It's called SOLWYRX. It's spelled S-O-L-W-Y-R-X, but it's pronounced "Soulworks." I've gotten the question about the name a bunch of times, so here's the whole reasoning behind it, and the story of how this shop came to be.
Why "Soulworks"
When I was getting ready to start my business, I wanted a name that represented my passion for whitewater and my passion for Christ. Something unique I could build a brand around. Something that stands out, so that someday, once the brand is big enough, you search it and it just comes up. No pile of other stuff popping up with it.
"Sol" is the sun, the one in the sky that we go boating under. But it's also the Son, as in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The rest of it is about working: working for the people, for God, and with God. It's a symbol of how we work under the sun. And it's not that I do the good works. He does the good works through me.
My brand is from God, for God, to bring people closer to God. I'm supposed to be a blessing to other people, because it's been such a blessing to me.
The name is a symbol of who I am, what I am, why I do what I do, and how I'm able to do it. It's a blend of the most important things to me. And one of my favorite things is not assuming somebody's going to want something, but making them curious. A name like SOLWYRX brings up a question, and that question gives me the chance to tell them about it: about Christ, about my business, about my testimony.
Third generation on the river
I'm a third-generation boater. My dad was a whitewater boater and still is, and so was my grandpa on my dad's side. They both went boating with a crew of guys and did all sorts of stuff, and I was raised in it from a very young age. My first time on the water I was four and a half, just simple ride-alongs.
On my ninth birthday I got an AIRE Spud, one of the first 100 ever released. My dad somehow got one of the first 100 just in time for my birthday, and the timing there is just something to be stunned by. I loved it. On our overnight trips on the Deschutes, the Grande Ronde, the John Day and sometimes the Rogue, I'd take the oars on the flat water whenever I could, because I wanted to be part of the whitewater too. I kayaked the Grande Ronde in that Spud on a lower-water summer trip, and that was the first time I ever high-sided a kayak: hit an eddy line, tipped a little, and caught it. A lot of those things have just been second nature to me.
I'm so blessed. My parents are awesome. We have our moments and don't always agree, but they've been incredibly supportive of me, especially in whitewater and in my faith in Christ. They also chose a really good group of people for our trips, and still do. It was very safety-minded: conscientious of what we do, how we do it and why. There were times I was just a kid being stupid or rebellious, but as I got more independent I realized that doesn't fly. It's a bad reflection of my character and of what I'm trying to achieve.
The boats that leveled me up
My Spud eventually went to my sister, and I moved into an AIRE Lynx from 1994. That thing was old, with a four-inch-thick foam floor, and it was my main kayak for the longest time. I had some good swims in it, and it's the boat I really leveled up in. Classic design, super reliable. We ended up selling it to my grandpa along with a ten-and-a-half-foot Storm.
My mom had an 11-foot SOTAR SL kayak in their tan color. Early on, when I didn't have the skills yet, I took a few swims out of it. But I came back to it, and it got passed down to me as my main kayak. Even through my sponsorships, if I can paddle the SL, I'll paddle the SL. That thing is rock solid. I've buried it sideways into holes with no momentum that realistically you should not be able to make it out of, dug in downstream, and just punched through. Later I did the same kind of stuff in SOTAR's Rondel from the Merlin series, even with how different those two kayaks are.
The slingshot
The shift that really brought me to where I am now was a New Year's Day trip on the Sandy River a few years ago. I rowed it in my Super Puma with a frame, and I enjoyed it, but the river and the flow had me thinking, "Man, I want to do this in my kayak." Not too many months later I took my Lynx down that same float, and that was the moment: now I want to go do harder stuff.
I'd already been running the Upper Clackamas, Hole in the Wall or Three Lynx down to Moore Creek. That's my whitewater playground now. It's where I go to challenge myself, do an easy reliable float, try new things and make fun content. I'd started out rowing it in the Super Puma, which was a learning curve, and once I'd done it a few times I started kayaking it in the Lynx. A few swims in both, but I was getting good at it.
The best way I can describe what happened next is a satellite heading toward a planet. It hits the gravitational pull and slingshots forward. That's what happened with me and whitewater kayaking. Up to then, the Packsaddle run on the North Santiam was most of my Class III experience in a kayak. Over time I saw my progression, my strengths, my weaknesses and where I had room to grow, and I had to learn how to become a different level of boater.
