Top Secret

Hazel is working on something very exciting. Can you guess what it's going to be?

Composite Creeking

Last week the rivers were all very full here in Devon and so I decided to add some spice to one of our local runs which when high is a good grade 4+. To make it more of a challenge I ran it in a 3 metre glass/kevlar composite Pyranha Stunt Bat built in 1993. Compared with modern river boats this behaves in a comletely different manner due to its rounded hull and narrow profile. I had to relearn old turning techniques and indeed run the rapids in a different way. I also had get to grips with the tippy feeling of a rounded hull. I chose a big water day so there would be less rocks to hit however there were more holes of which some gave me a good deal of sporty action. The best buzz about this boat is the feeling of real speed as it fires down the rapids and of course the bemused looks of other boaters (in creek boats) as I pass them by.

Steve Whetman

Team Rider Ben White's latest

Its not quite the broken nose footage i'm still waiting for that to turn up! But heres what we were up to before work this morning...

http://www.ben-white.com/pages/Gallery/Recoil.htm

Some times when its grey and dull outside it really isn't that depressing! A week of rain has meant swollen rivers all of the North of England, taking the opportunity we grabbed the new Pyranha Recoils and went for a pre work spin...

Ben White

Someone gave me this vintage book today. First published in 1936. Nice one. Strangely it suggests that the highest point one should ever get in on the Dart (our local river) is well downsream of the lowest point we'd ever considered getting out!

Spraydeck(skirt) Sizes Debacle

Like pretty much all our competition, we make about four types of neoprene spraycover, in about four sizes. Unlike most of 'em we also do some more specialist products like special skirts for squirtboats, surfkayaks, kidz boats etc.

And we thought we were pretty cool because these all worked really well and (most) everybody thought they rocked.

But here's the thing. Kayak manufacturers seem to have forgotten that they have to design their boats to work with existing spraycovers, or else supply their own. Most of them don't supply their own in any meaningful way, which I take to mean that they realise how difficult it is. So why do some of them just make some random cockpit shape and ship it out into the market place expecting us (and every other softwear manufacturer) to work some kind of miracle and make everything watertight?

It's REALLY annoying for us as spraydeck designers but it must be doubly so for the boater who needs a deck for their new kayak... we sympathise.

F%^&* Lifetime Warranty

I'd like to say that much has been written about our (unique to this industry???) lifetime warranty but, well... it hasn't, has it? Despite being printed on the swing tickets of everything we've sold for the last two years, it doesn't seem like anyone's got their heads around it yet. Which is a shame. I'm gutted in fact. In a field where durability is most people's biggest concern when making a purchasing decision, one would assume that a lifetime warranty offer would be of interest to most buyers. Apparently not. In the two years since its introduction there's been no significant impact on the number of warranty enquiries, and most of the (thankfully) tiny number of people who do contact us with a problem have been blissfully unaware of our policy on these matters. Which in BLACK & WHITE is basically this:

IF YOUR KIT IS FAULTY, WE WILL REPAIR OR REPLACE IT FOC. IF YOU HAVE TRASHED IT, WE WON'T. NO CALENDARS, STOPWATCHES OR ANY OTHER TIMEKEEPING INSTRUMENTS WILL BE EMPLOYED IN THE MAKING OF THIS DECISION.

If you have any queries about this, please ask. If you think I'm BSing about the whole thing I'd be glad to hear your views, too. If you think I should stop typing and go boating now, our thought processes are fairly closely aligned... and I'm off now. Enjoy.

Introducing the latest addition to the Nookie Team. Here's Helen's baby Joe modelling an exclusive micro T. He hasn't actually been seen kayaking or surfing yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if he sneaks out for a session when Helen thinks he's asleep. We're going to get the ESP paparazzi on his case and see if we can catch him shreddin'.

Here's a shot of the Welsh Surf Team in Nookie clobber - we've got a 5 page report in the Ceufad- Welsh Kayak Magazine- with a cover shot of a kayak with a large prominent Nookie logo across the front!
I'm off to Sri Lanka in 3 weeks, so I hope to be able to send blog reports for you guys from outta there.
Nathan Eades

Just because it's kinda funny - Hazel beta-testing a new whitewater shell. It's November, in England - it's freezing. And she still claims to love her job ;)