
Happy Birthday Brian K...
We just shipped out a custom Whiskey Deuce for famed waterman and C4 co-founder Brian Keaulana. Totally cool project for us. Its always an honor to craft something for a legend...

Custom double bend stand up paddle for Brian K.

05.12.11
Playing hookie.
Barb and I ditched work early today to sneak in a quick paddle after work. The work shop is right next to beautiful Whitefish Lake so we can be on the water just a few minutes... The lake was breezy and beautiful and it felt great to work the arms a bit before heading home to dinner.


4.27.11
Limted Edition Redwoods...
Here's a quick photo of one of the Limited Edition Redwoods we are working on. This one is headed to Germany. The paddles are turning out simply beautiful with lots of oohs and aahs when we wet them out with epoxy for the first time and see the glowing curl of the wood. See photos of the wood slabs before they were cut below...



4.15.11
Hello From Japan.
We received this great email and photos from some Whiskeyjack Paddles owners in Japan. It was heart-warming to see and hear that things might be returning to normal after the disaster... at least in some small way.

Hello from Japan!
My wife and I bought your paddles in 2008 at Algonquin Outfitters in Huntsville, Ontario to tour around the park. And we are now loving to use your SUPER LIGHT Paddles on the river touring and racing in Japan.

Yesterday we went to Kokai river in Ibaraki prefecture. The river has a dike with cherry trees, and the blossoms were breathtaking beautiful! Please see the atached photo. Ibaraki pref. is next to Fukushima. We hope we could see this beautiful view again in next year.

By the way, on your web, it seems like you have no store in Asia. How can we get your paddle? Some of my friends see my paddle says they want one...

Ikuo Kurogi
Matsudo-city Japan



A Whiskeyjack with Japanese Cherry Blossoms...

4.09.11
Pond Skimming.
The Ski mountain officially closes today. As part of their closing weekend celebration the annual pond skimming competition took place on Saturday. Totally fun to watch...Costume clad skiers ripped down the mountain at break-neck speeds into the artificial pond. Those who skim the farthest move on to the next round.

4.04.11
Glowing Redwood.
In the shop right now is some of the nicest curly redwoood blade stock that we've ever had. This wood glows so bright you almost need sunglasses... seriously! There's enough to make 3-4 limited edition paddles. First come, first served. The price will be $250. If you want to snatch one up email info@whiskeyjackpaddles.com.