Deek Heykamp still remembers his first whitewater kayak, one he brought home from the annual Outdoor Retailer trade show to his new outdoor store in Southeast Portland in the late 90s.
“It was an Eskimo Diablo,” Heykamp recalls. “We had just started the business, and we hired a guy who is still my close friend, and he said he would teach me how to roll if I bought a kayak.”
Heykamp grew up paddling Oregon lakes and whitewater in an aluminum canoe during a time when fiberglass whitewater kayaks were taking over the river scene. At the time, kayaking eluded him, but two decades later, once he had a hold of the Diablo, Heykamp’s relationship with paddling took a turn many are familiar with. “It consumed me,” he says.
The new business Heykamp had opened with his childhood friend Bryan Knudsen in 1997 was Next Adventure, and from those early days, the store on the corner of Grand Avenue and Stark Street has grown to become an institution in Portland—with shopping hauls even included in the skits on the satirical Portlandia—and one of the largest independent outdoor retailers on the West Coast.
In May 2025, Heykamp and Knudsen announced their imminent retirement from the 28-year-old retail company, and with it, the closure of four physical retail spaces. This includes two paddlesports centers, serving the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. The announcement adds Next Adventure to an accumulating list of generational shop owners retiring with no option to hand over the reins of their legacy establishments, and opens questions surrounding the future of retail for one of the largest paddling communities in the country.
Next Adventure owners to retire and close stores
Following the announcement, Heykamp and Knudsen spoke with outlets across local media channels, sharing what they viewed as the best opportunity for themselves to embrace the fruits of retirement and for the business to call it a good run.
“I’m 60 years old, and I’m young, and I’m healthy enough, I want to really enjoy the outdoors and really enjoy my retirement,” says Heykamp. “Currently, in the business climate, there’s some challenges that we face for sure. And looking at the commitment that it’s going to take to really excel in business in the coming decade… the fact is that now is a good time that we can go out on our own terms. We can leave all of the people who have supported us in a good place, and we can go enjoy what we love to do.”
Retailers across the country are facing mounting high jumps, which Heykamp alludes to along with state-specific circumstances of liability insurance for outdoor activities as well as the paddling industry’s own growing pains. Across the area, fans of the store have predictably voiced their desire for Next Adventure not to close and instead find a buyer, however, looking at the adversities a new owner would face presents a daunting undertaking in the market and within the community.
“We certainly had talked to some people about it [selling the business], but the appetite for investing in retail, especially retail of our size, wasn’t real big,” Heykamp explains. “Since we’ve gone public with our retirement plans, people have come and we’ve started talking with people about different parts and pieces of the business they might want to take on. And I’m hopeful that someone will step up and continue some of that. But the fact is, with the general retail climate, a lot of the uncertainty nationwide, what’s going on with tariffs and insurance, and etc. All of those things add up to this was a better decision. We had more control of our decision in our retirement by doing a liquidation.”
The story behind a 28-year business
According to the company, to start Next Adventure, Heykamp sold his shoe repair business with 12 locations in two states, while Knudsen sold his home in Bellingham, Washington and left his job of 11 years with Les Schwab Tires. In July 1997, the friends who had grown up embarking on outdoor escapades were now business partners, showing up at a 1,600-square-foot space on the corner of SE Grand Avenue with two truckloads of used gear to set up shop in Southeast Portland. From there, Next Adventure grew.
They would eventually open a retail location in the nearby town of Sandy. On the paddling front, Next Adventure would open two dedicated locations. One, the Portland Paddle Sports Center, just a few blocks away from the flagship store, and the Scappoose Bay Paddle Sports Center, located 25 miles from Portland on the Columbia River.
What the end of Next Adventure means for Pacific Northwest paddlesports
The two centers have produced one of the largest paddlesports magnets on the West Coast over the last decade. Their Portland and Scappoose locations have offered numerous brands in sprawling spaces for every activity from whitewater kayaking to touring, canoeing, recreational kayaking, standup paddleboarding, kayak fishing and rafting. They’ve offered rentals from both locations, and the Scappoose Bay site offers direct access to the lower Columbia River. Next Adventure also began a service for custom rigging fishing kayaks—an emerging aspect of the angling industry. Over the years, the store has also played a role in sponsoring local paddling events including the Northwest Creeking Competition and the PDX Kayaker Film Festival.
