Show Business

We are just back from the annual Kanumesse trade fair in Nuremburg Germany. Its a special show because (as far as we know) its the biggest kayak trade only event, anywhere. Usually at trade events paddlesport is pitched alongside the great and the good like North Face or someone selling propellers for Sunseaker yachts but at this show its purely about paddlers which is cool.

 

Always plenty of new stuff  to see, so here are some of our highlights for the year ahead:

Immersion suits – We have done a lot of work on the Stikine and Torrent models to improve durability and performance. New features like the Kevlar elbow pads (on the Stikine) and neat details like zipper covers and super slick welded socks finish our suits off to what, we think, will become a new industry benchmark. The 2009 suits (Stikine, Torrent, Element- with pee buddy as standard, and Aleutian) will be made from a new XP250 fabric which we’ve had in the field for about a year now with the ever demanding Gene 17 coaching team.

Paddle wear – We launched another product in our Approach line at Kanumesse. The Velocity is a latex sealed entry level jacket to compliment our huglely popular Vertigo semi dry model. Breathable, tapped throughout and with twin waist and outer seal covers its a great starter piece.

 

Footwear - Its been hard to keep quite about our joint project with Merrell. When the worlds biggest footwear brand chooses you to work with on a completely new watershoe you want to shout about it. We’ll now we can – two models, the Gradient and Eddy will be in the shops come spring and we can happily inform you that they stick like …. we’ll you’ll see. Needless to say folks were clamouring around to check them out and they made the front page of the shows daily magazine!

 

Dagger – Two new models and a load of improvments on fit out for our Dagger kayaks brand. The Axiom river boat was regarded by many as the best new WW boat there. Showing clean lines and we’ll tested principles it is set to become a classic river crusing machine taking over where its predecessor (the RPM) left off. Its very new skool, old skool so get set for a tail dipping style revival on your favourate runs.

The Alchemy touring boat is a bit of a departure from the normal ‘journey’ style tour boats. It’s wide-ish beam and adjustable skeg will make it ideal for begginners and help tracking, but its designed to move once you get it on edge so search out those rock gardens, waves and river channels to explore its potential. A perfect boat to grow into as a paddler.

 

So that’s about all from Kanumesse 08, we are now busy getting all of the new items into production and onto the shelves. We look forward to hearing what you get up to using them!

A big thanks to HF for organising with usual efficency and also thanks to all the dealers who travelled to see us.