The Push

When I started this project, I admittedly had an over simplified view of the scope of it. The journey, over the past four years has been anything but easy. In the end, it is all a gamble. The economic environment is different, as is the paddling industry. The biggest challenge is to overcome  obscurity. Being a very small player and taking on an industry that has been resistant to change is not one to take lightly. The climate is changing, slowly. Being somewhat of a maverick has had its share of ups and downs. Sharing my thoughts through the written word was how I started and it is time to start telling the story again.

When I started the process of bring a new boat to the market, I had a grand vision and one that I have stuck with. I wanted to bring to life, a boat that inspired the start of my company.  Using the latest construction technology, but melding it with hand craftsmanship akin to the way a surfboard shaper would craft a board. The basis for the boat was to take a flat set of drawings and create a 3D representation. All of which to be constructed by hand. Feel, is something that can't be replicated by a machine. It can't be hurried. When it is right, you can see and feel the shape the way it was intended to be. Every copy will carry that legacy with it from its humble beginning.

So now, the Petrel Play is a reality and the focus is changing. We've had the boat out for testing and gotten some valuable feedback from paddlers of all skill levels. I truly believe we have hit a home run. Now, the center of our efforts is to bring it to market and finalize a production system to reproduce it with a high level of consistency and better than the prototype. We've relied of some very highly qualified Composite Engineers to balance the combination of materials for strength and light weight.

As I pour over the spreadsheets and set retail pricing for the Petrel Play, I recall a conversation that started within a Facebook post by Brian Hansel of Paddling Light. It was centered around pricing of new composite boats and the perceived quality offered in exchange. It got pretty deep, and in my mind, it all came down to this. Pricing was too high for what we, as paddlers are getting. The quality simply was not there and the people who were putting these boats together were not earning a living wage, or enjoying luxuries such a health coverage or 401K retirement accounts. In fact my research revealed that most of our beloved craft come from countries that the living wage is so far beyond the poverty line here in the United States, it is scary. If you want to see it for yourself, google average wages for the countries of the Phillipines, Estonia, China and Portugal.

So, what is driving this? Price. Manufacturers have cut cost to hold the line on retail pricing. Who wins in this equation? Certainly not the people working to build the boats. The materials are often a compromise to meet budgetary restrictions. Cheap reinforcement fabrics replace the more suitable and proper layup schedules. Compromises in resin systems also cause issues with longevity of a kayak. Poor adhesion between the resin and reinforcements cause issues, after the abbreviated limits of stress cycling have been reached, in the form of cracking at the laminate level. Paddlers in general are pretty smart people, and they are starting to notice. Why has the industry adopted a "race to the bottom" mentality and paralyzed themselves from being able to adapt and innovate? Why is a 20 year old kayak built better than one we can buy today?

Now, factor in shipping the boats from overseas and add the cost to import. The cost is going up. Then the paddle shops are left to fend for themselves because the manufacturer does not have a price protection policy to prevent the product from being discounted to a point where the guy selling it is left to eat Ramen noodles for dinner. The one person at the local paddle shop, who knows something about the boats and fitting them, is the one left who makes the least. The person a buyer has direct contact with is the one making the largest sacrifice just to move a boat. I would suffice to say, that shop owners got in the business to follow a passion and succeed at it. When did struggling to survive become a viable business plan?

So why is all of this important? I want to make a change to replace the current model of doing things. Concessions in materials are not within our business model. The cheapest and best are never found in the same realm. The layups and materials were selected without a spreadsheet. That way it could never be a consideration, no compromises. Considerable effort was applied to find the right reinforcements to blend with the right resin systems. You as a paddler deserve that. Then we built the tooling, from the ground up to use resin infusion as the method of manufacture. My goal from the start was to have a relationship with our clients. Each boat will be built for each client. Fit to their body and paddling style. So, in the end, you are getting the best experience and the best boat for your money. We build them the way we do so you are never restricted in the way you enjoy your time on the water.