Bio of John Berry, his risqué humor, and "The Hooker"

[Glenn MacGrady]

John Berry was a whitewater mentor, letter correspondent and friend of mine in the 1980's. I recently rediscovered some letters from him from that era, and thought I would share a biographical tribute to him, his canoes, and his risqué humor in three posts. First, some straight biography:

Millbrook Boats, currently owned by John Kazimierczyk, was started in 1959 by one of the true pioneers of whitewater racing, open and closed canoe design, and multiple whitewater river first descents—John Berry (1924-2011). Millbrook is the whitewater open canoe line that has won more slalom races than any other since 1959. Millbrook boats have also always been used by discerning recreational whitewater canoeists who value composite light weight, speed, acceleration, and whiplash turns.

A World War II veteran and Wharton graduate, John Berry paddled with the Washington D.C. Canoe Cruisers club and lived in Bethesda, Maryland, in the 1950’s, working as a sales executive and stock broker. Sometime in the 1960's, he dropped out of the financial world, put his Wharton degree over his toilet, and began making boats and running a ski lodge in Waitsfield, Vermont. He first called the company Mad River Canoes and Kayaks in 1965.

Jim Henry later started a company in Waitsfield that he called Mad River Canoe. John and Jim decided that only one of them should be able to call their fledgling enterprises by the name Mad River. So, instead of going to court, they went to the local bar.

John first proposed that they settle the name dispute by an axe throwing contest, as he was a champion axe thrower. Jim didn't fall for this ploy. So they flipped a coin for it, and Jim Henry won. John Berry changed the name of his company to Millbrook Boats in 1971, named after a tributary of the Mad River that flowed by his ski lodge.

In 1975, John Berry moved Millbrook Boats to Riparius, NY, in the Adirondacks, where he personally trained and sold boats to legions of disciples (including yours truly, to whom he personally told this history), who went on to spread the gospel of light weight composite canoes and modern whitewater slalom technique.

Having "imported" one of the first Hahn closed boats into the U.S. when he was the national C-1 champion, John Berry used the Hahn hull (as John Sweet also did) to be the basis of the best known Millbrook boats of the 70's and 80's: the Flasher, the Flashback, the AC/DC, the MJM, the Fog, and the legendary ME. Jim Henry's Mad River Canoe also was licensed to make the Flashback and ME.

John Berry's most talented paddling apostle was John Kazimierczyk, who bought Millbrook from Berry in 1988.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Secondly:

John Berry had a wicked sense of humor and sense of word play, and was not averse to off-color humor. He really did have his Wharton diploma hanging over the toilet in his Riparius workshop.

His first short whitewater slalom canoe, perhaps anyone's, was the 13' Flasher. He had a graphic for this boat. It was a guy opening his raincoat and exposing himself.

John then designed a 15' whitewater slalom canoe based somewhat on the Flasher hull. This bigger Flasher was named the . . . Maximum Exposure (ME).

The Flasher itself has some quirks as a boat and John modified it to become the Flashback, which itself had two versions and was a popular boat for Millbrook and Mad River.

Berry's girlfriend in the 70's-80's, Jan Palmer of North River, NY, was a graphic artist, who drew the Flasher graphic I saw, and John named the MJM (My Jan Marie) after her.

Berry's AC/DC deliberately has a bisexual connotation because you paddle it in one direction for downriver paddling and the other direction for whitewater slalom.

His two-cockpit tandem closed boat, the Berrigan—which was licensed to and also made by Old Town—had multiple word plays. In one sense it was a play on John Berry/Bob Harrigan, the famous whitewater slalom championship team for which John paddled bow. In another sense it was a poke at the Berrigan brothers, Daniel and Phillip, who were famous political activist Catholic priests in the 60's and 70's.

John gave the only written and ironclad warranty on whitewater canoes in the business: "Ten yards or ten seconds, whichever comes first."

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Here's a picture of John Berry (bow) and Bob Harrigan (stern). Berry had preternaturally long arms with ropey strong muscles, which made him a great bow and solo paddler.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Thirdly, my most unusual recent discovery was a letter from John Berry, dated April 20, 1987, in which he enclosed an illustration drawn by Jan Palmer of his latest (and last) canoe: The Hooker.

To fully understand the Hooker illustration, it's helpful to quote John's letter to disrobe the reasons that motivated this hot and racy design:

Dear Glenn,

After noting recent Sawyer ads—i.e. with bimbo astride one of their models—and, particularly the Whitesell hogwash touting the hand rolls & the "exclusive" custom outfitting, I was moved to dash off the enclosed with the assistance of my favorite illustrator. Have submitted same to Screw magazine, but am not sure how many WW canoeists who can handle a 21" wide OC-1, wander around Times Square! Maybe you can make a copy for Nolan—hope he has a sense of humor—although anyone who stands 5'7", I view as something less than threatening!

Regards,
John

Here is John's enclosed illustration:

 

[stevet]

Great bit of history, thanks. Had a Flashback from MR at one point during the prodigious parade of paddling vehicles that passed through my garage.

 

[MrPoling]

The cartoon has really strong William Nealy vibes. Must have have been a late eighties thing.

 

[pblanc]

Here is a John Berry built MJM:

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Here is a John Berry built MJM:

I recall us discussing this canoe when you were buying it, Pete. It really looks great. Did you paint it? Are those skid plates on the stems or just paint?

 

[Benson Gray]

The Old Town advertisements for the Berrigan were considerably more tame as shown below.

Benson

 

[pblanc]

I recall us discussing this canoe when you were buying it, Pete. It really looks great. Did you paint it? Are those skid plates on the stems or just paint?

It had been constructed using white tinted resin which was quite worn with the fabric showing through. So I did paint it with Interlux Brightsides. The stems had been pretty beat up and rather crudely repaired using some type of Kevlar felt. The end result left one stem pretty misshapen. I removed all that garbage and faired the stems as best I could, then applied abrasion plates of 5 ounce Dynel fabric using epoxy with graphite powder mixed in. The very abrupt angle of the stems required using an abrasion plate applied in two pieces at each end and blending the two together.