The passing of a member of our Kayak family

Some sad news- yesterday morning one of our kayak family members passed away -Kevin "Tinker".

Oh no. RIP TINKER!

Sad. I met Kevin in 2011 and had the pleasure of fishing with him several times on the south coast. We sere exchanging emails about fishing a week ago.

Sorry to read this. I always enjoyed reading his posts. Wishing peace for his family and friends.

He asked for a Viking funeral.  He might have been serious about that.

He was always generous with his time, I’ll miss our chats.

sad to hear this but I think he would want us to keep fishing.  I vote for Viking funeral. 

So sorry to hear this.  I dont know if you all know this but Kevin was one of the founding members of our Heroes On the Water - North Oregon Coast chapter.  He helped us develop a lot of our flyers and other print items.  He was always willing to help us out when we asked.  Rest in peace my friend.

I never met him in person, but corresponded with him enough to know that behind his grumpy facade, he was a good and generous guy. Sent me a ton of flies, unsolicited, when he heard I dabbled with the bug wand. I still lack the patience and skill to be any good with fly fishing, but seriously admire his dedication to the art.

I had just sent him some books on Oregon fisheries, and by the way he spoke, seemed like he was still making plans to fish, made me think he was doing a lot better. His passing was was unexpected to me, and many others, I assume. I regret that I never got to fish with him. Hoping he's catching monster steelhead in the river in the sky!

That’s a hard blow to the heart!! He was a great man and a true friend. Our condolences to his family.
Rest in piece Kevin I’ll fish with when I get there!!

Oh, Odin, All-Father, hear our plea. As we return our kin to your embrace, may their journey be safe and swift. May the brave deeds they performed in life echo in your great hall. Thor, protector, let your mighty hammer guard them. Freya, goddess of love and war, receive them with open arms. May they find peace and honor in the realms of the gods.


Fair winds and following seas my friend!

-Mark-

I met Kevin once when I drove to Coos Bay to purchase his used OK Trident 13.  While I was tying the kayak onto my truck he opened my canopy window and started throwing all kinds of kayak gear into my truck.  Everything from a go pro camera to a kayak cart to paddles etc etc.  Easily a thousand dollars of gear.  I asked him what he was doing and he basically said he probably wouldn’t be needing it anymore.  This was about two years ago.  Any way,I still have most of what he gave me with no plans to use it.  Batteries, fish finder etc.  I would like to either donate the stuff to Heroes on the Water or sell it to whatever someone wanted to give me for it and donate the money to a cause of his or family.  Any ideas from those who knew him?

It is … interesting… how there is a dep feeling of loss just by getting to know someone through his posts. 

Oh man, another gut punch for my Monday morning. Never did meet Tinker in person but had quite the spirited banter with him at times on the board. He always seemed to follow up any "public" conversation with a personal message privately ensuring no feelings hurt or whatever, completely unnecessary but just showing the good man that he was.

He was always this mysterious man "Down south" that had never been seen nor photographed, regardless seeing the photos he is almost exactly what I had always pictured him to look like and wish I could've met him and shared a beer and a fish story or two.

RIP Tink.

I am sorry to hear about Tinker's death. I never met him in person, however we corresponded a few times on this site and via personal messages. I enjoyed his good-natured way of interacting and contributing to this and other fora he was part of. He was indeed very generous, years ago I tried to buy an older model TFO fly rod he put for sale here and although initially he was not sure about selling it to me given my planned use for it (he thought it was too soft for salmon), he relented and made me promise to send him pictures of whatever I caught with it, which I did. When he mailed the fly rod to me, he actually included a new fly reel and fly line just because he was such a generous guy.

His funny self-deprecating stories about his adventures chasing steelhead, salmon, pilings and logs always drew much needed laughter. Some of his stories below.

RIP Tinker, you will be missed!

https://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=22444.msg232777#msg232777

https://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=22422.0

https://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=23848.msg242123#msg242123

I log in to check weekly and was totally saddened to hear of his passing.  I am bummed i never got to fish with the man i thought was a fantastic story teller.

His posts often read like a well read novel.  Even though most of his stories were fishless he always had peope interacting and laughing. 

He will be missed.  If he is getting ashes done a farewell on the ocean like he requested would be a fun time to share stories.