TWO friends have built their own wooden kayak after spending a year making their dream a reality.

Christopher Campin and Keith Nelson, who work at Hexham’s Egger factory, were hooked when they saw cedar wood kayaks online, and ended up being inspired to build their own.

Christopher said that he and Keith were the perfect team to build the sea-going kayak.

He said: “It’s Keith’s dream. He spotted things on the internet and he’s very outdoorsy and into his kayaking and we thought we would like to do something similar.

“My trade is carpentry and we thought it would be good to make it, so it became a labour of love. It’s a bit of art meets functionality. I didn’t know anything about kayaking before this.”

While there are many similar crafts to be seen online, very few can be found in the UK.

Christopher continued: “We had a picture in our heads of what it was going to be and it just started to appear and develop. It’s such a nice thing, but there’s very few people who make them in this country. Almost all of them are in North America and Canada, where there’s plenty of lumber.

“I suspect it’s going to be a head turner.”

It took the two friends almost a year to build the kayak and Christopher couldn’t be happier with the result.

“I think we’re both over the moon with it,” he added. “We knew what we wanted to achieve and to see it now is fantastic. It’s probably even better for people who haven’t seen it because we’ve seen it over time.

“Keith has had a roof rack built for his camper van to take it to the west coast and try it out in the sea.

“I would have it above the fireplace – I don’t want to see it hit rocks – but it’s what it’s there for,” he said.