A Canoe Worth Splurging On

Trent Preszler’s custom, handcrafted vessels come with a price tag of $100,000

After his father passed away in 2014, Trent Preszler found solace through his toolbox. His father was a cattle rancher “who could build or make anything,” so Preszler−an avid paddler who lived on Long Island at the time−honored that legacy by building his own canoe. For 14 months, Preszler taught himself the craft of woodworking via books, videos, and trial and error until his 20-foot, 150-pound red-cedar vessel was complete. That first canoe gave way to Preszler Woodshop, where he handcrafts custom canoes with hundreds of wood strips, cast-bronze trim and hand-stitched leather seats—a year-long labor of love that comes with a price tag of about $100,000.

“I love how canoes are a lost art and one of the few links we have to the American way of life in the 1800s,” he says. “There’s nothing as peaceful to me as paddling a canoe on a calm summer night−made even more satisfying knowing I built it myself.”