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When my friends at Oru Kayak asked if Juno and I wanted to help promote their newest boat, I said HECK YES.

If you haven’t heard of Oru Kayak before, they make magically portable origami kayaks that can fold and fit into a backpack. You have to see it to believe it! After falling in love with their one-person boats on a moonlit bioluminescence tour of Tomales Bay, I was excited to try their first tandem boat, the Haven. The timing couldn’t have been better: I was leaving for Europe via New Mexico the following week and all the packing was driving me crazy. So on a gorgeous Tuesday morning in October, I loaded up Ruby Sue and drove us to Lake Chabot.

I was a little nervous about the photoshoot part —this being my first and likely last experience as a “model”— but it was easy to act natural while paddling with my real-life friends Jess and Sammy, along with Juno’s BFF (best fur friend) Crispin. Our photographer was the talented Simone Anne, who I already knew from her beautiful outdoor photography work with Trail Mavens.



Juno usually likes kayaking with me, mostly because she hates getting wet and the kayak keeps her out of the water. 🙂 At one point we were paddling peacefully in the middle of the lake with Simone flying a drone overhead, me and Juno in one kayak and Sammy and her husband Stephen in the other. But just as Simone was lining up the shot, Juno suddenly decided she did NOT want to be in the kayak anymore. She leapt out of the boat and doggy-paddled to shore faster than I could human-paddle after her. “There goes our modeling career!” I laughed.

Simone still managed to get some great Juno shots, a few of which you can see on the Haven product page on REI.com. (She’s famous!) Even Ruby Sue got to participate back on shore, showing how easy it is to bring the Oru Kayak in a normal car even without a roof rack.

It’s surreal to see myself and Juno on REI.com, one of our favorite websites, promoting one of our favorite brands with our friends. And if you buy the Haven (or demo it at your local REI) you’ll even see our smiling mugs in the owner’s manual.

Thanks to Oru Kayak, Jess, Sammy, and Crispin for a fun day on the water! It was the best possible way to spend a morning before 4 months away from California.

All photos by Simone Anne for Oru Kayak.