About…

I make Shuksan splitcane flyrods out of my home in Bellingham (WA) looking from a window over little Lost Creek.  I’m up before 5 most mornings, and coffee is always on.

I love to read, write a fair amount, and still listen to music on a record player. The rods are a culmination of experiences and an expression of my relationship to fire and water.

For nearly 25 years I’ve been a fireman in Seattle’s Central District, where if you’re listening, you can still hear Jimi. We do our job, more or less, the same way it’s always been done, minus the horses.  In what seems like a lifetime ago, I was a surf lifeguard on the beach in Santa Cruz.

I’ve always thought being kind goes a long way and that being tough is a function of endurance, and both are a requisite to happiness. And there is plenty of bulls**t travelling on every frequency, both as personalities and information, call it out every time you see it. It’s now more important than ever. Tell the truth.

Generally I’ve found it’s better to be last in line.

-jw