SHS grad's hand-crafted kayaks are things of beauty



vanessa.fultz@gaflnews.com



"If you built furniture and don't sell it what do you do with it? It sits around," he noted. "At least you can use the boats.

I prefer something I can use."



Aaron Wells would rather be boating -- building them, that is. He combined his passion for woodworking with his love for canoes and kayaks about two years ago.

Wells, a 2000 Suwannee High graduate, earned a bachelor's in environmental science at Florida State University, then got a job creating Global Information Systems maps for wetlands with an environmental consultant. But it wasn't long before he quit his day job to begin creating his passion.

Wells' love for woodworking started in high school when he built what he describes as a "clown lamp" as a shop class project. The lamp was about six and a half feet tall with an octagonal base.

"I just call it a clown lamp because I painted it kind of clown colors," Wells, 26, explained.

"I gave it to a friend. He was going away to college and needed a lamp, I guess. He moved a year after that and he put it in the Dumpster," he said with a smile.

Wells constructed his first boat, a 17-foot kayak, in November 2006. He sold his first boat about four months ago for $1,300 after posting it on the Internet.

He has since built nine boats, mostly kayaks.

Wells designs his creations out of cypress wood in an old pole barn in southwestern Suwannee County.

"When I first started this a lot of people said, 'Why don't you try it on the weekends?'" he said. "Well, it takes 140 hours to build a boat. That's a lot of weekends."

The process of building boats involves bending strips of wood around a form, which functions as a skeleton for the craft. The strips are attached to one other and then the form is removed, leaving a shell. A fiberglass finish gives the boats strength and a varnish finish leaves them shiny and polished.

"They are 10 times stiffer than plastic boats and six times stiffer than fiberglass boats," Wells said, adding that his boats, which weigh 35-40 pounds, are also lighter than plastic and fiberglass boats. Wells said the boats' light weight makes them easier to carry and easier to paddle.

Wells grew up close to the river, which accounts for his love of canoeing. He learned to kayak about four years ago. When it comes to woodworking, though Wells has constructed any number of items, his favorite pastime is boat-building.

Wells worked with a company in Jacksonville restoring historical houses, a job he described as "tedious." He has also tried his hand at sculpting wood and building furniture.

"If you built furniture and don't sell it what do you do with it? It sits around," he noted. "At least you can use the boats. I prefer something I can use."

Wells said he will be featured in Garden & Gun, a southern outdoors magazine, in September.

"I don't know how they found me," he said, noting he thinks they stumbled upon his Website on the Internet. "I was glad. I thought that would be cool to see my kayaks in a magazine."

One of Wells' latest projects is restoring a 1965 Alberg 30 sailboat.

"That's more work than a house, believe it or not," he said.



For more information about Wells and his boats visit www.cypresskayaks.com.



Those interested in reading the article featuring Aaron Wells may visit http://gardenandgun.com. The article runs in September.