Sailing with a Smile
From the Summer 2025 Issue
Nonprofit works to get everyone on deck
Full Sails equals full hearts. Photo by Action Sports Media
It’s easier than ever to succumb to the allure of mountain sailing on Lake Pend Oreille thanks to Jon Totten, owner of Dogsmile Adventures.
“Our lake is huge! You get out into the middle and the mountains are very dramatic. It’s beautiful,” Totten said.
Dogsmile Adventures is a 501c3 nonprofit centered on therapeutic sailing. The nonprofit works by collaborating with other organizations who serve special populations such as Bonner Homeless Transitions, veterans, youth and those facing the challenges associated with addiction, domestic violence and physical or mental disabilities. To date, they’ve hosted 1,254 sailing experiences since their inception in 2021.
The 2024 Montana Cup Regatta at Flathead Lake, Montana.
“We have people with wheelchairs, amputees, overweight, elderly,” Totten said. “If I can physically get you on and off the boat, you can sail.”
A lifetime outdoorsman and educator, Totten left Idaho in 2015 to run charters and yacht deliveries in the southern Caribbean. The nature of the job felt like being on vacation the whole time, including long benders and lots of partying.
“On Saturday they go home, on Sunday I go sailing again. The toll over time became really hard on me.”
So hard that in 2019, Totten checked himself into rehab. While in rehab, a new appetite began building inside of him—he wanted to do something that mattered but couldn’t put his finger on what it should be. A One-Design J/105 sailboat he owned was sucking up money in Grenada and he needed to get it to Seattle, where there was a bigger market to sell. This was in March of 2020 and a rethink was needed when a pandemic arrived.
Though he had previously lived in Stanley, Idaho, Totten chose Lake Pend Oreille for a new home because of the connections he had here and the mountains that surround us. Due to the pandemic, many people opted out of putting their boats in the water so he was able to get a boat slip out of Bayview.
Totten was determined to break down the barrier to entry in the sailing world and in Sandpoint, he found others of like mind in the Sandpoint Sailing Association, who for a long time had been inviting those interested in sailing to show up at Windbag Marina, where they would be put on a sailboat (at no cost) for an evening on the lake.
It was a program that dovetailed with Totten’s dream. “I wanted to bring these outdoor experiences to folks that don’t get to go,” Totten said. “I always hated how much my trips cost; most of my friends and family could never go sailing with me because it was way too much money.”
When out on the boat with a group of people, he sees firsthand how in tune everyone is. The vessel moves thanks to tasks each person is helping perform—it engages their body and mind.
“Sailing holds people in the moment. The flow state. You’re not anywhere else,” Totten said. “In that state there are no intruding thoughts because there’s not room for them. It takes all your mind to operate the boat.”
Totten doesn’t bring crew other than himself so that it can be a truly immersive experience. He believes that the best way to help people push through fear and discomfort is to give them a job.
“When I tell you to pull on the black line, you don’t need to know what the black line is called or what it’s going to do but I need you to help me.”
This responsibility, and even a small sense of fear of the unknown, locks you in.
“In that, there’s nothing else. Their recent loss or their trauma, whatever it is, they get away from it for a while and that’s the essence of the whole deal.”
Totten decided to expand this experience beyond just Thursday nights. He incorporated as a nonprofit—Dogsmile—and set up a program whereby those who purchase a boat ride are actually buying two—one for themselves and one for someone who needs it. Through partnerships with community organizations, those ‘extra’ rides become part of sailing programs that focus on supporting under-resourced groups, including veterans, youth, and individuals dealing with challenges like addiction, domestic violence or physical and mental disabilities.
Sailors from the inaugural Preston Johnson U.S. Navy Veteran Sailing Regatta in 2024. Photos by Action Sports Media.
There are a handful of ways you can join the fun. You can buy an experience on the website, volunteer to help run races or show up to Sandpoint Marina on Thursday nights and join the Sandpoint Sailing Association’s fun community races.
If you’ve ever been slightly curious about sailing, Totten advises you try it. Thursday nights starting the middle of June through September are open and free to all. You don’t need a boat or need to know how to sail. There will be 40 to 50 people at the Windbag Marina, located on the far side of the Edgewater, who will place you with a skipper and crew of people to sail with.
Or you can become a part of Dogsmile’s more expansive offerings. “There are a lot of barriers to getting into sailing so Dogsmile Adventures is our answer to getting as many people out as possible.”
Learn more at www.dogsmileadventures.org
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