This month marks 30 years since I built my first canoe. It was my childhood dream and many friends supported me in this project back then. It was a kind of community experience. At 58 kg (128 lbs), this first boat was as heavy as a battleship, but in the water it was as light as a feather. It was perfect for long family vacations with lots of luggage and was never too deep in the water, even when heavily loaded.
We traveled over 1600 miles in it before we traded it in for the newer, lighter boats.
My building techniques changed a lot since then. My actual frame canoes, that I started building later use a buidling frame as a basis. They are much lighter, have a lower body and have different forms for different uses, for example for freestyle or touring.
As you can see in the pictures, May 1994 was just 3 1/2 years after the German Reunification, the whole region where I live was still economically unstable, a lot of things we did were improvised, but it still was a great moment in my life and I am happy how it started a long line of beautiful canoes. (And paddles)
Original footage and first cut by Jörg Friebe