Freeranger Canoe

Edition Five Feature
Interview with Bart Deseyn
Location: Olmen, Belgium
Photo Credit: ©Freeranger Canoe & ©Jolanda Linschooten

What is it that you do and how do you do it?

We build wooden canoes and wooden paddles, but the interesting thing, I think, is that we also do workshops. About 20% of the canoes built here in the shop are built by me personally and the rest (80%) are built by the client themselves. As I’m a canoe instructor, we also do canoeing courses and offer day trips and extended trips, in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and France. So, all things canoeing. 

It’s quite interesting to note that most of the canoes I build on commission are for canoeists – people who need a canoe or want a canoe, and who already go canoeing. And most of the workshops – not all of them, but most – are taken by people who just want to build something nice, and that’s equally good in its own right. It’s just the process of building the canoe that is so gratifying. 

How did it all begin?

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