(Daniel): Tenkara USA is entering a new era. From the beginning I feel the company has followed the intended vision for its timeline. On our first year in business (2009) the important thing was to introduce and prove the concept of tenkara in the USA. Year 2 was focused on getting our business foundations in place and further introducing the idea of tenkara to fly-anglers. The third year was a year of discovering tenkara and really finding out as much about tenkara as possible and sharing that in more depth with those who are interested(that’s the year I spent 2 months in a small mountain village in Japan). Our fourth year was dedicated to start bringing tenkara to the masses. And, as I had predicted year 5 would be the year when we would start focusing more on innovations and new product development, not to clutter the marketplace but with the intention of simplifying it, keeping it authentic and making it more intuitive.

In preparation for year 5, I have been looking for a product designer that would be the ideal fit for our company.

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This morning someone at the Tenkara Anglers Facebook Group suggested that Jason Klass of Tenkaratalk.com and I do a podcast together. Brilliant idea. Everytime I talk to Jason on the phone we have great conversations about tenkara; why not do the same but record it? So, less than 24 hours later, we give you the first Tenkara USA – Tenkara Talk podcast.

LISTEN NOW 

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(duration: 39:56)

Direct link to podcast file

As a good follow up to the post I wrote yesterday, the Denver Post is featuring a story on tenkara in today’s paper. It is a well-written piece by Scott Willoughby. Check it out: http://www.denverpost.com/outdoors/ci_22576834/simplicity-is-sacred-japanese-tenkara-technique-fly-fishing

Daniel Galhardo: John, most people we are familiar within the small world of tenkara are those who regularly participate on online forums, write blogs about tenkara, or are engaged in social networking within the community. You are a reminder that the tenkara community expands well beyond the realm of online activity. You have been very engaged with the tenkara community in many levels, attending the first Tenkara Summit, participating in some video productions (not yet released) and more, but most people don’t know you yet. Tell us a bit about yourself.

John Geer: I grew up in southern Illinois. My father and grandfather were coal miners, so I did a lot of fishing on strip pit lakes, and also a lot on area farm ponds. My family would take vacations to Missouri, where my father is originally from and my parents live now, and fish Missouri’s trout parks, which are mostly small spring creeks managed as put and take fisheries. That’s where I caught my first fish and my first trout on spinning gear when I was about three or four years old. We were really more bass people back then and took more of our later vacations to some of the large warm water reservoirs in the Ozarks, like Table Rock and Bull Shoals. Somewhere in there my grandparents started spending thier summers in Idaho near Yellowstone and I got my first taste of western (states) fly fishing.

I’ve moved around a bit since high school, and have lived in Virginia, Colorado, Missouri, and now Montana. It makes ten years here this October. I fish around the Yellowstone region, mostly in southwest Montana, but also in YNP and a little in Idaho on the Henry’s Fork. For the last five years (six summer seasons) I’ve worked for Toby Swank at Fins & Feathers Fly Shop in Bozeman. I’ve been really lucky with who I’ve worked for and with, in fly fishing industry. It’s been a lot of fun and it’s all led me to the point I’m at now, which I’m very happy about. Read the rest of this entry »

A few months ago I wrote about the visit of Mr. Endo, editor of the Japanese “Fishing Cafe” magazine. I finally got to browse its pages. This issue is primarily dedicated to tenkara, with the profiles of some of the main personalities in the sport (including yours truly). For the last couple of years more and more fishing magazines have been dedicating issues to tenkara, an affirmation of the growing popularity of the method in Japan (by the way, Fishing Cafe is a magazine owned by Shimano). I love the layout of their magazine, with vivid images and text over images.

The cover features an illustration by Mr. Yoshikazu Fujioka, who is also featured in the magazine. Others featured are Mr. Sebata and Dr. Ishigaki.
I will write more about my experiences in the last couple of days after today’s fishing. No gnarly dishes this time, but a cool and new-to-me fishing method shown by the local kids, and some plain fun.
Below are some of the images I just took of the magazine with my phone (this post is being written on my phone as I wait to depart for today’s adventure).

Written by Daniel

In case you have sometime, I recently participated in a couple of great podcasts that you may want to checkout.

A few weeks ago I went to Vermont and recorded a live podcast with Tom Rosenbauer of Orvis. You may have seen the news that they are now carrying our gear and have also gotten into tenkara. You can listen to the recording here (or get it on iTunes). The recording with me starts at approximately 20 minutes into the podcast.

