Jeff Gottfried: A True Tenkara Ambassador and Friend

One of the most precious things about my tenkara life since 2010 has been meeting many different folks. Some are customers, some are ambassadors, some are guides, and some are just strangers we may never meet again at trade shows; an interesting bond was forged once they stopped by and asked, “What is tenkara?”

There are so many different personalities from so many different walks of life, all the ages you can think of, and all are characters in this play we call tenkara.

One of those characters is Jeff Gottfried, based in Portland, Oregon.

I met Jeff many years ago, but I forget the exact year, as he was a frequent visitor to the now-famous Tenkara Summits we used to have. These Tenkara Summits were gatherings we had in various states where, for that weekend, it was an event all about tenkara, and along with multiple activities the summit hosted, the after-hours was a real treat.

At some of the after-hours events during the Summits, we had fly-tying sessions, where beer would flow, and fly-tying vises were fast at work making all sorts of Japanese-flavored flies. Many discussions would happen as everyone was laid back, meeting and mingling and telling our fish stories.

Come on now. Telling our fishtails is part of the fun of being a fly fisher. Who knows if all the stories are true, but I understand fly fishers never lie, haha!

Jeff has such a vast history of adventures he has enjoyed, so it was a treat that he fell in love with tenkara so he could share his intimate knowledge of fishing in terms of this newfound fascination we all started to have with the early days of tenkara.

For so many years now, I forget how much Jeff has been showing and helping companies like ours tell the story of tenkara. Jeff is a co-founder and executive director of Educational Recreational Adventures, a non-profit. He has been fly fishing for 50+ years, fishing primarily in tenkara for a very long time now. Each year, Jeff and his staff of volunteers teach hundreds of people from ages 6 to 80+ how to fish tenkara.

Here is a little more about Jeff and Educational Recreational Adventures.  Through ERA, Jeff and Sam Vanderbeek, also a certified tenkara guide, offers workshops at the Tenkara Rendezvous at the Fly Fisher’s Shop in Welches, Oregon, at Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center, at Oregon Health and Sciences University’s “March Wellness” facility and several Outdoor Adventure Camps offered each year to groups. He also guides private clients on little-known creeks and rivers throughout Oregon and the Pacific NW. Last, but not least Jeff fished tenkara in Japan, Argentina, Spain and Croatia (how cool is that?!).

Jeff has an MS in Biology and a Ph.D.in Science Education. He has years of experience teaching ecology, geology, wildlife, and plants of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest that add to his guiding program.

I have been studying and learning about tenkara since the very early days here in the USA when our founder opened Tenkara USA in 2009. Not long later, I learned all I knew by becoming a customer first, then an employee as time passed. Jeff has been studying tenkara for as long as Tenkara USA has been around and, during that time, has helped tell the story to folks like you.

Sharing conversations with him at these Summits was a treat, and often when Jeff called us, I or John here at Tenkara USA would chat with him to either take orders or just chat about an event he would help with. He has an infectious enthusiasm for things he loves, and I can tell he is madly in love with tenkara.

Writing blogs is always a fun thing for me, and today, after a nice chat with Jeff over the phone, I felt moved to chat about all he has been doing all these years to help tell the tenkara story, and it is this type of passion from folks like Jeff Gottfried that I find the most pleasant in my time here myself, also helping tell that same story.

Thanks, Jeff, for all that you have done and are doing to help us storytellers spread the word about tenkara.

Until our next phone chat, thanks to Mr. Jeff Gottfried for all your tenkara friendship!