Starting the channel
In the spring going into summer of 2023 I started my YouTube channel, originally called Whitewater Adventure. It was meant to be a hobby. I had an old GoPro Hero 7 Silver that my sister and I used to film fun little videos as kids, so I mounted it on my helmet and started posting what I had. Some of my first videos are from rowing the Rogue in my Super Puma for the first time that year. Every video I've ever posted, I've edited myself, and I pretty much taught myself how. You can see the progression as you go through them.
When I started SOLWYRX, I renamed the channel SOLWYRX Paddlesports. It's the media side of what I'm doing. Same brand, but it's not just advertising. It's good content for a lot of different things. Watch the videos here.
Racing and the Oregon Rafting Team
In 2023 I raced the Upper Clackamas Whitewater Festival rowing my raft. I got fifth out of five boats, but I pretty much gold-medaled a hole, and it was a blast. A photographer's shot from that has been my wallpaper more often than not. In 2024 I raced the 11-foot SL kayak, which was part of why I got so into that boat: to level up and race it.
Around 2024 to 2025 I joined the Oregon Rafting Team as paddle captain for their brand-new youth team. Who could make it to what was inconsistent, and there weren't a lot of practices, but sometimes we had a rock-solid crew. Kainoa and I often ran R2 together, and our main R4 crew was me, Kainoa, TJ and Felix. On the water, they listened to my commands. We did a higher-water float on the Clackamas where a ton of boats were flipping and people were swimming, and we were rock solid, out there helping rescue people. A boat of middle schoolers and high schoolers, performing better than some of the adults that day. At Illy Fest and Clackfest, every race we ran, we placed second or third in our category, often with an improvised crew. I made it to every practice and every event without fail, because being reliable where it matters is one of my values.
A $70 Chromebook and a booth
In 2025 I raced for the ORT youth team and raced my SL again. The channel was growing, and I had a big plan for a Clackfest booth with merch, but it was going to cost about a thousand dollars and I didn't have a job that could fund it. I was fixing lawnmowers on the side, which was slow and time-consuming, and I wasn't great at it, though I did sell a few. So I got it down to a few hundred bucks: keychains and stickers. A USB video player didn't work, so I sent it back, got a $70 Chromebook, downloaded my videos and played them on a screen at the booth. I never made money from it. Everything went back into promoting the channel and the tools for the booth. I got good outreach, raced, and was bouncing around everywhere. It was an awesome time.
SOTAR
When we went to Illy Fest in 2025, my sister, my dad and I got a full tour of SOTAR's headquarters in Merlin, Oregon. Later that summer we stopped in to say hi on the way to the Rogue, and SOTAR asked me to demo their Rondel. I had it for a week and a half, took it down the Rogue, and rolled it back upright like a hardshell in an eddy at Wildcat Camp four out of twenty tries. I got some of that on video. I also ran the Maupin stretch of the Deschutes in it.
On that same visit, they asked about sponsoring me as a kayaking athlete. That was the coolest thing, and it still is. I returned the Rondel when my friend Travis invited me on an Indigo Creek Outfitters trip on the "New Klamath," the Klamath River after the dams came out. Since it was in that area, I dropped the boat off at SOTAR's headquarters, where they handmake all their boats. I made a 40-minute video on the Klamath, which is probably one of the most complete videos of that river for boating purposes, and one of the best ways to scout it.
On September 20th, exactly one month after I agreed to the sponsorship, my SL from SOTAR showed up at my door. That's when it took off. I started Project Horizon Line, a series meant to represent going off a waterfall and to follow my progression as a boater with the sponsorship. It's part of the Project Series playlist on my channel, and it's still unfinished. I may finish it, depending on how things work out.
Starting SOLWYRX
My business started at the beginning of February 2026. I hadn't graduated high school yet, and I didn't turn 18 until late April. It was a slow start while I figured out what I wanted to do, but it's been steady growth since.
That February I had my first proper SOLWYRX booth at Boatsmith. I had less than a week to prep and none of my promotional material, but I got everything ready in time and went down with my friends Caden and Carl Hansen, a father and son, staying in their trailer. SOTAR had given me the Rondel as my second sponsorship boat, so I could basically dual-wield the SL and the Rondel and get content in both. Great runs and great carnage in both.