With Next Adventure’s closure in motion, Portland is not, however, an area without paddling retail, but it is an area where those options have been declining. In 2023, the owners of a neighboring store on SE Grand popular with river runners, Andy and Bax, also retired and shuttered. And Portland’s downtown REI closed in 2024 following 20 years in business.
Still, there is Alder Creek Kayak and Canoe, which has been operating since 1986. For standup paddleboarders, Gorge Performance holds a deep inventory of boards and gear, especially for touring and surfing. Portland Kayak Company, in Northwest Portland, houses a mixed inventory of boats and boards available by appointment. There is also a limited inventory of paddling gear at a newer retailer, Foster Outdoor, as well as smaller retailers who are an hour or more drive from the city.
These options appear plentiful compared to most regions in the U.S., however it’s worth bearing in mind that the Pacific Northwest represents one of the largest paddling demographics in the country according to the the Outdoor Foundation’s last special report on the category in 2019, including the second largest holding of whitewater kayakers and rafters behind only the Southeast. Next Adventure has been centrally located and relatively easy to pop into for most of the metropolitan area, and, for whitewater kayaking especially, has held the region’s physical retail of many of the most widely distributed brands.
Gaping void or new beginnings
“Losing such a great retailer is a huge hole. They did an amazing job transcending from retailer to member of the community,” shared Anna Bruno, the marketing communications manager of Northwest River Supply. “We have nothing but gratitude for their 28 years…The big thing for me, is nothing can fully replace a brick and mortar store; it’s important for the community and industry.”
Bruno notes that NRS is fortunate to still have diverse physical retailers of their products in the area. However, Bruno, who also lives in the community an hour east of the city in the Hood River-White Salmon paddle-troplis, mentions there will not be a convenient whitewater retailer for these destinations, a fact others in the industry acknowledge also.
“Next Adventure was huge in getting people into not only paddling, but the outdoors in general,” Dave Fusilli of Pyranha Kayaks said. “As far as Pyranha is concerned, they were a large account for us and for most whitewater brands. We now have no kayak shops in what I believe is the most kayaker-populated place in the country,” added Fusilli who serves in roles of sales, distribution and content for Pyranha, and also lives in the Hood River-White Salmon area. With these factors in mind, Fusilli believes someone is bound to step in.
“I’m pretty damn optimistic, but at this current moment, I don’t know where you will buy a kayak in the area. My closest stores are north to Seattle or south to Eugene or Bend.”
Fusilli’s comments echo a topic now circulating in the Portland whitewater community—whether Next Adventure’s exit will produce an opportunity for emerging businesses in the region to flourish.
“We have such a soft industry right now, and losing a retailer like this is a major hit,” expressed Luke Spencer, owner of Clackamas River Outfitters and a former Next Adventure employee. Spencer has technically been a competitor with Next Adventure since opening his own store outside of the city in Estacada in 2015. He acknowledges the resources, community and connections that Next Adventure produced. However, outside of the current economic climate, Spencer also believes from a general standpoint that the local juggernaut’s closure will ultimately open a path for others.
“They had all the major lines locked down and this creates the potential for other folks to carry some of that gear,” Spencer shared. “We’ve already had folks [brands] asking us—so there are opportunities waiting. Spencer is cautious to say how retail will shape up in the city in the near future, and believes it’s healthy for the city to have at least one good shop for people to visit, but that doesn’t have to come in the form of one massive business. “Ultimately, having diversity in who sells gear is a good thing.”
At its peak, the Portland outdoor store founded by two childhood friends employed 200 people, generated $24 million in annual sales, and outfitted thousands of local residents for outdoor adventure.
“I certainly would like people to know how privileged I feel and how honored I am to have been a part of the community and to be given the opportunity to do the things that Brian and I have in the outdoor space. It’s a dream. It’s what you start a business hoping you get to do,” says Heykamp. “We come from such a place of gratitude for what the community has given back to us.”
Now, Heykamp and Knudsen are starting a new adventure in retirement. In the meantime, a blowout retirement sale is underway, running until the stores close by the fall of 2025.
Feature photo: Next Adventure
