The Origins

It’s been an intense, exhilarating year since we founded Oru Kayak Inc. But the story goes back much further than that.

I grew up in the woods of Mendocino County, three hours north of San Francisco and 12 miles from the nearest small town. My love of the outdoors goes back to childhood.

When I moved to the Bay Area years ago, I found that getting out on the Bay was the easiest and closest way to escape, to experience something like hiking through my hometown hills and forests.

This is the kayak that started it all. I found it abandoned washed up in an estuary in an industrial part of Oakland. I patched up the fiberglass, painted it, and happily explored the Bay for a few years.

Eventually, a move to a small apartment forced me to store the kayak at my dad’s house, where it still lives. This led me down the path that eventually became Oru Kayak- but that’s a story for another day (or blog post).