Just wanted to let anybody passing thru Albany NewYork know that the wood kayak and woman on a Sam Adams billboard on I-90 is Clea and the Merganser 16 that we finished late last summer. The picture doesn't even have the full set of bungies and deck lines that we just recently installed in it though.

The two billboards are on I-90 near Albany, NY - one heading west between exit 4 and 5 on the left side of the road and one heading east just as I-90 crosses 787 also on the left side of the road.

Local kayakers were invited to a Sam Adams beer photoshoot this past May to Lake George (big touristy lake) for advertizing to be done in some local newspapers and magazines - "Metroland" and "Adirondack Sports and Fitness". Everyone had plastic rental kayaks except for me in my CLC 18 and her in the Merganser. Turns out that both of us made the print ads and they ending up liking her and her boat enough that they made it to the billboard. By the looks of it, her and the kayak are about 5x lifesize on this billboard. You can check out about 3/4 the length of her boat and can really see the upswept fore end of the boat. She's paddling and smiling and that is readily apparent as well.

Pretty cool ehh? Anyways, just wanted to let everybody know since its kinda neat and it got good exposure for wood kayaks. Too bad we didn't get anymore $$$ for having the wood kayak as a "model" too in addition to us.

I'll try and get some pictures posted.

Pete Czerpak
albany, NY