2025 and beyond!!

Hi friends, 

First and foremost, thank you for your patience and interest in having a paddle built by me. I’m always surprised and humbled that so many people want one of my paddles. In the past 10 years, I’ve always loosely managed a build list of customers' names and I would reach out when I had room to start a new paddle. People would send in deposits and final payments. Paddles would ship out, orders would come in. That system was pretty rough and it caused people’s names and orders to fall through the cracks. It worked until it didn’t.

I have a full time job, two young kids and a wife who also has a full time job and her own small business. Needless to say, our work life balance as a family can get out of whack during certain times of the year. I need to adjust the way I operate so that I can stay on the bright side of life.

For 2025, I am re-organizing the manner in which I collect names and run the business this year and hopefully the following years. I tend to average 20-25 paddles for customers a year and a few for myself that serve as prototypes and good old R&D. This year, I am starting with a new shop space and an attempt to create a more organized system for myself. If you are reading this, you filled out the form on my website to get on the waitlist.  Thank you again for your patience! The wait is getting a few years long, so I’ve shut it down for a time.

I am setting up my year with a goal of setting up all of my custom orders for 2025. I am going to ask for 12 kayak paddle deposits and 12 single blade orders set up this month. I will then build and deliver these paddles throughout the year. This will allow me to create some long term structure to my time and finances. I hope to build extras as well, and they will be posted for sale on my social media feeds as they come up.

I’ll be sending out emails for this year's customers shortly. Please pay attention to your emails:  if I don't hear from you in a timely manner, I’m going to move onto the next person. If you get an email from me about your build, you’ll have to first fill out the order form with the details of your build (I’m always available for consultation). Then once all the details are pinned down, I’ll send each customer an invoice for the cost of their paddle. I’ll need a 50% deposit to get moving, then building will commence! I’ll organize a rough delivery schedule when I get everyone’s information. For example, if someone has a birthday, wedding anniversary or Middle Fork of the Salmon permit, I’ll try to prioritize those deadlines first, then fill in the rest. When the paddles are done, I’ll reach out and ask for the second half of the payment and I’ll get the thing in the mail.  

This is not the most ideal setup for some people, because they will be paying a deposit in January, and they may not get their paddle for 11 months – but this is the way I need to organize my work for the foreseeable future. I hope this will keep my customers happy, and give me more time in my day to enjoy time with the family.

Hopefully, more days paddling Kermit the Raft