Meet the Maker: Daylodge Gear
How kiteboarding technology helped make a better vehicle awning.
Image Caption: Photo Credit: Daylodge Gear
Russ Woolsey, founder of Daylodge Gear, is no stranger to the outdoors. Hailing from White Salmon, Washington, with the Columbia River Gorge in his backyard, Woolsey spends much of his free time skiing and kite boarding—two pursuits that had a major influence on the company he founded in 2020.
“I built out a van and I was up at Mount Baker chasing two-inches-an- hour of snow—so, the best powder skiing you can imagine. We’d been skiing powder for a couple days, and every time we got done skiing, we would be on the outside of our vans having après, and snow drifts would be coming down on our heads,” he says. “I’d been kite boarding since 2000 and knew the technology of air-inflated kites, so I thought: ‘I’m going to take an old kite and make an awning for my van.’”
Photo Credit: Daylodge Gear
Woolsey soon had a prototype. He knew he was onto something the first time he used it while kiteboarding at a popular, windy spot near Rufus, Oregon. The awning held up to the winds without issue, and as Woolsey tells it, created a “little haven” for him and his friends to seek refuge from the elements while still being outdoors. He named that awning the AirHaven.
After the renewable energy company he was working for went bankrupt during the pandemic, Woolsey went all-in and founded Daylodge. The premise was simple: help people create a space outside of their vehicle, since that’s where folks were spending their time if they were headed into the outdoors.
Photo Credit: Daylodge Gear
That concept helped the brand connect with audiences beyond Woolsey’s circle of skiers and wind-seekers—Daylodge sells to RVers, overlanders and campers of all description. Now, six years later, the direct-to-consumer brand is about to release its fourth-generation awning, which Woolsey says is the most refined to date, after selling out the third-generation awning and “annex” side walls far more quickly than expected.
Why has an inflatable awning been such a hit among RV travelers and others? The main draws are the small size (it weighs just six pounds), nonpermanent mounting solutions and, perhaps most importantly to anyone who’s owned a vehicle fitted with a traditional awning, nothing to break. Rather than poles being snapped by wind gusts, fabric tearing from a snow load or broken metal legs thrashing around against the side of your rig in a storm, an AirHaven will simply bend and then snap right back into place.
Photo Credit: Daylodge Gear
“I could now probably write a book on how awnings can destroy vehicles. I’ve heard it all,” Woolsey says. “What’s great about the AirHaven is that it’s still soft at 8 p.s.i. when you inflate it. There are no brackets. There’s no hardware. There’s literally nothing. When you inflate it you’ve got 40-plus square feet of coverage, and if it hits your vehicle, it’s not going to hurt it.”
Daylodge Gear offers awning mounting solutions for nearly any rig and has expanded its product line to include campsite organizational tools. And, Woolsey says, there’s more to come.“I’m still innovating,” he says. “I’ve got new stuff that’s going to be dropping. I’ve got some really cool things up my sleeve.”
This article originally appeared in Wildsam magazine. For more Wildsam content, sign up for our newsletter.
