HOWB 060 – Interview Part 1 of 2: John Lockwood, Self Confessed “Wilderness Freak”, Wooden Boat Guru, Founder Pygmy Boats - 11.08.12

Today’s interview is with John Lockwood, founder and owner of Pygmy Boats in Port Townsend, WA. John is originally from St. Louis, Missouri where he bird hunted, and played and fished on the lakes and rivers with his family in their 20ʹ canoe. During this time, John got HOOKED (no pun intended :)) on exploring, fishing, swimming, camping and enjoying the great outdoors.

After a one year stint at Union College in New York, John launched into a 5 year adventure of traveling and exploring the mountains, rivers, wildernesses, and outdoors of the US and Mexico. The recurring theme was to work and save, then travel and explore until funds needed replenished; then work and save, and repeat. John’s stops included the Palouse in eastern Washington (wheat farm), the Snake River (drillers helper), the Wollowa Mountains in Oregon (horse packing fisherman to high lakes), and Aspen, Colorado (ski area), among others.

In 1968, John broke his hip and was on crutches for 7 1/2 years. This turn of events took John abruptly out of the wilderness and to the halls of Harvard where he studied Anthropology and Computer Science. He was especially intrigued by his studies of the Pygmy people (thus the company name: Pygmy Boats) who are “hunter gatherers”.

During his years in Cambridge, he yearned to get back to the wilderness. In spite of his limited mobility on crutches, John knew he could propel himself thru the water in a kayak using his upper body strength. So in 1970, he strapped a collapsible Klepper kayak on his back, took a train to Whitehorse, Yukon Canada and solo kayaked 900 miles down the Yukon River.

This was just the beginning of John’s many adventures on and off the water designing, building, and using small boats.

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You can contact me at woodenboatdan@gmail.com to share you comments, feedback, stories, and wooden boat adventures.

Keep the bright side up and the barnacled side down - Wooden Boat Dan over and out :D

PS Please note this podcast was recorded several years ago - some of the links, email addresses, phone numbers, and promos mentioned are outdated and no longer valid.