Paddlesports Diversifying by Hitting up the Military
Posted on Thursday, August 5 2004

Responding to the Call of Duty
Paddlesports players find alternative revenue streams with the military
By Matt Hansen

While the military currently has its hands full in such places as Afghanistan and Iraq, it’s also giving savvy paddlesports players a boost to their bottom line.
Selling paddlesports products to the military is nothing new. Since World War II, the industry has had ties with the military, the most famous of which is the Mae West life jacket worn by WWII soldiers, who likened the life preservers to the Hollywood bombshell’s 43-inch bust-line. The name stuck and for many years a Mae West was synonymous with life jacket. Georgie White, a Grand Canyon outfitter who swam the Big Ditch in a Mae West in 1945, brought the first rubber rafts to the canyon in 1940s after purchasing military surplus pontoon rafts. These big inflatables were designed by the military to be tough and long enough to span canals and streams, providing spontaneous bridges for jeeps and tanks. The same boat designs are still being used in the Grand Canyon, only now they’re called motor rigs. Soon after White introduced the pontoon rafts to the canyon, rubber rafts rapidly spread throughout the country.
As America’s military presence is felt in many places around the world today, its relationship with paddlesports continues, with many manufacturers supplying rafts, dry bags, apparel, protective cases and tents, and a host of other items. With America on the frontlines in Iraq and Afghanistan, the industry has seen a boon in business generated by the needs of the military. Many companies tend to be tight-lipped about providing detailed information about their respective relationships with the military, a sure sign that the world of government contracting is a highly competitive arena. What’s also certain is that in the post Sept. 11 era, where Homeland Security has become the federal government’s biggest department, there is plenty of demand for products that help security officials effectively deal with the slippery matter of water. “The ink goes up and down depending on what’s going on in the world,” says Dave Demaree, owner of Demaree Inflatable Boats (DIB), maker of specialty tubes, bridge pontoons and rafts. “But in the last year, 60 percent of our work was military.”
Demaree started his business based on relationships with river outfitters; DIB makes all of the big rigs used in the Grand Canyon, as well as on Wyoming’s Snake and British Columbia’s Fraser. The rafts’ materials—heat-sealed PVC or urethane-coated, cold-bonded Hypalon and milispec neoprene--come from military specs. “We recognize these to be the best materials available to build a great product,” Demaree says.
The most efficient way to sell to the military is to obtain a General Service Administration (GSA) contract, through which the federal government goes to keep its military the strongest in the world. The benefits for a GSA contractor can be enormous and far reaching. Not only is the United States government the biggest customer in the world (bigger even than WalMart), it is always looking for products and it never bounces a check. The government spends roughly $66 billion annually through its GSA contracts. Every GSA contract contains pre-negotiated products, warranties, delivery times, discounts and terms and conditions. Prices are already deemed fair and reasonable and every contract is in compliance with all applicable laws and Federal Regulations. When the government purchases products and services through a GSA contract, it eliminates the need for submission of Request for Proposals and Request for Quotes, competition comparison and lengthy negotiations.
Linda Kennedy, owner of Aloksac, a Park City, Utah-based manufacturer of airtight, watertight bags used by adventure racers and boaters, has two GSA contracts. Though she says the process was lengthy—each GSA application being 107 pages long, not to mention the extensive background checks performed by Uncle Sam—the results have been worth it. Once the government approves your product, Kennedy says, consumers know it can withstand abuse. Aloksac’s military products include, among others, map cases measuring 6 square feet that soldiers place on trucks and jeeps to navigate the desert. Aloksac also makes bags for M16 rifles to repel sand and water. If the bags, which for the buying public are much smaller for cameras, cell phones and other gadgets, are good enough for the military, Kennedy says people find the products to be good enough for them. She now sells her product in 12 countries. “They’re all very interested in knowing that I have a GSA contract,” she says. “It carries a lot of weight.” While civilian interest in growing for her product, she points out that military orders are by far her largest.
Though GSA contracts make the process efficient, they are not necessary to do business with the government. Arcata, Calif.-based Kokatat has been supplying dry suits to the Navy and Coast Guard since the late 1980s, after Gore-Tex referred the company to the Navy SEALS. Kokatat has opted to avoid the GSA contractual process, and instead bids on contracts, which means it has to compete against other manufacturers. The company, according to president Steve O’Meara, has been successful in securing enough contracts to make it an “important part of Kokatat’s business.”
When a company goes to bid, it must meet rigid specifications. For dry suits, it means they must have high levels of waterproofness, breathability and durability. And it has to be guaranteed to work, O’Meara says. Many of the products Kokatat has made for the government have carried over to its consumer line. “A lot of the options such as Gore-Tex socks, wear patches and release zips have come from our military suits,” he says.
