The new Demo Rack is an original innovation from Sparehand. Aimed at retailers, the Demo Rack is ideal for showcasing pedal drive kayaks, allowing customers to test out a kayak’s configuration and pedal to their heart’s content without having to hit the water.
“The Demo Racks elevates the kayak to clear the drive system, and allows for easy paddler on and off,” says Spearhand rep Mike Tsou. Sparehand president Dennis Wang was on hand to show how easy and stable it is to get on and off a kayak when resting on the demo unit.
[See more transport, storage and launching.]
Made of high tensile steel, the Demo Rack comes in two sizes. The shorter option lifts the kayak 14 inches off the ground while the taller unit lifts the kayak 17 inches off the ground. The Demo Rack is rated for 410 pounds.
The Demo Rack can also be used for showcasing canoes. It’s also a perfect storage rack for home use as well.
The Demo Rack’s curved features and safety straps help center and stabilize larger boats.
“This portable rack improves the retailer experience by allowing customers to test boats in-store,” summarizes Tsou. MSRP is $299–$369.
Anyone who spends much time around the water has lost a cell phone, keys, wallet or all three into the drink. To prevent further loss, Ugo Dry Packs are the toughest personal carriers on the water.
Starting with a high-quality, dry-suit zipper that’s approved for hazmat suits, Ugo seals out all water and seals in air. Not only is the Ugo air-tight, but it floats, too. The clear window allows paddlers to see and use their phone. Use the phone to film photos and video underwater. It even plays music with minimal sound dampening. The Ugo keeps electronics from overheating or freezing and it doesn’t collect condensation.
The case comes with a padded strap and D-rings to attach to a belt. After thousands of units sold, Ugo says they’ve never had a failure. In addition to holding electronics, the Ugo also has room for keys, wallet and other smalls. The dry pack comes in sizes for a cell phone, tablet or small computer. They’re working with Line Cutterz to develop a model for anglers.
To keep your electronics safe, rely on Ugo Dry Packs on the water and off.
Standup paddleboards are a great grab-and-go option for water babies, but longer, wider and heavier boards still need some help getting to the launch.
Suspenz developed the Double Up SUP Beach Cart and EZ Fold SUP Portable Stands are a two-step solution to handling a big, heavy SUP. After removing the SUP from the roof racks or truck bed, set it horizontally on the portable stands to install a box fin or stick the board in the V-cradle keep the board from being damaged on the ground.
The EZ Fold stands work great for storage at home, too. Once the board is assembled and waxed up, set it in the Double-Up SUP Beach Cart with a padded cradle for two full-size SUPs. The balloon tires will traverse any terrain, moving two SUPs with two fingers on the padded handle. To maintain air pressure in the low-pressure tires, Suspenz includes a special air pump. Using the SUP Beach Cart and EZ Fold stand makes it easy to grab your SUP and go.
Industry Awards at Paddlesports Retailer 2019. | Photo: Alex Traynor
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, August 28, 2019 // Paddlesports Retailer’s official media partner Rapid Media presented the second annual Paddling Magazine Industry Awards tonight at the Paddlesports Retailer Show and Paddlesports Industry Dinner.
The Paddling Magazine Industry Awards recognizes outstanding achievements in the development of new products introduced to the paddlesports market at the 2019 Paddlesports Retailer Show, which was attended by more than 120 exhibitors showing 200 brands, and 357 buyers.
“The Paddling Magazine Industry Awards embodies the paddlesports industry’s innovative and entrepreneurial spirit,” said emcee and Rapid Media founder and publisher Scott MacGregor, presenting the awards on stage at Oklahoma City’s 100,000 square-foot Cox Convention Center.
The winners were voted on from the 92 products featured in the New Product Showcase by Paddling Magazine. This show feature provides Paddlesports Retailer exhibitors with an outstanding opportunity to introduce new products to onsite and offsite retail buyers and editorial media. More than 22,262 votes were cast onsite and online at www.paddlingawards.com by retail buyers, consumers and media.
