Janis sailing in her handmade cedar canoes: “There is probably no such madness in the world”

Janis says she wanted to buy a kayak a decade ago, but finding the right one was a challenge, so the idea was not fulfilled.

While surfing the Internet about five years ago, he discovered a video showing how to make a canoe. She inspired a man who loves working to take over the job.

“Everything we see in life is what people do. I realized that it was not difficult to make a canoe. I got interested, bought and downloaded some books, I saw a lot of videos. And I started doing it. When you take the time, the money, you realize that you cannot stop, you have to do it all the time, but the more you climb to the top, the less oxygen … It takes more and more time and effort. It was not so easy to get wood I didn’t know anything When you do it the first time, you don’t know how to do it right, you also need tools Make mistakes, correct, learn.

I am currently buying wood from a company that exports country houses to Norway, they need cedar. I make a canoe with cedar. Cedar is a wood with very unique properties, very light and flexible. I can do it with black alder, but I won’t lift it. Now I can go up and shoot all the canoes one by one. Wood is a very appreciative, natural material. People work with it as long as it exists. The boat has a lot of aesthetics. The edges, in their natural form, must be hydrodynamic. I really like it, “says J. Žekanis, who takes about a couple of months to make a canoe.

He jokes that there are probably no such lunatics in the world to ride their jobs in wooden canoes. Typically, artisans who buy a drawing in Canada or the United States make canoes for them, use them, store them, and eventually pass them on to their grandchildren.

Cedar is a wood with very unique properties, very light and flexible. I can do it with black alder, but I won’t lift it.

Thought to float tourists

Janis, who made the first canoe, says she has repeatedly wondered why no one works on the Dane River, she does not offer canoeing services there. Sitting with a friend by the river a couple of years after the first boat was made, he decided to take on the business idea himself. The name of the tourist services company Wet Weim was soon born, and more cedar boats made by Janis appeared.

“Everyone complains that there is nothing to do in tourism. My friend and I have been swimming in many places, dismantling all the rivers. I think the potential is, why nobody sees it, does not do it? I remember we were with Minija. I mean why can’t we scare people.

Yes, you can buy a canoe, it’s like a great toy, but for the experience to be complete, you must know where and how to swim, says Janis, who came up with the original name of the company. – I have a Weimaraner dog. This is a hunting dog. This is not the first project of my life, I realized that no matter what it is called, if it is a good idea, it will live. And then I say, Wet Weim is a wet weimaraner. Yes, he loves to swim. When we weren’t that old, we would take him on excursions everywhere, sitting in a canoe with us. “

For the third consecutive season, the guide drops five canoes into the water, all handmade, loved and caressed. The guide itself is in the first canoe made. He says that even the shop manager jokes that it’s a “director’s canoe.”

Night trips accompanied by torch flames leave an impression on hikers. Janis says she is fascinated by the idea when she visits Finland.

Janis does not plan to produce more tourist boats, at least for the time being. They say that this is the idea: swimming in a community and welcoming way.

“Here in Klaipeda, we are like a courtyard, like a ball, and when you are there, in the lagoon, in the Nemunas delta, it is a large enough group of people.” As you accompany, you have to see and supervise everyone. If I run a canoe, I can’t run between them. It can also take 20, but the idea would change. We make a stop in a remote place, we have a table, folding chairs. If there are 20 people, I will not be able to give what people are happy with now. This would make the company a picnic. Half don’t want to swim, but they need … These are the people who treat equipment differently, don’t feel the value, “says Janis, who owns another cedar boat and wants to buy that product.

Because ships no longer survive

Due to the large number of calls, the Klaipeda resident says he bought several plastic canoes this year, as he constantly receives a request from tourists to rent boats for their own routes. An easy heart to lend to cedar canoes says it would be too bold. But while sailing with the group, Janis says she has stopped surviving on ships.

“At first I survived, but then you settled down … There are no irreparable things. The advantage of doing it myself is that I know what can happen. I remember there were two Italians who rowed and entered at high speed just above the concrete under the Bridge del Castillo. Such a sound seemed to be heard throughout the old town, a sound like a drum and another echo. But nothing terrible, I corrected it after the season, “says the guide.

When asked if tourists are not afraid to tip over when canoeing, Janis says this has happened only a few times, but because of the hikers themselves, when they were shaking boats or were not listening to advice to search.

“I tell it all on the dock because each line of the experience is written in blood. It sounds understandable, but it also tells you on the plane every time how to buckle up. I swim closer together for a few minutes, observing if everything is going well or if I am successful. It happens that you row sideways all day and you can’t catch it, because the kayak protocol begins ”, smiles the interlocutor.

Lean quarantine

This year, the guide’s daily life, as well as the entire tourism sector, has been significantly adjusted by quarantine. Janis, who dove into the rivers with tourists in April, typically started the season only in June this year.

“We had to travel to Sweden this spring, we had gathered a group, a difficult tour occurred to me, like an expedition we had to go to. We had to load the bus with the equipment. We plan to take a ferry to Karlskrona, drive another 400 km from there, and spend five days in the Sant Anos archipelago with 6,000 islands. We would have spent the night on different islands every night. In Sweden you can camp anywhere, there is a spectacular nature, seals, birds. We bought the equipment, we were ready and … “says Janis.

This season, Lithuanians are in a hurry to get to know their lands, rivers and lakes. Canoeing is a favorite pastime on the Dane River, especially on a night tour. Janis also organizes trips down the Vilhelmas Canal, and here is her colleague, the ornithologist Boris, with hikers swimming in the Nemunas Delta for birdwatching. Around 400 species of birds are found in Lithuania, and up to 300 in the Nemunas delta.

“Boris is surprising that if he doesn’t see, he hears. He knows where to look to see the bird. They say an eagle on a branch is 3 km away and he sees it with binoculars,” says the Klaipeda resident, who also travels with tourists in Curonian Spit, Plateliai Lake and Castle Island in Trakai This year, the last area, especially favored by foreign tourists, is said to have lost its stay.