Diamond Brand Outdoors, a retail shop based in Napels, N.C., has figured out a way to fund its retail exploits by manufacturing tents and trauma bandages for the Army and Marines. The manufacturing side of the business is called Diamond Brand Canvas Products, whose clients also include the Boy Scouts and commercial and institutional camp markets. Owner Will Gay says the two divisions feed off one another, and allow the company to grow beyond what would be possible as a stand-alone retail operation. “We have been able to internally fund all of our expansion projects on the retail side of the business through cash generated on the manufacturing side,” Gay says. “So while there is no real direct correlation between the two, they do have a positive and mutual synergistic effect on each other.”
Another paddlesports company, Asheville, N.C.-based Watershed, struck a relationship with the Navy at the 2000 Outdoor Retailer tradeshow when an officer stopped by their booth to check out dry bags on display. The products piqued his interest, beginning a business relationship that has since blossomed. Watershed sent some samples to the officer, who used the bags on a South Pacific tour. During the mission, heavy rains pelted the deck-top luggage, and the officer using the Watershed bags was the only one who had dry gear after the storm. “He was in a position to get us into the Navy’s R&D program,” says Watershed president Eric Revels. “From there, we looked at their specific needs, and that end of our business has really taken off. They had a need and I worked really hard to give them the right product at the right price.”
Now, the military buying program makes up about one-third of Watershed’s business, and the products are used around the world. “The huge benefit is that it’s forced me to get a lot more attentive to quality control and it has forced design innovations that I probably would not have been motivated to do. They dive with the bags and we had to change the designs to make sure they stay dry. And we’ve applied that innovation to the rest of our bags.”
And what better way to stake a claim to a product’s toughness than one that comes out of the battlefield? Pelican Products, makers of watertight protective cases, uses testimonials from the battlefield to help market its products, the latest being a letter from Sgt. Jason Bitterman, 5th Special Forces Group stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky. During infiltration in Iraq, Bitterman wrote that a helicopter went down containing soldiers and gear. Though no one was seriously hurt, the letter stated, the equipment and chopper had to be demolished to keep the sensitive technological information from getting into the wrong hands. Two Maverick missiles destroyed the downed helicopter, but upon returning days later to see that the job was finished, the soldiers found an intact Pelican case, the only item salvageable from the wreckage. The case, suffering only minor burns and a broken latch, contained six satellite phones, an electronic radio system, a highly sensitive digital camera, and a block of C-4 explosive, and all of it worked.
Pelican’s GSA program is its fastest growing sales division, says marketing director Kevin Murphy. Pelican also distributes products through the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES), an outlet of services and merchandise for servicemen and women in roughly 6,000 locations around the world.
After trying to run the majority of its business by selling high-quality, relatively expensive whitewater rafts in the 1990s, Arcata, Calif.-based Wing Inflatables began searching for market alternatives to boost sales. So company owner Bill Wing, described by his sales manager Jessica Abendroth as a lover of motors as well as rafts, began exploring the construction of rigid inflatable boats (RIBs). The Navy and Coast Guard operate thousands of RIBs, and these boats require replacement inflatable sponsons. Wing saw an opening, and in 1994 the company built its first RIB sponson for torpedo retrieval operations. The company continues to manufacture rafts for outfitters, but the majority of Wing’s business is in making and selling replacement sponsons and foam collar systems for the military: Wing now makes sponsons for 95 percent of the Navy’s RIB fleet. “That was our goal, and we hit it,” Wing says. “We almost hit it too well.” After Sept. 11, Abendroth adds, the company’s military business really took off. “In the last two years we’ve seen a huge increase in sales,” she says. “And that’s directly related to 9-11.”
A year ago, Johnson Outdoors’ Eureka! tent division was awarded a $12 million delivery order for the production and delivery of 2,000 Modular General Purpose Tent Systems (MGPTS). The company was awarded the original MGPTS contract in September 1997 and continues to build tents and accessories for the military on this contract. This new order represents additional production of the MGPTS beyond the scope of the original contract. Johnson’s Vice President of Outdoor Equipment Bill Kelly says a flexible schedule is a necessity when working with the government, for you never know what might come your way. “We have a flexible and dedicated workforce, which enables us to meet the demand for delivery,” he says. “This puts Johnson Outdoors in a unique position: We are able to respond quickly to new orders, manufacturing quality products and delivering on time.”
If the paddlesports industry continues to deliver quality products on time, its relationship with the military will no doubt continue for many years to come.