The award winners are as follows:
Paddling Magazine Product & Industry Awards
1. Best Touring/Recreational Kayak — Virgo by P&H Sea Kayaks
All category award winners were eligible for the Best of Show Award which got announced at the end of the Paddlesports Retailer Show.
This year, the Best In Show award went to Hobie with the Mirage Pro Angler 14 with 360 Drive Technology.
Best In Show – Hobie Mirage Pro Angler 14 with 360 Drive Technology
Hobie Pro Angler 14 with 360 Mirage Drive
Congratulations to all the award winners.
About Paddlesports Retailer
Paddlesports Retailer is a trade show, endorsed by the Paddlesports Trade Coalition, providing the premier commercial and cultural experience for exhibitors, retailers, media and industry advocates alike. Paddlesports Retailer runs August 26-29, 2019 beginning with demo day at Riversports Rapids Adventure Park followed by three days of exhibiting at Oklahoma City’s Cox Convention Center. For more information, visit www.paddlesportsretailer.com or contact: info@paddlesportsretailer.com
About Rapid Media
Rapid Media is the world’s leading paddlesports media company. Rapid Media publishes Kayak Angler, Paddling Magazine and Paddling Business, including the Paddling Buyer’s Guide and Paddling Trip Guide annuals. Rapid Media also produces the Paddling Film Festival and Rapid Media TV.
Bending Branches Angler Pro GlowTek Kayak Fishing Paddle
When Bending Branches wanted a new design for their popular Angler Pro paddle blade, they reached out to pro staff to send in ideas. The result was an influx of photos, images, designs and sketches for the BB folks to choose from.
The winner was West Coast pro staffer J R Rowlands’ Glowtek pattern.
A cross between alligator and python patterns with colors ranging from bright green to dark brown, the blade will get plenty of attention on the water. Bending Branches applied the pattern to their wildly popular and versatile Angler Pro fiberglass blade. The Angler Pro is the result of years of research and development to design a blade with enough torque to push a heavy fishing kayak combined with efficiency to go for miles in an open-water boat. Best news is, Bending Branches received so many great designs, they are already planning future paddles.
Discover seven of the best canoe paddles from Bending Branches, Grey Owl Paddles and Sawyer Paddles. Everything from bent shafts, to voyageur paddles, to guide paddles and more, there are lots of options to choose from.
Whether you’re looking for a canoe paddle for cruising, tripping or whitewater adventures, Paddling Magazine has rounded up seven of the best picks. Take a look at the list of canoe paddles below.
Meet the new Catalyst canoe paddle from Bending Branches, made entirely of recycled wood scraps that would otherwise be discarded. A catalyst of change for the betterment of the planet and paddlers. Made with the most desired features, including full Rockgard coverage, two-ounce fiberglass coating and a palm grip. Five dollars from every paddle sold will be donated to American Rivers.
Grey Owl’s most popular laminated paddle, combining durability, design and value. An excellent all-around paddle for wilderness tripping. Offers the benefits of a full carbon unit but at a fraction of the price.
The lightest traditional paddle available from Grey Owl. Perfect for easy cruising and experienced style paddlers. Suitable for solo and tandem deep-water paddling (minimum two to two-and-a-half feet).
The Ranger X is a heavy-duty expedition and whitewater canoe paddle featuring a modern teardrop blade profile and an 11-degree blade offset intended for long trips and heavy use. This tough paddle has a dual tapered Douglas fir wood shaft reinforced with carbon fiber and fiberglass X-Weave durability. Delivers real power to the carbon fiber and fiberglass reinforced Ponderosa pine blade.
An upscale version of Grey Owl’s Voyageur paddle with a new blade shape and fabulous grip design. An excellent all-around paddle for wilderness tripping.
A tough, durable paddle for those who like to cruise the wilderness. Also available in a six-degree bent shaft for those who want to combine the efficiency of an offset blade with the style of a straight shaft.
In a rescue emergency, every second counts. Kokatat’s new Huck 50 Throw Bag with Belt is designed to deploy quickly and reliably. The 50-foot, quarter-inch, floating polyethylene core rope has a maximum strength of 1,465 pounds.
