Without Roman Dial the sport of bikerafting wouldn’t likely exist
Roman contribute immensely to the bike-packraft adventure lore with his groundbreaking trips around the world. And, thankfully, he contributed significantly to this book. He wrote the excellent Foreword you can read on TheBikeraftGuide.com blog. He also allowed us to interview him for hours and he answered upwards of 100 emails, clarifying dates and facts. We are immensely grateful for his help. We are equally grateful for his latest brief social media review of the story. Thanks so much, Roman!
Roman is also a successful writer, author of The Adventurer’s Son and Packrafting!: An Introduction & How-To Guide, both must reads. ~ Lizzy & Doom
The Review by Roman Dial
Of all the wacky, niche-level, outdoor adventures I’ve dabbled in over the years, the bike and boat combination has always been the one that scratched my creative adventure itch best. This book about what’s now called “bikerafting” came in the mail yesterday and was a delight to look at, browse through and read. It’s amazing the number of stories in here from around the world and from all kinds of environments. Lots of photos ranging from worn-out, dusty old trips during the age of film to shiny digital new ones.
This book really does a great job of showcasing what bikerafting is and can be, as well as educating on how to do it. An ace kayaker once told me that the outdoor adventure community is like a big tapestry that each generation adds to with new patterns, colors, and blends. The Bikeraft Guide and The Packraft Handbook document how the current outdoor adventure generation has contributed to a tapestry traceable back to Alexander von Humboldt by way of Bradford Washburn, John Wesley Powell, and Yule Kilcher followed in Alaska by David Roberts (1960s explorer of Alaska’s wilderness summits), Dick Griffith (pioneer of 20th century packrafting), and George Ripley (founder of the Alaska Mountain and Wilderness Classic). If you can get hold of this book, buy it: don’t let the image of a grumpy old man (whose PFD is under his jacket) on the cover dissuade you.
