Yet, if you put aesthetics aside the humble Grumman aluminum canoe was a trailblazer in canoeing history, opening up new horizons for adventurers and recreational paddlers alike. In 1944, Grumman vice president William Hoffman came up with the idea of a lightweight, stretch-formed aluminum canoe—after lugging a waterlogged wood-canvas canoe across one too many portages on a fishing trip in New York’s Adirondack Mountains. Fox, who now crafts FoxWorx canoe and kayak paddles in Bainbridge, New York, had only been in a canoe once before he took the job of turning gossamer sheets of stretched aluminum skin into canoes with a drill press, rivets and hammer.