The stuff bag has stiff sides for easy packing. The mesh top allows the rope to dry and the bag floats. The fully adjustable belt can be worn on the waist or lap.
Quick-release buckles detach the bag in an instant for a fast response in any conditions. For a heavy-duty option, the Huck 70 Throw Bag includes a 70-foot Spectra rope with a maximum breaking strength of 2500 pounds in a tough Cordura bag.
There’s no perfect road map to becoming a successful business owner, but some routes are less traveled than others.
Simon Coward was introduced to whitewater on a trip to New Zealand when he was 18, and then spent his formative years raft guiding and chasing whitewater around the globe. By his own estimate, the Australian-born paddler has dipped blades in at least 25 different countries.
In 2005, Coward’s rambling river life led him to Canada, where he took a job as the kayaking director at Aquabatics, a Calgary-based whitewater retailer. Four years later, Coward purchased the 10-year-old business, plunging headlong into the murky waters of paddlesports retailing.
[ Paddling Trip Guide: See all Aquabatics trips ]
“I didn’t have a university degree and didn’t know what I was going to do,” said Coward. “So, I figured it was probably as good a bet as any.”
Under Coward’s leadership, Aquabatics became a dirtbagger’s utopia. The staff spent days creeking together, locals came in to talk shop, and community outreach efforts included grassroots events and instructional paddling programs helping grow Calgary’s local paddling community.
“If Aquabatics disappeared tomorrow, I think it would be a big void in the local paddling community,” said Coward. “Not just from a product standpoint, but connectivity.”
Coward’s investment in strong community ties and developing a dedicated staff—including six full-time, year-round positions—has produced a healthy return. In the past decade, the company’s revenue numbers have tripled, and this past spring, Coward opened a second store in Edmonton.
While the dirtbag vibe remains, the revenue spike is the result of long hours devoted to the analytics-driven process of business management. While correctly forecasting next season’s trends is always a daunting task, Coward’s crystal ball is a little less hazy when he gazes south.
“We just need to watch the U.S. very closely and see what’s going on there,” Coward says. “I feel like the Canadian market is a good three to four years behind the U.S.”
While whitewater had always been the shop’s bread and butter, Coward has seen steady growth in the recreational and touring markets. Last year, Aquabatics saw “unpredictable” growth in kayak fishing sales.
This year brought a softening in the fishing market and a rise in inflatable kayak sales. “It’s a bloody roller coaster,” said Coward. “It’s up and then it’s down.”
But Coward isn’t one to cry about it. While offering car racks and snowboards has helped bolster sales in the off-season, he’s currently busy trying to crack the latest puzzle stumping the paddling industry: How to not only survive, but capitalize on the rise of cheap boat sales at big box stores.
“I’m a firm believer that retailers are really whiny as a group,” said Coward. “I think we all talk a lot about the big box bit, but we don’t actually look at the opportunity that more people are being exposed to paddling than ever.”
The river teaches you to accept the challenge and always look for an opportunity. It seems this lesson was not lost on this paddling dirtbag.
COMPANIES ARE FINDING PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITY IN THE SPACE BE TWEEN BOX STORE KAYAKS AND PREMIUM MODELS. PHOTO CHRIS KIMLING
Remember the rent guy? He ran a viral campaign for governor of New York in 2010 based solely on the platform, “Rent is too damn high.”
Kayak Bass Fishing’s Chad Hoover channelled the Rent Guy in a recent YouTube video, asking “Have fishing kayaks gotten too danggone expensive?”
With top-of-the-line pedal kayaks retailing well north of $3,000, it’s a fair question. An engineering and design arms race has given rise to ever more capable fishing kayaks, with prices to match. But those top-tier boats are just the tip of the iceberg. The bulk of the market is in entry- and mid-level kayaks, and retail prices in those segments have actually come down.
Hoover says he paid a little more than $750 for his first retail kayak in 1997. Today, an angler can buy a comparably equipped kayak for . . . $750. In fact, anglers can pick from dozens of fishing kayaks in this price range. “There are more kayaks under $750 now than there were when I got into the sport 22 years ago,” Hoover says.
