Dave Poyzer

About Dave

Dave started Canoe There in 2012, only it wasn’t called Canoe There yet (it was called Des Moines Freelancer), when he decided to leave his full-time TV production post and venture out into the freelance world. Really, it all started much earlier.

Dave picked up his entrepreneurial spirit from his father, a programmer who started home building and farming operations and now runs Out Farming, an experimental farming software/hardware company.

Dave started his first business, part of which involved making films, in high school with good friend, Seth Peterson (now a designer at Nike).

They learned a lot about music licensing, contracts, accounting, and taxes.

Dave went on to take business courses at DMACC and quickly realized he didn’t want to wait on a four-year degree before pursuing his passions.

While dabbling in freelance gigs and working on an episode for National Geographic, Dave was sold on a career in production.

Soon, he was hired onto a crew and helped produce two seasons of the PBS TV show, “B. Organic,” before officially starting his freelance career.

Many of Dave’s early days freelancing were spent working with friend, and director, Ian Planchon, who has been a gracious mentor.

Dave has a deep love for the outdoors that began as a kid with backyard campouts and Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness trips. Whether he’s high and dry on an Arizona mountain or braving arctic temperatures in an Alaskan boreal forest, he’s in his element.

Dave is an accomplished landscape photographer, avid Driftless Area fly fisherman, experienced paddler, mountain bike hobbyist, and roller hockey amateur. He loves all things vintage, thrifted, third wave coffee, yo-yos, film cameras, Polaroid, leather/wood crafting, and working on his 1898 Free Classic Queen Anne house with his wife Mariah.