To Wear or Not to Wear: The PFD Mandate Debate
Posted on Thursday, May 6 2004

By Dexter Mahaffey

For every curse paddlers have ever issued as they try to escape the menacing, whirlpool-like wake of a circling jet ski, karmic payback is swiftly approaching. The catch is this: Jet skiers wear their life jackets over 97.5 percent of the time because they are legally required to, and despite the incredible number of accidents they suffer, their fatality rate is exceptionally low. The vast majority of the remaining boating fatalities in this country are users of boats under 21 feet, boats in which people are not]i required to wear PFDs. It’s not that jet skis are somehow safer, but recent studies examining boating fatalities reveal how nothing saves lives like high PFD wear rates and nothing achieves this as effectively, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, as mandating PFD wear. The outcry that’s come in response to such a proposed mandate involves more, however, than the simple crisis of paddlers being forced to follow their evil jet skier twins for insight into safety. Paddling organizations and industry representatives, meanwhile, are torn between their unswerving dedication to safety and their serious concern about a law that could discourage new paddlers, infringe on the individual’s rights in an activity evermore saddled with regulation, and represent to the public at large that paddling is an unsafe activity.

In 2002, there were 750 boating fatalities versus 40,000-plus automotive fatalities, numbers that make boating appear relatively safe, but those aren’t the stats the Coast Guard is considering. As Capt. Scott Evans, chief of the Coast Guard Office of Boating Safety, explains, “Fatal accident data show approximately 440 lives could have been saved in 2002 if boaters had worn their life jackets.” For the Coast Guard, “whose sole mission is to save and protect Americans,” it’s not an issue of the fact that boating is safer overall than getting in your car, it’s that any fatalities at all are unacceptable.
In 1973, there were 1,750 boating fatalities in the U.S. Two years prior, the Coast Guard began to hand over the responsibility for managing boater safety to state government agencies so that the federal agency could focus its efforts on search and rescue. “We’ve done a pretty good job,” says Fred Messmann, president of the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA), “but as boating professionals, we also are trying to eliminate fatalities altogether.” Messmann cites transit statistics that reveal boating fatalities each year to be second only to automobile fatalities, with airplane fatalities coming in a noticeable third.
The windfall for the Coast Guard, the state boating administrators, the National Boating Safety Advisory Council (NBSAC is the federal advisory group that helps shape Coast Guard policy), and other regulatory and policy groups was a recently published Canadian Safe Boating Council international study. This study compiled data from the United States, England, Australia, New Zealand and Canada and found the strong correlating data of the best way to reduce fatalities in watercraft under six meters (19 feet) is not education, but simple mandated PFD wear at all times. When the study came out, it inspired the Coast Guard to begin looking more closely at the boating accident reports it receives each year from the state boating law administrators. What they found are these hard numbers they’re pressing everyone to look at.
In 2002, 524 of all boating fatalities were due to drowning. Of those, at least 388 and as many as 447 (68 of the reports do not specify length of craft, but only its model) were with watercraft under 21 feet in length—between 74 and 85 percent of all fatal accidents were in small boats. “Nearly 85 percent of victims who drowned,” Evans explains, “were not wearing their PFD…while increased PFD wear could have had a potential reduction of fatalities of up to 72 percent in 2002.” The study’s control group that led to the projected reduction are those jet ski users, whose 97.5 percent wear rate results from their mandated usage.
So what’s the problem? Why not get the legislation or mandate rolling? At last November’s meeting of NBSAC in Chicago, that’s exactly what happened, as that group passed a resolution stating:

