{"id":46411,"date":"2015-09-01T11:42:59","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T11:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/alumni\/?p=46411"},"modified":"2015-09-04T01:03:58","modified_gmt":"2015-09-04T01:03:58","slug":"crafted-for-the-journey-dennis-davidson-gives-boats-their-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/alumni\/2015\/09\/01\/crafted-for-the-journey-dennis-davidson-gives-boats-their-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Crafted for the Journey: ’89 Grad Gives Boats Their Start"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"clamp-for-angle2\"<\/a>A liberal arts education that began decades ago in Weekend College led Dennis Davidson \u201989 to a life of discovery that landed him at the headwaters of the Mississippi River today, where he watched 16 Augsburg students head off on the River Semester in canoes that were built in his shop. The flotilla of canoes accompanying the students for the first 9 miles of their nearly 2,000 mile journey were paddled south in large, wood-strip canoes that Davidson built himself.<\/p>\n

As the owner and primary boat-builder of NorthWest Canoe<\/a>, Davidson sells most of his large, voyageur-style canoes to groups like Wilderness Inquiry, a River Semester program partner, which provided the canoes that students will take down the full length of the Mississippi, concluding their interdisciplinary semester in New Orleans this December. (See more about the River Semester here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

The canoes can take up to 10 paddlers or 1,800 pounds apiece, and are intended to increase opportunities and make canoeing accessible to all ages and groups, including families with special needs.<\/p>\n

Davidson makes big cedar-strip canoes, and will sell you everything you need to make a canoe yourself\u2014many of the plans are free. He also stocks just about every part you might need to make a canoe repair or replacement. \u201cIf it sticks to the canoe, there\u2019s a good chance I\u2019m going to carry it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The Right Degree <\/strong><\/p>\n

Augsburg\u2019s program for working adults, now called Adult Undergraduate, allowed Davidson, then a married father of two, to finish his degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a real life-shaping experience,\u201d he says. With two toddlers at home, and deep and varied interests, including photography, the Weekend College program made college accessible for Davidson, who was working full-time.<\/p>\n

\"canoe-builder-2\"<\/a>Completing his degree in marketing and communications allowed him to pursue a career in sales and marketing that took him into both the paper and software industries, before he came to work for Bell Canoe, then based in Princeton, Minn. Looking back, Davidson realizes that a lot of ambient learning happened there, talking with the people that designed the canoes, watching the production and knowing the product line in depth. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t be there and not learn, because it was a small business,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Alongside his career journey, Davidson was pursuing his passions. He\u2019d taken a part-time job at REI, and as a lifelong paddler, was involved in whitewater paddling and the board of the Minnesota Canoe Association.<\/p>\n

After three years, when Bell was sold and moved out of town, Davidson was eager to try something new when a friend through the board of the Minnesota Canoe Association decided to sell his canoe-building business. Davidson saw that the path was his to follow.<\/p>\n

Opting to build wood-strip canoes by hand came naturally to Davidson, but only because it naturally built on so much of his past experience. Growing up in Michigan, his dad was an electrician. \u201cI grew up in a family used to working with your hands,\u201d he says. Not only that, he always knew he had a \u201ccreative, artistic bone buried somewhere in my body.\u201d<\/p>\n

He enjoyed woodworking, but never had the tools until he became owner of NorthWest. Not that woodworkers know much about canoes. \u201cSometimes woodworkers make the worst boat builders,\u201d he says. Too many right angles. \u201cBuilding a canoe is more like quilting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right Place, Right Time<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since he took ownership of NorthWest in 2007, Davidson has set off on a craftsman\u2019s life that covers many of his interests and skills. In his shop, housed in one of James J. Hill\u2019s original train warehouses in Lowertown St. Paul, Davidson is living his passion.<\/p>\n

He absorbed the craft of building, apprenticing under NorthWest Canoe\u2019s founder, a former Norwegian finish carpenter and marine architect in the Navy.<\/p>\n

He credits the ways in which his experience and a liberal arts education allowed him to pursue his dreams. Working in sales, marketing, the outdoor industry, and coordinating production control at Minnesota Valley Engineering, combined with his creative bent, informed his path. \u201cAll of the little building blocks came together,\u201d Davidson says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t have done this when I was 30.\u201d<\/p>\n

All summer long he\u2019s busy selling canoe repair kits and doing repairs on boats for individuals and collegiate and outdoor education programs. Davidson runs a self-sufficient shop, but he hires two part-time workers in the summer to help fulfill orders while he makes repairs. This year, one of his summer workers was a future Auggie.<\/p>\n

\"sit-on-the-gunwale\"<\/a>Enjoying the Journey<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his early 60s now, Davidson doesn\u2019t take to whitewater much anymore, but paddling canoes is a pastime that won\u2019t fade. Even if he suffers from that professional hazard of being too busy during his high season to sneak away for long, he still manages to get out.<\/p>\n

When it comes to his own canoe trips, he says it\u2019s not where you go so much as whom you\u2019re with and the experiences you share. \u201cIt\u2019s not just the paddling. It\u2019s the experiences you have in the environment,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause paddling takes you places that you can\u2019t get to otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

He makes time to play the banjo\u2014an instrument he only picked up at age 59\u2014and attends two or three banjo and old time music festivals around the country a year.<\/p>\n

From October to March, you can find Davidson busy in his Lowertown studio, building big canoes while the snow flies. His goal is to build two big canoes a year, handcrafting them all himself, spending approximately 500 hours of labor for each canoe that retails approximately $15,000. The cost might seem high, but a canoe can be a lifelong companion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me feel grateful that I have created a position for myself that allows me to feel challenged,\u201d he says. \u201cThe downside of it is you can\u2019t do it to get rich.\u201d Still, he\u2019s gratified to see more paddlers every year. He knows that the work, earned only through his skill, craftsmanship, and so much accumulated knowledge, has a place.<\/p>\n

His customers\u2014via internet orders from Florida and Texas in the winter, kit builders, canoe repairers, paddlers of all abilities from Wilderness Inquiry, and those who stroll through the door with a dream of a beautiful hand-hewn canoe\u2014all are grateful for his work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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