West Seattle scene: Canoe-building at Lowman Beach

| Seen at sea | West Seattle beaches | West Seattle news

These past few brilliantly sunny/warm afternoons, if you visited Lowman Beach north of Lincoln Park, you might have seen Tom hard at work on his canoe. We heard about him from Karl Sutter, who has been watching Tom’s progress. Karl shared the first two photos, explaining that Tom had already been out in his carved canoe – but was adding an outrigger:

Then we stopped by on the 4th of July afternoon, for a firsthand look:

The original canoe even works with a 4-to-6-horsepower motor, and at last report, he was looking for an additional one.

Been There July 6, 2011 (6:35 am)

Nice work and fun project:) However, a bit wigged-out by flip-flop wearing, lots of skin exposed chainsaw use.

chris July 6, 2011 (8:03 am)

where’s the comment about operating a chainsaw in flipflops?

2 Much Whine July 6, 2011 (10:00 am)

That comment can be found directly above my comment. . . . .

JeffA July 6, 2011 (12:18 pm)

…kids, don’t try this at home. :)

Foy boy July 6, 2011 (2:28 pm)

So I guess it is ok to start collecting drift wood for all my art projects. How do you sweep up your mess on the beach?

karl July 6, 2011 (4:08 pm)

When is woodchips bad. Did you see Alki on the 5th?

anonyme July 6, 2011 (7:07 pm)

If these canoes are made of driftwood, isn’t removal of driftwood from beaches illegal?

WSB July 6, 2011 (8:28 pm)

Don’t know that it’s driftwood, don’t know that it’s not. And no, driftwood removal is not prohibited outright, according to the references I found. Guy building canoe on beach = cool photo. This wasn’t meant to be a complete analysis of the situation – but since he’s building it right there on the beach, I’m sure he would happily answer questions from anyone who wanted to go by and ask – TR

metrognome July 7, 2011 (2:44 am)

per a current thread in the Forum:

Q. Can I pick up driftwood from the beach?
A. Seattle Municipal Code 18.12.070 prohibits removal of driftwood (or any wood, tree, shrub, plant, flower, fruit, nut, soil, sand, sod, or other element) from any Seattle park.

WSB July 7, 2011 (8:17 am)

Thanks. However, if anyone looking at the photo is not familiar with Lowman Beach, the canoe operation was *not* on the park beach, which starts north of where the bulkhead in the background ends (as an un-miss-able sign notifies beachgoers who are facing south from the end of the relatively narrow park beachfront) – TR

Daisy JB July 7, 2011 (12:45 pm)

I can’t believe that floats!! I wonder what kind of wood it’s made out of??

The Hepcat July 7, 2011 (4:01 pm)

Not Natalie Wood………

Rebecca July 7, 2011 (4:02 pm)

Way to go Tom! The only thing missing in these photos is Sammy his black cat. Actually, now that I am looking more closely I think he made it into photo #1 in front of the boat sprawled out on his side.