SOSPENDERS Inflatable PFD

Every year I unload a handful of swag I aquire doing demos, product evaluations and product trade-outs.  I don't like to offer the stuff at my own site (it's an old program that would look like a garage sale with too many ads), I'm sensative to dealers who sell my DVD which is pretty much everywhere.  If the monitors and readers feel it's appropriate to offer the occasional reel, kayak and accessory here, I will.  Mostly new or lightly used gear with full manufacturer warranties.
This post is to share a fundraiser for The Kayak Fishing Association of California, currently working on the MLPA issues in So Cal.  Their work is important to the entire state and all of our futures here as kayak anglers.  A few of my contacts have provided product for fundraisers so I'll start with SOSPENDERS who also donated a ($200) PFD prize to one of NCKA's 2008 events.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=290204956067&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=019

The retail on this PFD is just under $120.

Didn't know you lived in Sonoma Co

Yeah folks are surprised.  The business is based in Malibu and I'm back and forth.  Especially when the halibut and WSB are chewing  .
With the new age in business, 95% of my work is on the phone or in front of a computer.  That allowed me to run it from Rancho Leonero the past few seasons and do some fishing.  While there, I met a girl from Occidental.  Now I wake up to the Pacific view.  I gotta tell you, I have a place near Happy Camp on the Klamath and I've been through most of the state.  Somehow in nearly 50 years of being a Californian, I completely missed the whole wine country/redwood forest thing.  I'm really digging it and feel like I've gone from a desert paradise to a lush coastal forest paradise.  I can handle the cold.  I have a fleet of fishing kayaks headed this way and will be fishing regularly soon.

Dennis- Welcome to the Board, The Humboldt Crew up here kayak fishes the Klamath and all our local rivers year round. If you're into exploring up this way drop me a line when you cruise through to Happy Camp. I don't know how well those OK kayaks can handle class II-III water but if you're willing to get wet, I'll bet and I can teach you a few new things about kayak fishing!
Hawk

Thanks for the welcome and the invite Hawk, we'll take you up on that and I'll let you know when we make the drive. 
I guess my site still makes me look like an "OK" angler, however that's always been far from the truth.  I started with Scuppers (still use them) and outfitted Rancho Leonero with a lot of Ocean Kayak models.  In the big picture, I fish most models and recommend what I consider to be all of the proven fishable kayaks. 

Hey Spike,

I used to live near the old white church in Occidental and recently moved to Portland, OR.

Looks like I have a great replacement for my title as the "Best Kayak Angler in Occidental, CA".  Okay, I was the only kayak angler in Occidental, CA. 

While there, I met a girl from Occidental.

I thought something was up when you showed up at Elk last year with my local bartender.

Anyway, enjoy Occidental Spike, I know I did while I was there.

Brian

The first few times I came up here, I parked in front of the church (often) and squatted on someones wi-fi to check and send mail.  If it was yours, thanks. 
I have a long way to go towards earning your title, not such an easy transfer.  I've been talking with Nick and James from Kings in Healdsberg and we'll be hooking up as soon as my boats arrive.  I'm used to paddling almost daily so I'll be hitting the river pretty hard.  Danglins been hounding me hard too, that's much appreciated and still a few weeks off.
If you come back, let's fish!

I'll bet and I can teach you a few new things about kayak fishing!

I hope you're kidding. Dennis Spike happens to be one of the pioneers of kayak fishing!

Samoa, don't take offense on your first post, ease into it. We are an extremely opinionated group of bloviators up here. I think Dennis knows I meant it tongue in cheek. I think what we're doing up here on the rivers is new to kayak fishing world but as far as fishing out of a small craft I'll remind you that in the 1950's over a million Grumman canoes plied the waters of North America in search of fish. This follows the path of Native America and likewise back to the Inuit peoples. Did you know that the word Kayak is Inuit for "hunters boat". I believe Spike is like a modern day Shaman who is instrumental to jumpstarting an archaic revival that is spreading like wildfire. We are all touched by a deep ancestral knowing that beckons us to the wilderness to fish but more than that to reconnect to what has be lost to time. When I say I have something new to teach, It's actually something ancient. My part in it is to cover skills like running whitewater with rapids and pool drops dissecting a river as you drift down camping out and hunting Chinook, but for the large part out here wilderness is our classroom and ancient voices rather than myself are the guides. A person of any experience level would benefit from going on a river trip with me, It helps if they had a higher level of technical training than standard ocean paddling but I haven't lost anyone yet KOW.

This pic below is from a canoe I carved out by hand back in the early 90's. I don't know where the kayak fishing sport was back then but I fished the hell out that wooden behemoth with nothing but a bamboo rod and hooks made from deer bones. In that tribal setting we subsisted completely off the fish we would catch. There were no individuals only the community. It's the same way today in the kayak fishing world or at least it should be

Sorry about the threadjack Spike, Now what about those SOSpenders?
-HAWK

Sorry for the late chime-in, I've been swamped and haven't looked at the site for awhile.
It's good to know the Samoans have my back, thanks.  Truth is, I've learned just about everything from other fishermen and that's a lifelong thing.  Hawk, I'll be making my way to Happy Camp later this summer and again in the fall.  We'll hook up.

Hawk,

So you a river guide, a so called historian and you carved a tree and made a canoe out of it, but what does any of that have anything to do with kayak fishing? I have been lurking in this site for quite some time now and I still have yet to see any reports of you actually catching fish from a kayak. And yet you'd like to teach Dennis Spike a few things about kayak fishing?

A person of any experience level would benefit from going on a river trip with me

Cool! But perhaps you should take some lessons on kayak fishing from Mr. Spike. After all this is a kayak fishing site and not a white water forum.

Samoa

Nice display of hostility... way to make friends and come across as an all-around nice guy! 

**Grabs large bag of popcorn**

-FF