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On Solving My Dilemma of Which Boat to Paddle
Words by Steve Fisher
I first paddled a kayak when I was 6yrs old, thirty two years ago, and got my own boat when I was nine. It was an already-old downriver race boat that my Dad bought for $30 (with a paddle) and we spent Christmas day repairing it so that I could paddle it at the local lake on boxing day. My first sponsor bought me a brand new sprint boat when I was 14, I got a free Kevlar slalom boat from Prijon when I was 15 and an Eskimo Kendo when I was 18. I haven’t paid for a kayak since! I learned early on that if I wanted to paddle whatever kayaks I wanted, whenever I wanted, where I wanted… all I had to do was win. But winning doesn’t last forever, or does it? Indeed I won my last freestyle comp (Nile Special) and the last race I did (Voss Extreme week), but as I’ve replaced competing with expedition paddling and fulfilling other areas of my life, I’ve found myself searching for ways to validate my efforts and measure progress, and wondering what winning really is, or how much winning even matters.
As a matter of fact, with an increasing work load and changing priorities I’ve found myself at times far from winning form – at paddling anyway. So earlier this year when I signed up to paddle Jackson Kayaks I was both relieved to still be getting free boats and surprised by the amount of discussion surrounding the announcement. There was a collective cheer from the Jackson camp at the news of another convert, congrats from friends and fellow paddlers, and albeit from a small minority, a protest of pure disgust from the Geoff Calhounes of the world and others who’ve drunken the Cool-Aid of my old friend Jason Hale. To be fair, I’ve also made fun of the Jackson smiley face, but I must admit I was a little hurt when some friends were angered by a decision that was both difficult and important to me, and that has caused me great enjoyment since. So the response, both positive and negative, has prompted me to provide a little backstory on my kayak sponsors and an explanation of how and why I’ve moved between brands. Perhaps it will help others to choose their preferred brand? – after all, almost every kayak on the market today is a great boat for the right person.
I first visited the US in 1998 on a tour offered to me by Corran Addison shortly after he and Jeff Rivest started Riot Kayaks in Montreal. Those were literally the good old days in my paddling career, it was the steep part of the kayak evolution curve ! I got put in a carbon ‘Glide’ prototype and used to creek in my ‘Hammer’ and ’007′. Corran had just invented flat hulled kayaks and Wavesport and Dagger had subsequently come out with the ‘X’ & ‘Vertigo’. Perception made the ‘Whiplash’. I did 25 rivers in my first 25 days in California, Oregon and Washington. Boats were evolving fast, and each new design brought new moves. In the right place and right time, I got to invent moves like the Freewheel, Airscrew, Pan Am, Flip turn, Helix etc. It was easy to invent moves back then because there simply weren’t many, and I was the first to receive the latest kayak designs from Riot, so I had a boat advantage!
It was during those times that I got to meet the the true revolutionaries of our sport, not the pioneers – that’s a different group, but rather those who truly changed our sport from an obscure hippie sport to what now sits comfortably alongside snowboarding, surfing, mountain biking and more. Guys like Shane Bennedict, Arndt Schaeftlein, Bernd Summer, Dan Gavere, Sam Drevo, Eric Southwick, The Knapp bros, the Kern bros, Scott Lindgren, Clay Wright, numerous others, and yes… Mr. Eric Jackson.
I was star struck; after all, I had their posters and catalogue cutouts on my wall, and I’d watched every kayak VHS to death. But little did I know, after guys like Jerome Truran, Tim Biggs, Marco Begni, Olli Feullette and Johnny Snyder had paved the way, guys like Alex Nicks, Nico Chassing, Dan Campbell and I had been pushing the envelope harder than we thought back on the Zambezi – video boating and safety kayaking everyday with plenty of bar talk and peer pressure to make us good. Corran was the one to recognize that, and shoved us all into an old spray-painted school bus for the US ‘rodeo tour’. That’s how my journey as a “pro kayaker” began.