The second recording I did was with D. Roger Maves of the internet radio program Askaboutflyfishing.com. This was a show where listeners submitted questions and I answered them as best as I could. It was recorded last Wednesday and it was very interesting to see questions rolling in non-stop throughout the show. You may listen to the show with Roger here.

Both are excellent programs and really well done. I hope you get a chance to listen to at least one of them – and I would never expect you to listen to two shows with the same person on the same topic, I probably wouldn’t. Thank you.

This Wednesday, July 11th at 7PM (Mountain Time), I will be answering questions about tenkara on the live internet radio show askaboutflyfishing.com.

Please submit any questions you may have about tenkara and tune-in for the live interview.

Every so often I’m reminded that outside perception is a double-edged sword. When perceived as a small, solely-owned entreprise that is run by one person with a mission, the community respects and rewards the entrepreneurial spirit, the underdog if you will, and roots for his success. When the small, solely-owned enterprise run by one person is rewarded and starts succeeding and growing some people may start perceiving it as a large corporation, “the man” if you will, that is out there for an ulterior motive.

Recently I read a couple of things out there, on the world wide web, that reminded me Tenkara USA may now be perceived by some as a large “Tenkara Inc.” that is out there to dominate the world. The perception of growth in a new market like tenkara can also bring about new competitors, vying to take a slice of the market being created. As new companies try to imitate our products, in some cases trying to market the “tool” while ignoring the “method” of tenkara, I’m reminded that leadership in a product category and growth presents its unique challenges, perception is probably the smallest but most vocal and to me the most personally disturbing.

A few days ago I started going through some of the pages of our website to update content. I noticed I had not updated the “About Tenkara USA” page in quite a long time. It contained a couple of paragraphs about Tenkara USA, what its mission is and the fact that we donate 1% of our revenues to environmental non-profits. I had written that page soon after starting Tenkara USA, more concerned about stating what Tenkara USA is I didn’t concentrate on sharing the story of who Tenkara USA is.
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The last 2 weeks have proven to be very busy. They have provided me with tons of materials for this blog, though little time to post as things were happening. I’ll start from the end and try to work my way to the beginning of these 2 weeks of fishing.

Three hours after arriving from a 10-day fishing tour of Colorado – where my wife hooked her first football-size trout on tenkara, and we ate some wonderful tenkara pie - we went to pick up the editor of the well-known Japanese magazine Fishing Cafe, Mr. Noboru Endo, and his friend and translator for the trip, Mr. Katsumi Fujikura, at their hotel.

Mr. Fujikura (left) and Mr. Endo (right)

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Always a bit awkward writing about myself on this blog, but I truly enjoyed being the “victim” of Chris Hunt’s 20 Questions on Eatmorebrooktrout.com. Chris has been running a series called “20 Questions” with several folks well known in the fly-fishing industry, which I have been reading for quite sometime. I found they did a great job at revealing the human side of names we’ve become familiar with.

I like how Chris introduces tenkara:

“You know when folks start debating the merits of the craft on message boards, across the blogosphere and even in the mainstream press, it has arrived and acquired enough legitimacy to warrant a discussion.”

When I received Chris’ message with a request to answer 20 questions (actually, I answered 30, he selected the best 20) I was very happy to do so. As Tenkara USA has continued to rapidly grow in recent times, I have found that many people now think “I” am a big corporation. I got the message when I arrived at the airport on my way to Colorado. My flight was delayed by 2 hours, and knowing I would not have a minute to go through them during the week, I punched through the questions; free-writing style.

It was a super fun thing to do. If you want to learn a bit more about me, or simply which living person I despise most, take a look at his blog.

Anthony Naples, who runs the blog Casting Around,  interviewed me for a feature on the website Midcurrent.com. You’re probably tired of hearing my story, but Anthony’s questions are good and could only be asked by someone who’s been following the development of tenkara in the US from the beginning.

On Midcurrent’s email newsletter this morning they announced the interview as follows: “THIS WEEK we look at what may be the fastest growing “style” of fly fishing: tenkara.  Anthony Naples interviews Daniel Galhardo, founder of Tenkara USA and someone who could fairly be called the “Ever-Ready Bunny of tenkara.”