Andy Wallis, long time manager of Ferndale’s Johnson Outdoors, is leaving the kayak biz and moving into optical engineering. Well, sort of. He’s becoming a market project manager at SPIE (The International Society for Optical Engineering). Say it with me folks -- WHOA. His last day at Johnson is February 9th after which he will spend a week of gainful unemployment at Whistler. Johnson has already begun advertising for a new store manager.

“I’ve really enjoyed working here at Johnson Outdoors for the last six and a half years,” he says, “but it’s time for a new challenge. It will be nice having my weekends free to join WAKE on more paddling trips.” Congrats, Andy. We’ll miss you at the shop but we’ll be glad to see you on the water.