Whereas, U.S. Coast Guard statistics show that 76 percent of the drownings occur in boats under 20 feet and whereas, data from PWCs (personal motorized watercraft) demonstrate that mandatory wearage significantly reduces the incidence of drowning, now therefore be it resolved that NBSAC support the U.S. Coast Guard and NASBLA adopting requirements for mandatory PFD wear while above deck and underway on vessels under 20 feet in length.

NBSAC wasn’t the first to endorse the Coast Guard. Messmann and the Western State Boating Administrators Association passed their own version of the same at their meeting in May 2003, in which they “recommend and request NASBLA develop a model act requiring the occupants to wear PFDs on all recreational vessels 21 feet and under while underway” and that the state boating administrators further pursue legislation in their own states mandating this model act as law as well as forwarding it to Ellen Engleman, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board.
But while the regulatory groups have been taking the first steps toward mandating PFD wear, groups representing the boating industry and consumers have begun to turn their initial hesitation into a more active role in directing the process itself, in several cases slowing it down so that more research and discussion can take place before any implementation occurs. Specifically, at the same NBSAC meeting in November, John Adee of the American Boat and Yacht Council stepped in to ask that the boating community first be given a chance to discuss how to approach these new statistics before any decision be made. The Coast Guard obliged the request by hosting a public PFD workshop in conjunction with the PFD Manufacturers Association at the Miami Boat Show on Feb. 13 to “help us identify strategies to get occupants of high-risk boats to wear the lifejackets they already have onboard.”

For the boating industry, it’s a potentially enormous shift in the way recreational boating is thought of in this country. While the carrying of life jackets by all and the wearing of them for children under 13 is mandated by the Coast Guard, for years the right of the adult individual has been to choose whether or not to wear the PFD. Meanwhile, other recreational activities have also wrestled with the right of the individual versus the responsibility of the government and other regulatory organizations to protect us against ourselves. The seat-belt issue serves as one of the clearest recent developments by the National Transportation Safety Board to reduce highway fatalities. Similarly, the helmet law debate for motorcyclists continues, with states developing their own action plans. Kentucky, for example, allows the operator to choose to wear a helmet but has had a law stipulating that if a motorcyclist chooses not]i to wear a helmet, he or she forsakes any claim to state disability benefits should an injury occur in an accident. But closer to home for paddlers is the decision by the International Cycling Union to require hard shell helmets to be worn in all bicycling competitions under its jurisdiction, a decision brought on by the reportedly preventable death of professional Andrei Kivilev in the Paris-Nice stage race last year. And yet, the Union has no jurisdiction over cyclists on a Sunday afternoon ride around the neighborhood.
This is exactly the argument many in the paddling community make in response to the idea of a mandate: Such sports bodies are now doing what American paddling organizations and paddlers have already been doing for a long time. “As an organization,” says Gordon Black, Director of Safety Education and Instruction for the American Canoe Association (ACA), “if the Coast Guard issues a mandate, we would change nothing: we require PFDs already. Any ACA sponsored event, we require PFDs.”
You hear the same from outfitters, dealers and rental businesses across the country. Keith Jensen of Alder Creek in Portland, Ore., affirms his shop’s policy: “You don’t take our classes without them on. Our employees don’t let anyone paddle from the dock without one on. [The proposed mandate] is consistent with what we’re doing already.” Rich Hage, general manager at Jersey Paddler in Brick, N.J., echoes this: “We’re all for people being required to wear life jackets. From a safety standpoint, it’s a must.” He adds that, from a sales point of view, “I’m not concerned because 85-90 percent of canoes and kayaks that go out of here are accompanied by a life jacket. It’s not that much of a step to go from being required to carry one to wearing one.” Indeed, the Coast Guard’s own statistics show the PFD wear rate for kayakers at higher than 82 percent every year.
Speaking for the state boating law administrators, Messmann explains, it’s “less of a problem with organized paddlers than with the K-Mart paddler,” the people who are the more casual, occasional enthusiasts who are theoretically less informed, less skilled and less aware of the potential hazards. “But how,” he asks, “do you get to them?” While the various regulatory officials agree that the more serious paddlers are not their targets because these consumers tend to know what they’re doing and therefore tend to avoid serious mishaps, they’re at a loss as to how to get to the higher risk group without simply mandating safety precautions for all boaters.

