EP 97. Riverhorse Nakadate — Water Lines, Wilderness & a Life Connected by Water | The Sustainable Angler

What can I say? When I grow up, I want to be Riverhorse. For those of you who don’t know him, Riverhorse Nakadate is an angler, surfer, writer, musician, adventurer and someone I am proud to call a  friend. You can find his words in the The Flyfish Journal, Fretboard Journal, and on Patagonia’s Cleanest Line We were first introduced by Paul Puckett a few years ago, and have been friends ever since. I have always admired his writing and that Riverhorse has the ability to blend humor while covering serious topics like protecting the planet. Over the course of his life, Riverhorse has been  collaborated with a brilliant filmmaker, Tony Czech, who I met while on vacation in Jackson Hole a few years ago, thanks to Riverhorse. Life is funny that way. Never know where all these connections and breadcrumbs may lead, but I am always so appreciative of meeting kindred souls like Tony and Riverhorse. Below is Tony and Riverhorse’s film, A Northern Light, which shined a light on the proposed copper mine ( owned by a Chilean mining company) at the head of the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area, which we discuss during our interview. If you want to take action to protect the Boundary Waters, you can make a donation to Save the Boundary Waters. In our interview he tells me that books are magic portals that can take us to far away places, and after reading his new book, Water Lines: A Life on Marshes, Rivers, Seas, and in the Rain, I couldn’t agree more. Riverhose share his rowdy and hilarious adventures wandering from the salt marshes and coastlines of Texas to Colorado’s alpine lakes, the Oregon and California shores, Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, the Yucatán mangroves, the Arctic Circle, Africa, and Montana’s spring creeks.

In this episode, we talk about the 5-year journey to getting his book published with Patagonia Books, the the Boundary Waters debacle, Mexican drug cartels forcing local fisherman to illegally long line for fish in Texas waters, how music, surfing, fly fishing, writing help Riverhorse make sense of the world and how they are all interconnected by water. We also talk about the miracle of wilderness and life, and much more. 

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