Fishing for an Adventure

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Liam Lane with his custom-made bamboo rod exploring a campus creek.

Liam Lane first discovered his passion for working with his hands as a child playing with Legos. Unlike most kids his age, Liam would abandon the instructions and use the pieces to create his own designs. His imagination was paired with a remarkable ability to construct things. Liam Lane is a designer and a builder.

When he visited Miller School in the eighth grade, it only took one glance into the woodshop to know he belonged on the Hill. Over the past two years, Liam has taken Design/Build every semester, progressing quickly in both technical skills and the creative process of designing his own projects. Liam remarked, “My favorite part about woodworking is the creative aspect of it. I can design and make my own projects using any of the different kinds of woods in the shop, and that allows me to make the same projects but add different touches that mean something to me.”

Watching Liam work in the woodshop is a sight to behold. He is calm, efficient, and highly skilled, moving effortlessly from the planer to the table saw to the miter saw. He makes precise cuts and adheres to safety protocols instinctively. 

In addition to his natural aptitude for designing and building, Liam is also an avid and skilled outdoorsman. He enjoys hiking, fishing, and canoeing. He is most passionate about fly-fishing and spends his free time exploring creeks and rivers around Miller School and his home in Wintergreen, fishing alone and with friends.

In the spring of his freshman year, he decided that a canoe would be helpful for navigating bigger rivers and exploring new fishing areas. Instead of going to a sporting goods store, Liam headed to the second floor of Caton Hall. There he sketched out a design for an ideal one-man canoe that he could build himself. Over the next ten months, Liam carefully constructed the canoe. He described the project: “My canoe is 10’ long. It is made from cedar strips that I individually cut on a table saw and routed with a bead and cove router bit. It took me 10 months to build, spending time in class and after school in the woodshop.” The end result is a stunning cedar canoe that is as beautiful to view as it is practical to use.

Every serious fly-fisherman dreams of owning a custom bamboo fly rod. Waitlists for these can be upwards of seven years, with starting costs usually north of three thousand dollars. Like with his Lego sets, Liam figured if he had the raw materials, he could build anything he could dream up. And he dreamed up a fly rod specifically for the small creeks surrounding Miller School. Similarly to his canoe, Liam carefully designed and constructed the bamboo rod over a few months and now fishes with it daily. He is quick to point out where he can make improvements with his next one.

Liam has learned a lot about life designing and building his own canoe and fly-fishing rod. “Two skills that I have taken from woodworking are patience and determination. I improved upon these skills this year when I built my canoe. Although it took ten months to make, I never lost hope in its ability to be constructed.”

When not exploring the outdoors and designing and building in the wood shop, Liam participates in the Applied Engineering programs annual Concrete Canoe team. Program director, Christine Zito, commented: “Liam has been a member of the concrete canoe team for two years, and took on the role of construction manager this year. His attention to detail and problem solving skills have been instrumental in the team’s success. When faced with a challenge, Liam thinks on it for a few days and then comes back to the team with an elegant, simple, and effective solution. His goal of finding more efficient ways to do his job has helped push the team towards continual improvement.”

Liam balances an innate sense of urgency to get projects done with the measured patience to get them done well. Fly fishing, as described in A River Runs Through It, “is an art performed with a four-count rhythm between ten and two o’clock.” Liam Lane understands this well. Watching him work is like watching an experienced fly fisherman cast—effortless and graceful, yet precise and calculated.

We will be watching to see what project catches Liam’s imagination next. It will surely be a work of art with a rhythm of its own.