At Clackfest 2026 I had a SOLWYRX Paddle Gear booth in a prime spot with both kayaks as demos. We battled the weather. My canopy completely collapsed inward in the middle of a massive rainstorm, and we fought with internet service to process the deal, but I sold both kayaks to a super awesome couple and made a few other sales. I took home an 11-foot SOTAR Lance as my next demo boat. It's my current sponsorship boat, and it's for sale.
I also picked up another sponsor, Go North Rafts, a packraft company. I'd introduced myself to them at Clackfest the year before as somebody who wanted to start a business. By Clackfest 2026 I'd started it, we got talking, and we made a deal: partnership, sponsorship, and me being a dealer for them.
What makes it into my shop
Today I'm a dealer for SOTAR, Go North Rafts, Sawyer Paddles and Oars, Oar Snubber, Pak Products, Riverskate, SOL Paddle Boards and Canyon Coolers. SOTAR sponsors me, Go North Rafts has partnered with and sponsored me, Riverskate is a new partnership, and Pak Products has been a big partner and sometimes a sponsor that's helped me achieve certain things.
If I know a brand, personally use it and prefer it, or find that most people like it, I'll consider selling it. The other half is whether they'll let me sell for them. In the literal sense, what goes on the shelf is what I can afford, what customers want, and what I know will sell or be used as a demo. But to be SOLWYRX-approved, it has to meet my personal standards of quality and reliability and what it has to hold up to.
Being in my shop is a testament to the quality of a product and a brand.
If a brand stops meeting a standard that supports the river and whitewater community, I'll drop it. I've dropped a sponsor before. I partnered with Better Bar for one video, but my personal beliefs didn't align with theirs, so we both got our share from that video and cut ties. It's not a mean thing. Good brands make it into my shop and stay there.
Take Sawyer. I've never found better oars than Sawyers. I abused Sawyer oars and blades for years before I ever sold for them, and the durability shows. For my graduation this past June, my parents got me a 64-inch Freefall XD with my logo on it, and that thing is so awesome. I recently had a customer order one, which was super cool since it's a paddle I personally love. You can always get a cheap plastic paddle, but if you want high quality, Sawyer is the way to go, and they warranty manufacturer defects for a year.
Or the Go North Carver. It's more of a playboat. My personal preference is to go surf waves and do fun stuff in it on Class II and III. You want to be somewhat skilled, but you can do a lot with it. It's almost like a jester boat. Go North also has some very impressive boats like the Stance, Element, Badger, Glacier and Achilles, plus a river tube.
Getting a SOTAR through me
There are three ways to get a SOTAR from SOLWYRX:
- In stock. Often demo boats, like the Lance I have right now. All my demo boats are 20% off retail because they're used, regardless of condition. New boats on hand are regular price.
- Pre-designed. Boats set up on my website with a selection of colors and features I've decided are worth offering. Choose a few customizations, press order, and it ships once SOTAR builds it, in four to eight weeks. You don't have to make a ton of decisions.
- Fully custom. Play with my Classic ST designer to get ideas for colors and sizing. Then place a custom order through the form at checkout, or email me with questions or exactly what you want. I personally help anyone who needs it design their boat, the same way an outfitter would. I check everything, do the pricing, contact SOTAR and send an invoice, and SOTAR builds it.
Where SOLWYRX is headed
Right now I'm online-only. I do a lot of networking and in-person stuff at festivals, but I don't have a brick-and-mortar shop, so it's a constant battle with space at home and with being able to carry certain brands. A shop is a goal I keep checking on, but the cost stretches me thin for now.
My vision is a place you can walk into and find all sorts of gear, basically a whitewater gear warehouse. You could walk in knowing nothing and having nothing, and walk out with everything you need, plus help understanding it and a starting point for what you want to go do. I have no clue exactly where I'll be in five years. I'm going to achieve whatever I can, good, bad or ugly, and I'll make it through. If it's not a warehouse, I'd love to at least have an awesome retail shop full of good, reliable gear.
I love whitewater. I love Christ. They're both my passions. If you're looking for whitewater gear that's reliable and proven, want help figuring out what you need, and want to support a local shop, come check it out. I've got everything from everyday pocket knives to some of the most durable oars and boats out there, and the variety keeps growing.
