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"Where Paddling Is A Priority"

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Jeff started canoeing in 1975 when his dad purchased an aluminum canoe to use as a fishing boat. The two spent hours on a small lake outside of Farmington in Southeast Iowa. Eventually they started taking short excursions on the Des Moines River between Bonaparte and Farmington.

In 1988 Jeff turned his canoeing into a vocation by starting Canoeing Iowa Magazine. This quarterly magazine featured two to four paddling routes of 15 to 30 miles all across Iowa. Jeff paddled all of the routes personally and wrote the articles. This experience allowed him to log more than 1,000 solo canoeing miles on most major waterways in Iowa including the Upper Iowa, Yellow, Volga, Turkey, Maquoketa, North Maquoketa, Wapsipinicon, Cedar, Shell Rock, Iowa, Skunk, Des Moines, West Fork of the Des Moines, East Fork of the Des Moines, North Raccoon, Middle Raccoon, Middle River, Grand, Chariton River, Nishnabotna, Big Sioux, and Little Sioux.

In May of 1992 CanoeSport Outfitters became the center of Jeff's attention. His local paddling diminished due to the busy schedule of the store. However, he found time to begin experiencing whitewater on the Kettle River and the St. Louis River in Minnesota. He made two or three trips every summer to enjoy the Class II and III+ runs between Minneapolis and Duluth.

By 1996 Jeff was spending more time traveling to Lake Superior to paddle the North Shore Trail and the Apostle Islands than the whitewater rivers. This led

him to acquire a certification through the American Canoe Association as a Coastal Sea Kayak instructor.

Since this time Jeff has kayaked Lake Powell in Utah, the west coast of Vancouver Island near Tofino, Tybee Island in Georgia, Matagorda Bay in Texas, Horn Island off the Mississppi Coast, the Outer Banks in North Carolina, and nearly a dozen trips to the Everglades, including a seven day solo trip.

He's canoed the Boundary Waters more than a dozen times, Okeefenokee Swamp in Georgia, and the Buffalo River in Arkansas.

He's paddled whitewater on the Green River and the Nantahala in the Carolina's, as well as the Knife River north of Duluth.

Jeff has also instructed at the Inland Sea Kayak Symposium in Washburn on Lake Superior.

203 West Salem Ave., Indianola, IA 50125

515-961-6117 or 1-800-257-6080 / e-mail: casey@canoesportoutfitters.com