Those in the paddling industry hesitant to endorse the mandate are focusing on two main problems with requiring PFD wear. The first is the issue of being legally required to do something many feel ought to be left up to individual choice. “While I would encourage anyone, anywhere to wear one,” says Liquidlogic’s Woody Callaway, “I hate to be mandated anything. As a whitewater kayaker for 27 years, I feel naked without it, but personally I hate to see anyone mandated for something.”
This leads directly to the second concern, which Black of the ACA explains: “The largest group of people involved in paddling are very tenuously involved—they’re not serious paddlers, and they would be the ones most turned off by the mandate.” A recent ACA study took the Canadian and Coast Guard’s data a step further and analyzed the actual nature of boating fatalities. Almost all, 90 percent, were men, and 50 percent of the canoe and kayaking fatalities were angling boaters. Forty percent of the canoe fatalities involved aluminum canoes, which tend to be more affordable and readily available models at non-specialty shops. And at least 25 percent (although Black says they have reason to believe this statistic is much higher) involved alcohol consumption immediately prior to the accident. While these are the paddlers who need to wear their PFDs more than anyone else, telling them they have to wear one—and will get fined if they don’t—could turn them off the sport altogether, potentially losing the participation and accompanying revenue from a huge consumer segment. Thus, paddling organizations are being squeezed in this vice: Their primary missions are the simultaneous promotion of the sport and ensuring its safety. If they lose participants, there will be no one to promote the safety to.

