For high-flying whitewater athlete Bren Orton, walking into the Pyranha factory shop is more than just a trip to pick up the season’s latest boat designs. He has a personal history with the 40-year-old kayak manufacturer. He shares it with us in this tour of the Pyranha Kayak’s museum of boats while stopping in to pick up the newest in the fleet, the Firecracker.
Pyranha began producing fiberglass river kayaks in a garage outside of Warrington, U.K. in 1971. Their earliest boats were taken to rivers in the Himalayas and paddled by world-champion slalom racers. By the early 80s they had begun experimenting with the production rotomolded plastic boats. Pyranha’s kayaks would evolve to the river-running designs used by Orton and many others to descend some of the most difficult whitewater paddled today.
For Orton, the fascination with Pyranha Kayaks started when he was a boy. Visiting the shop and running his hands along the lines of various designs. Later he would work at the shop and become a sponsored paddler. And today, Orton is one of the brand’s most acclaimed athletes. There is perhaps no paddler better suited to provide a tour of the Pyranha factory shop and get us stoked on the brand’s latest than Orton himself.