At the top of the market, kayak anglers have more quality options to choose from than ever before. Now many of those features have trickled down to the entry-level offerings from prestige brands, with competition generally holding retail prices below $1,000.
“When competition kicks in, we as a consumer always win,” Hoover says. “Always.”
That’s great news for kayak anglers. But can manufacturers and dealers also win at this price point?
[ Paddling Buyer’s Guide: See all fishing kayaks ]
Vibe Kayaks co-founder and CEO Josh Thomas thinks so. He got involved in kayak fishing about a decade ago, and recalls watching the price of brand-name fishing kayaks increase significantly as the sport rode a prolonged boom into the 2010s.
“I understand inflation and I understand economics, but three years earlier these boats were $750 and suddenly they’re $1,100? That’s not real inflation,” he says. “That’s artificial inflation based on demand.”
ADJUSTABLE SEATS AND OTHER PREMIUM FEATURES ARE TRICKLING DOWN TO MID-MARKET KAYAKS. PHOTO COURTESY WILDERNESS SYSTEMS
Sensing an opening in the market, in 2013 Thomas co-founded Vibe to fill it. The company quickly carved out market share with full-featured fishing kayaks at the sub–$1,000 price point. This so-called middle market filled a widening gap between premium fishing kayaks and the legions of thin-plastic imitators crowding big box store aisles. Established kayak brands seized the same opportunity, with Wilderness Systems, Old Town, Jackson Kayak, Native Watercraft and others offering capable ready-to-fish models for less than $1,000.
“The sweet spot in fishing kayaks is an innovative fishing platform in the $800 to $1,000 range,” says Paddleyax owner Steve Marshall. “When I started in 2016 no one was really there. Now Vibe is there—they came up in price to get there—and everybody else has come down,” says Marshall, who sells Vibe, Bonafide, NuCanoe and Crescent Kayaks out of his flagship store in southern Virginia. He moves additional Vibe inventory through affiliate retailers in three states.
It’s a volume game, he says, but retail margins are still strong.
The same holds true for manufacturers, at least anecdotally. It may be that Thomas was right about artificial inflation a few years back, but another factor is design and manufacturing improvements allowing companies to produce better kayaks without breaking the bank.
“We didn’t take a hit on margin,” Bonafide CEO Luther Cifers says of his company’s sub–$1,000 fishing kayak, the RS117. “We knew our budget, so the question became how to squeeze the most functionality and features out of that budget. If you mold in geometry, it’s free,” he says.
Though Bonafide is positioned as a premium brand, with flagship paddle models retailing for $1,300 and $1,600, Cifers says the lower price gateway model has been a boon for the whole line.
“You’re bringing more consumers to pay attention to the brand,” he says, noting that kayak buyers come in two broad categories— those who can’t afford a premium kayak, and those who just don’t want to spend the money. A capable $1,000 kayak helps the “can’ts” get to “cans,” and helps the “don’t wants” think a little bigger.
“Once they want it, they have to talk themselves out of it,” Luther says. “But you have to give them the opportunity to want it.”
Peterborough, ON, Wednesday, August 14, 2019 – The Canadian Canoe Museum’s one-of-a-kind Voyageur Canoe Tour experiences at the Peterborough Lift Lock continue this month. Registration is open for tours on August 23, 25, 31 and September 1. Meanwhile, custom tours for groups can also be booked anytime until Thanksgiving.
The Voyageur Canoe Tour experience is a draw for people of all ages and abilities from near and far, and sees up to 16 participants paddle a 36-foot voyageur canoe up and over the lift lock. This 90-minute guided tour, offered in partnership with Parks Canada, explores the National Historic Site, along with the role of the voyageur in early trade networks.
“The tours are fun – and a feast for the senses. As we paddle together, we salute and we sing, and we experience the incredible sensation of going up and down the lift lock, and the sweeping views along the way,” says Karen Taylor, Director of Programs, adding that more than 400 people will take part in this unique experience this season.
Members of the public can visit canoemuseum.ca/voyageur-canoe-tours/ to register or call Kate Kennington, (705) 748 9153 ext. 220, to find out more.
