When you have a 4-legged best friend, you want to experience every journey through life together with them. They say dogs are a man’s best friend, and you can tell this is true after reading this next story.
David Bahnson, who is a retired orthopedic surgeon from Vermont, loves to go kayaking. His most precious companion in life is Susie, a beautiful golden retriever that loves his human just as much as David lover her.
One day when he went kayaking, Susie decided to jump in and join him, but it wasn’t very safe for her to tag along. That’s when David decided to go kayaking alone so Susie can have her very own place in the rear baggage opening. But David felt that it still lacked some safety measures, so he built a removable coaming that can keep Susie dry.
When he and his wife got their second dog, Ginger, the custom kayak needed a new addition, so he carved another whole.
Since then, they have been unseparated, and David has his kayaking buddies along with him on every adventure.
“Our dogs have always loved to travel with us in cars, in my airplane, in boats. Building a way for them to kayak with us just seemed like a logical choice, and the boats are fun to build anyway.”
“Once I taught one of my golden retrievers how to windsurf with me, and she was very good at staying on the board and really seemed to enjoy it. At one point she even swam several hundred feet off shore when I had gone windsurfing without her.”
Sadly, both of the dogs pictured with Bahnson have since passed away after lives filled with adventure. However the tradition continues with the family’s newest pets.
“My wife and her friends still use the kayaks and she takes our newest golden, Piper, along with her,” he told HuffPost UK.