Wyou love paddlesports, you want to share the joy of getting on the water with as many people as possible. Growing participation supports the entire industry, from independent retailers to global brands, while delivering broader health benefits to individuals tied to time on the water. Below, three longtime industry professionals share strategies for engaging new paddlers and passing on the stoke.
Three pros reimagine how to hook new paddlers
Mindblown moments
We all remember the experience that hooked us on paddling. For me, it was the Boundary Waters in Minnesota, seven days living out of a boat, portaging from lake to lake, laughing around campfires. I came home thinking, “I need a canoe, right now.”
The conventional demo day, where we go around in circles on a pond, doesn’t paint that picture of what paddling can be. So I think we make a mistake when we tell new customers to start by taking an intro-to-paddling class first, because paddling is more than sweep strokes and bow-draws. It’s an overnight camp. It’s a paddle around the point to see a sunset. It’s that moment—the mindblown moment—where they go, “Oh my God, I need more of this!” All of us in the industry have had these experiences. It’s why we’re in this business. But a lot of people haven’t had their hook-set moment yet. It’s our job to show them that first, instruction second.
Paddling gives you that mind-blown moment—where there’s nothing else but your surroundings and you’re just soaking them in. It gets you there faster than a hike or a mountain bike ride, I believe, because once you leave terra firma, you’re predisposed to have your mind blown. You’re floating through space, essentially.
—Ethan Ebersold is an independent brand rep based in Bend, Oregon
There’s an app for that
We’ve seen firsthand how trail apps have democratized the outdoors. When I first moved to Idaho, I spent an entire summer getting hopelessly lost on the mountain bike trails, staring at maps I’d printed out from the internet, saying, “Where the hell am I?” Now, anybody can download the Trailforks app and know exactly where they are and where they’re going. It’s really lowered the barrier to entry.
NRS created the PaddleWays app to do the same thing for paddlers. When we built it, we thought it would be great for people who need to know where the crux rapids are, or when a remote creek comes in. But when we launched, we realized the need for this information is much broader. Rec kayaking, SUP and canoeing are our three biggest categories on PaddleWays. While avid whitewater kayakers and rafters are downloading the app and finding value in it, the adoption rate has been strongest among those people who are at the more casual end of the scale, and that’s super exciting to me. This technology gives us a pathway to welcome these folks into the sport. It’s also an avenue for promoting safety, responsible use and conservation. We’ve begun engaging our nonprofit partners in this work and look forward to building on those efforts.
—Mark Deming is Chief Marketing Officer of NRS
The gold standard
The thing that made paddlesports tick in the early days was demo day after demo day after demo day. It was like bashing your head against the wall, but it grew participation and interest. We don’t want to go back to that, but we must continue to be involved at the community level and at an interest-building level.
When I was younger and doing this, I used to think it’s not my job—the brands have all the money. They need to market and promote paddlesports. My mindset has changed quite dramatically. I think it’s the retailers’ responsibility to promote paddlesports in their local communities, but it’s the manufacturers’ job to support the shit out of those efforts. That is their job. That comes in the form of cooperative marketing dollars. It comes in the form of demo fleets that don’t cripple our cash flow.
We’ve made some huge inroads on that. We’re working on a guiding document of what a gold standard relationship is between retailers and manufacturers, and we’ll have something to present at the PTC Colab. Because at the end of the day, if we’re not moving everything forward together, then we’re just all squabbling over the same scraps.
—Simon Coward is the owner of AQ Outdoors in Calgary, Alberta, and a member of the PTC Board
This article was first published in the 2025 issue of Paddling Business. Feature photo: Western Canoe Kayak/Unsplash
