Neil Schulman

The Pacific Northwest’s Once-Thriving Paddlesports Manufacturing Industry Is Vanishing

Neil Schulman — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 12:15:33 +0000

In the spring of 1994, a friend wanted a ride to buy a used pickup. We left the remote camp where we ran outdoor education programs and drove to a remote warehouse near the Molalla River. Three guys came out. One was selling the truck. Then he introduced his co-workers, saying, “We are Lightning Paddles.” […]

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Kayakers Beware: Geese Gone Wild

Neil Schulman — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 12:00:32 +0000

In three decades of kayaking, the only injury I’ve suffered wasn’t from a pounding surf landing, a strainer or an angry grizzly bear. It came at the hands of Branta canadensis, the Canada goose, terror of kayak launches and golf courses. Carrying my kayak across the dock, I hydroplaned on a slimy layer of liquified […]

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What Tom Petty Taught Me About Kayaking

Neil Schulman — Wed, 01 May 2024 11:00:40 +0000

“I think we can navigate this safely,” one of my friends says. I squint out to sea thinking, “Tom Petty was right.” On the beach are three loaded sea kayaks. We’re on day six of an 11-day outer West Coast trip and primed for the crux move. Ahead is eight miles of exposed coast, with […]

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6 Spectacular Kayaking Experiences You’ll Only Find In Loreto And Beyond In Baja Sur

Neil Schulman — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 15:00:52 +0000

“Wait and just drift,” says Ramon. We stop paddling, but we’re not sure why. We’re in the middle of a turquoise patch of water between Isla Danzante and Isla del Carmen. It’s a gorgeous color, but it’s been that color all day. But Ramon said stop paddling, so we stop. Two minutes later, we know […]

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Paddling Over Manhattan: Streetwise Sea Life In The Intertidal Zone

Neil Schulman — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 19:00:10 +0000

My kayak glides through Manhattan. I can see the hustle and bustle, hear the noise, watch guys pour out of the subway to make a killing on Wall Street. Except I’m nowhere near New York. I’m in Browning Passage, North Vancouver Island, about as far from the Hudson as I can get in North America. […]

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The Rise, Fall And Rise Of Handheld GPS

Neil Schulman — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 11:00:17 +0000

“I think this is Bear Bite Creek,” I say with confidence, having followed our progress on the map since a hunting cabin 20 minutes ago. “I don’t think so,” says Emily, looking at the bends in the river. But the perpetually shifting braided channels of the Tatshenshini River are confusing. Simultaneously, our heads swivel to […]

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The Fall And Rise Of Kayak Touring

Neil Schulman — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 12:00:51 +0000

Sea kayak touring is supposed to be dying. Long journeys peaked in the 1990s when sleek, long fiberglass boats were plying the seas through island chains. Back in the age of Netscape Navigator, crusty baby boomers and spritely pre-parenting Gen Xers were untroubled by ubiquitous smartphones. Instead, they would rig tarps, cook bannock over open […]

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Virgin Territory? Why Wilderness Kayaking Is Nonsense

Neil Schulman — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 12:00:37 +0000

Forget wilderness. It doesn’t exist, and it never did. That phrase popped into my head while on the phone with Tyson Atleo, hereditary chief-in-line of the Ahousaht Nation, talking about the Ahousaht Stewardship Guardian Program in what most sea kayakers call Clayoquot Sound, but has been called Ahousaht Hahoulthee for millennia. It’s one of the […]

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In Praise Of The Unfashionable, Functional And Affordable Wetsuit

Neil Schulman — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 12:00:16 +0000

In 1952, surfing pioneer Jack O’Neill adapted technology developed by the University of California physicist Hugh Bradner to manufacture the first commercial wetsuit. O’Neill’s invention and its motto proclaiming, “It’s always summer on the inside,” ushered in the modern watersports we know and love by transforming cold water from a death zone to a playground. […]

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Summer Bummer: What The Season’s New Normal Means For Paddlers

Neil Schulman — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 12:00:19 +0000

Between May and September, I live in the sweetest place in the world. That’s when the Aleutian Low system gets displaced by the North Pacific High, a subtropical high-pressure anticyclone pushing northeast from Hawaii towards the west coast of North America. It happily shoves the Aleutian Low system and its winter cold back where it […]

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