But while we competed hard, we all became close friends. Friendship and paddling came first, regardless of kayak brands, and we all made good cash as a bonus. It was at that time that I decided I wanted to spend some time on the East Coast while the ‘Riot Bus’ was on the West Coast. Without hesitation Eric (EJ) and Kristine Jackson invited me to travel with them and the kids, yes Dane and Emily! Let’s think about that for a second: At the time I was EJ’s biggest rival in competition and I was sponsored by “bad boy Riot Kayaks” while he was brand manager Wavesport. I was just the young, dumb, crazy South African who had a policy of competing hung-over (after making 6 yr old Dane another foamboat). I will always treasure the look of confusion on a DC boaters’ face when EJ passed down my Riot kayak off his Wavesport RV roof at Angler’s Inn parking lot on the Potomac. It was one of the most enjoyable and progressive times in my paddling career.
After snatching many event titles from EJ’s grubby paws, I left the competition scene to pursue my passion in filmmaking and to do more expedition kayaking. It’s not that I didn’t want to compete, it’s just that the time and dedication it takes to practice and train came at the expense of the other things I wanted to do. So for a number of years I lost touch with EJ, crossing paths perhaps once a year at Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake. Occasionally he’d ask if I wanted to paddle a Jackson boat and politely I would decline.
Skip forward a few years and I’ve established myself as more of an expedition paddler, and EJ is the kingpin of freestyle kayaking, with his own very successful brand of kayaks. In the meantime, Riot Kayaks changed hands – they’re now owned by a skateboard manufacturer focused more on the recreational market. I became frustrated with not seeing my design ideas come to fruition or my marketing efforts pay off, so after 12 loyal years, I left.
At the time I was in the final stages of preparing for my ‘Congo’ expedition. I needed a Big Water River Runner so I chose a ‘Liquid Logic Remix’ which Shane and Woody kindly gave me with no strings attached. It worked really well for the Inga Rapids, but my search for the right boat company continued. After all, I thought, I can paddle whatever boats I want to right?
Just as I finished up 6 months of straight editing my ‘Congo’ film, Celliers Kruger – owner of Fluid Kayaks, came to visit me in Tacoma, Washington. With him he had a hot-off-the-press ‘Fluid Bazooka’ that he’d just molded near Chicago, USA. Fluid is a South African Company and Celliers is an old friend from back home, which by the way is also how I knew Corran Addison (he’s South African). The boat looked decent and with the news that Fluid planned to manufacture in the USA, I saw a chance to re-enter the exciting environment of working with a friend and having quick turnarounds of prototypes and designs, and I could contribute with video production as well. Furthermore, manufacturing in the US is a good selling point these days, and eliminates the delays and challenges of importing.
At the start of 2013 I had just finished my ‘Congo’ film tour and moved to Asheville, North Carolina – the center of the paddling universe (in my mind anyway). My fitness and paddling skills had suffered from the amount of time I’d worked on ‘The Grand Inga Project’. Everyone was asking what was next, and quite frankly I didn’t know. I lacked a clear direction. I was not winning. All I knew was that I wanted to get on the water and do some filming with my new camera gear. So I did.
Initially I sucked. Big-time! I was paddling the worst I’ve paddled in years, and then the injuries – ribs twice, bursitis in both elbows, ham string and more. But slowly I began to comeback. Loyal friends helped me out, and hopefully didn’t talk too much smack – Pat Keller, Dane Jackson (now all grown up), Isaac Levinson, Geoff Calhoune, Jason Beakes – Good chaps who knew I just needed a little time to get back to my ways. But as I built strength and confidence I began to realize that something wasn’t right, so I took a look at my check list: Fitness – Kinda, Location – Check, Team – Check Check, Equipment – hmmm ummm not certain!!!??? I hate to blame gear but I started to feel boat envy, and there’s nothing worse than boat envy… Ok, a wet shower curtain sticking to you is worse, but boat envy is pretty bad, and should not be tolerated! I’d been filming a lot with Dane and I’d done a little play boating with EJ at Rock Island – yes, in a Rock Star because by now Fluid had cancelled plans to manufacture in the US, so I had no play boat yet. Then, after watching slomo footage of Dane in the Karma, I noticed that while he is the best kayaker I have ever seen, the boat was doing things and handling lines that I’d never seen before, so I had to try it – a big mistake… I could no longer be happy in my kayak – boat envy had set in.