Who's Em

Meet Brad, Cricket & Glade…

Brad

I grew up in Ellis Hollow, a valley east of Ithaca New York, wandering in the woods, playing in the sandbox, careening on the rope swing, annoying the cats, and paddling my small blue plastic boat in circles until I became too heavy to float.

I fled west to Prescott College in Arizona and immediately ended up on a Grand Canyon river trip. That was 1971. Now look what’s happened.

After another college river trip in ’72 I went to work as a river guide in ’73. First motor trips, then rowing, then, in 1978, rowing dories for Martin Litton. For several winters I worked internationally running psycho rivers in Chile, Africa, the Yukon, and the Guatemalan borderlands.

Twenty years of rowing dories put the tweak on me. I was doing a lot of repair and rebuilding, and finally began building them from scratch.

I put river running on the back burner for a while around the turn of the millennium and wrote river history books. The research was really a blast, but the writing was way too much like work. I segued back to full-time guiding. (But if you’re one of those early hominids that still “reads books” you can find them at fretwater.com)

In 2008, after decades of having nowhere to build large objects, I built Fretwater Boatworks. I retired from river guiding in 2024 and now spend most of my time boatbuilding, teaching, and puttering.

Cricket

I have had a love for dories since my first trip through Grand Canyon in 2002. I thought they were spectacular, and then I learned more about their history and I was enamored. I knew I had to work in and around these boats.

As serendipity would have it, Fretwater Boatworks beckoned me in. I showed up one day in 2015 and have been building wooden boats ever since.

Glade

I wandered into Fretwater Boatworks in November of 2021 to help the team build a set of 3 Doryyaks, one of which I would take home.

During that time in the boatshop I realized I was spending every day with the most wonderful group of people I had met thus far. I was dreading the day the project was finished because I would have to leave. But as luck would have it they had a lot on their plate that winter so they asked me to stick around and help with the rest of the projects on the docket.

By the end of the 21/22’ boat building season it was clear that I had found a home at Fretwater Boatworks and have been there ever since!

The Boatshop

For many years Brad worked in the driveway or under the house, tinkering on boats but not really able to launch into serious boatbuilding. In 2008 he bit the bullet and built the shop—two stories of about 1500 square feet each. Downstairs is the boatshop, upstairs is boat and lumber storage. We’re proud of how well our shop is set up for efficient functionality with a minimum of large stationary tools and a criminally insane amount of hand tools. We’ve tried to keep our footprint small. The shop is heated with wood scraps from boatbuilding and locally sourced piñon and juniper. The property—house and shop— are 100% net solar.

We’ve had many helpers
and employees along the way. We find we learn as much or more from them as they gain from me. Dan Dierker, Roy Lippman, and Jim Hall all spent a lot of time in the boat shop. Janek Keedinihii came on as Brad’s full-time helper and worked with me for many years, boatbuilding, teaching, and doing much of the finer artwork involved in these beautiful boats. He moved on to pursue his career as a fine art painter. Pat Clark was was a major player for a few years as well before getting distracted by bird dogs. And there have been many others. Without all these contributors we would not be who we are.
–Brad

Dan Dierker

Dan and I have run rivers together across the Western Hemisphere, and got started building boats together—the scow, the Julius, the Edith, a pair of McKenzies, and our first trio of dories.

Patrick Clark

Patrick took a few courses from us and slid down the slippery slope to working here. He was the third leg of Fretwater tripod for a few years and helped teach at WoodenBoat. He’s now a champion bird dog trainer.

Janek Keediniihii

Janek was my building partner from around 2015 through 2018. Incredibly talented and artistic, he moved on to pursue other interests. Check out the Stella for some of his craftsmanship.

Jim Hall

Jim worked with Andy Hutchinson at High Desert Dories before joining Fretwater for the winter of 2011-12. We restored the Betty Boop and did major repairs on several other boats.

Arroyo Lippman

Arroyo has been on and off with us for more than ten years—a retired fireman, now working as a river guide and tortoise watcher. We miss him, but his daughter is rapidly taking his place.

Daisy Lippman

Daisy graduated from high school a year early and is segueing into helping at Fretwater and absconding with her father’s job.

Cam Gray

Cam took a crack at shop work and found he’s better suited to being our good friend, spiritual advisor, and business consultant. A valuable part of the team.

Justin Gallen

Justin was with us for a few years in the twenty-teens before going out on his own with Raindog Boatworks. A man of many talents.

Lydia Manone

Lydia actually has a “real job” by still comes by often for therapy.

Zasha Welch

Zasha spent a season or two working with us. Boy can that gal polish bronze.

Chelsea Atwater

For a while Fretwatwer had our own helicopter pilot. Unfornuately we didn’t have a helicopter. Chelsea has moved on to flying and being a mom.

Bryan Stone

Bryan is another former student who never quite managed to leave. He’s been creating 3D printed parts for us of late.

Vladimir “VK” Kovalik

VK is grandson of Vladimir Kovalik, who designed many world class rafts and ran Wilderness World, an early Grand Canyon rafting company. VK, besides being a boatman, is a sign painter, and wandered into the shop one evening. He immedeately got drafted into painting names on our boats and teaching Cricket the art of sign painting.