SEATTLE — Jack Hampton might look like just another kayaker who showed up on the docks in Lake Union, but he’s been paddling since April.
Hampton is the founder of Paddling the Margins project. The project had Hampton kayak 1,200 miles from Ketchikan, Alaska to Seattle in an effort to document the people and places he encountered.
Hampton said the name of the project reflects the remote communities and people who are often overlooked, and captured their diverse perspective.
For several years, Hampton worked to build a network of environmentalists, first nations representatives, paddlers and members of the off-grid community across the Pacific Northwest. This group serves as the experts and subjects in the documentary project.
According to the project's website, Paddling the Margins project looks to investigate the experiences of marginal groups living at the edge of North American society and geography, under the threat of climate change and habitat destruction.
Hampton is a filmmaker and recorded interviews with people who live along the coastline to gain perspective and provide a voice for their worries, hopes and challenges.
“I was inspired by the resilience of many of the people I met who live off grid,” Hampton said.
Hampton said the harsh realities of living remote was a sharp contrast from the romanticized version of off-grid living seen in some media.
“It’s tough and it’s completely predicated on the skillsets these people have,” Hampton said.
The journey featured a few support paddlers. Only Jack completed the entire journey, paddling solo for hundreds of miles.
He was able to pack and power his film-making equipment thanks to some Seattle-based tech. Dakota Lithium designs and manufactures lithium iron phosphate batteries. They provided the expedition twice the run time and half the weight of standard lead acid batteries. Hampton said they completely powered everything he needed during the 92-day paddle.
Hampton said he will now begin working to compile the interviews he did along his trip to create a documentary that adds nuance and reflection to the conversation around sustainability.