Editor’s Note: This is the latest installment in our Meet the Rangers series. Check out the rest of the Rangers by searching Meet the Rangers on this site or searching the individual Ranger’s name. Enjoy!
Tsunami Ranger Don Kiesling got into kayaking in 1996, paddling club boats. His first kayak was a skirted Wave Exceed. After reading Extreme Sea Kayaking (1999) by TRs Eric Soares and Michael Powers, Don connected with the Rangers and ordered a Tsunami X-15 from Jim Kakuk. In January of 2000, Don met Jim and Eric at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach, CA, to pick up his boat, and Jim and Eric recognized right away that Don had the Right Stuff to become a Ranger. A few years later he took his test, passed with flying colors, and was awarded the rank of lieutenant.
About that same time, Don started surf skiing. He got hold of a CD of the Molokai Challenge. The Molokai Challenge is one of the oldest surfski races in the world, 32 miles across the Kaiwi Channel from Kaluakoi Beach on Molokai to Manalua Beach Park on Oahu. Don said he and his buddies passed the CD around like it was an illicit drug. Don was hooked. In 2004, ’05, and ’07 he paddled the Challenge, rubbing elbows with the likes of Oscar Chalupsky and TR John Dixon.
Dixon worked with Don on open ocean racing and rudder design, and in 2005 Don started making his own rudders. Now Don has a tidy little shop at his home in Hood River where he turns out rudders for surfskis and outrigger canoes using a 3D printer. He has also designed rudders for prone paddleboards, SUPs, pedal boats, and “a handful of odd-ball, one-off, and custom boats”. With only word of mouth as advertising, Don’s rudders travel to surfski and other paddling enthusiasts all over the world under the brand name DK.
I caught up with Don recently in Hood River. Driving for the first time along the Mighty Nch’i-wana (the Columbia River) I arrived on a Saturday afternoon, a bit overwhelmed by the size of the Gorge and its beauty. The next day Don was racing in the Vortex Gorge Race #1, the first event to be arranged by the new Gorge Canoe Club. We spent the evening watching surf ski videos: the 2022 Western Australia Race Week, Carter Johnson on How to Surf the Gorge, and Ana Swetish and Wilson Reavley playing in big waves at Deception Pass. Perfect pre-race prep!
The next day, we headed over to Marine Park at Cascade Locks where the GCC has its headquarters. There were 54 results for this downwind race, all surf skis and outrigger canoes. After a heartfelt blessing from a local shaman, the boats lined up for a drift start and took off about 11:20 a.m. The course ran upstream along the Oregon bank for about 2 miles, then made a crossing of about 4 miles over to the Washington side at Home Valley. Flow was at 450,000 cfs; wind at 20 to 25 mph, gusting into the low 30s; and there was a counter current of about 2 mph creating plenty of whitecaps. Don was paddling his Uno Max by Think Kayak. After a slow start, Don pulled ahead once he was into the wind and ended up taking 2nd place (49:04:96) to Wilson Reavley’s 1st place (47:31:69).
These days Don mostly paddles Think surfskis, but he still has his Tsunami X-15 and pulls it out for retreats with the Rangers. I asked Don if he had anything he wanted to say about his career as a kayaker, particularly as a Tsunami Ranger. To paraphrase, he said it’s been a cool evolution of personal groups, with winds blowing in different directions as things come and go. There’s nostalgia for the past but excitement for the future, and he ended with the classic question I’ve heard again and again from Jim and Eric: “What’s next for the Tsunami Rangers?” With 26 years of paddling and racing experience under his belt, Dandy Downwind Don Kiesling is a force to be reckoned with. Eric called him the consummate 21st Century kayaker. From rivers to the Sea of Cortez, from surf zones to open ocean racing, Dandy Don does it all.
If you’re interested in contacting Don about a rudder you can reach him at surfski@gmail.com For questions or comments about this article, please click below or hit the Contact Us button at the top of this page. Thanks and happy paddling!
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