How much of the paddling industry’s $300 million annual retail sales are at risk is unclear, and that’s what worries Matt Menashes, head of the Professional Paddlesports Association (PPA). “The paddling industry,” he says, “doesn’t have the financial wherewithal to take a huge hit due to a major reduction in participation.”
Menashes also cites the number of regulations the industry faces each year, some with less opaque agendas behind them, that could harm participation and revenues, including mandatory boater education (similar to gun laws), manufacturing standards for safety (which could in turn have negative impacts on performance), canoe and kayak registration fees (which applied to each boat can ring up a high cost), and the cases of states reacting to high profile boating fatalities. In Massachusetts, for example, legislation was introduced after one such drowning incident to make the use of compass and whistles mandatory, while Virginia considered making mandatory the carrying of type IV "throwable" PFDs on all boats, including tiny rodeo kayaks. “Some of these regulations are simply not necessary in all conditions,” argues Menashes. “It’s overkill.”
The flip side of the revenue coin is the boom that could occur. “[The mandate] would have no impact on boat manufacturers,” says Liquidlogic’s Callaway, “but if I was a PFD manufacturer, I’d be grinning.” Similarly to the way cycling competition helmet rules in the late ’80s in America led to an accelerated development of lighter, cooler and more comfortable helmets, many in the R&D departments of PFD manufacturers have seen the writing on the wall and been working to meet the need for year-round comfort and low-profile fit of paddlers who otherwise would choose not to wear a life jacket. Gary McLaren, production manager at Stohlquist, speaks of the company’s new, super low-profile PFD designed to have such freedom of movement that a paddling fly fisherman can make a full, fluid arm cast entirely unhindered by foam or fabric. Of the mandate, he says, “I don’t see how it could affect us negatively. We believe in what we do, and I think everybody in this company would support that 100 percent.”
WaterMark’s Mike Steck says safety is a big part of his promotional techniques. “We’re big believers in safe boating and have taken it upon ourselves to promote it, from our catalogs to all of our safety products,” he says. “Our CEO (Jim Clark) has always mandated that we show people in PFDs in all of our on-water product shots.” Steck acknowledges the concerns that a mandate could present paddling as an unsafe activity or otherwise be bad for the sport, but he voices equal concern over the alternative: “What does it do for the sport if somebody drowns?”
In response to concerns over the discomfort or inconvenience of wearing PFDs in certain situations, Steck points to WaterMark’s Sospenders brand of inflating life jackets and other similar products that serve as alternatives to ones that would otherwise turn off paddlers from wearing a PFD at all. While the prices of these new models may still be too high for the small budget, entry-level paddler, their cost is expected to drop as they permeate further into the market.
The consensus at this point remains that few in the industry or regulatory business—from the ACA, PPA, and Coast Guard to many of the manufacturers of boats and PFDs—are willing to take a stand on the potential mandate just yet. The February workshop in Miami, and the PPA’s first-ever Paddlesport Industry Safety Summit (see sidebar) on April 17 in Panama City Beach, Fla., are designed to give the various constituents a chance to educate themselves and figure out how best to respond to the numbers now in hand. “The number of fatalities,” says Menashes, “has caused the regulators to look closely at paddlesport safety. The paddling community needs to step up to the plate and be involved.”


The 2004 Paddlesports Industry Safety Summit
In Panama City Beach, Fla., on April 17-18, representatives from across the paddling industry will gather for the first of what will become an annual event targeted at issues of safety in the sport. Initiated and sponsored by the PPA, the summit will focus on developing industry action plans for three main areas: manufacturing standards for canoe and kayak safety, consumer safety outreach and government affairs. The specific issues planned for discussion at this year’s summit include mandatory PFD wear, mandatory paddler education, manufacturing standards, canoe and kayak registration and safety training for guides and salespeople. Manufacturers, retailers, outfitters and liveries, and sales representatives are encouraged to attend. Info: (703) 451-3864, www.propaddle.com.

Sponsorship in Paddlesports..Does it Work?
Posted on Monday, August 11 2003

In Short Supply
Sponsorship drought leaves paddling events high and dry
by Matt Hansen
“It’s the ebb and flow of the industry.” --Shawn McBride, Octagon Sports

You can’t go anywhere these days without seeing product announcements: banners, billboards, radio, television, print, even the return envelopes from credit card bills. They’re also where you wouldn’t expect them. Float the Grand Canyon and you’ll see stickers plastered on dry boxes, Nalgene bottles and coffee cups. Such branding is never more apparent, however, than at events and competitions, which has long been a tried and true way for manufacturers and retailers to reach potential customers.
That may be changing—especially in paddlesports, which saw many events missing from its usual circuit this summer and others severely downsized. The reason: lack of sponsors. The Gorge Games, a premier extreme paddling and mountain biking contest in Hood River, Ore., got the ax, as did the 100-mile Rum Runner Challenge in Key Largo, Fla. And the Boise County Throwdown and Payette Whitewater Roundup couldn’t get off the ground after title sponsor Idaho Rivers United pulled out to spend more time on its mission of protecting Northwest rivers. Many whitewater events around the nation—such as the Yampa River Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colo., and Wyoming Whitewater Championships in Jackson, Wyo.—were scaled back this year after Teva and American Whitewater disbanded following the 2002 Teva Whitewater Tour. But it’s not just paddling events that have seen sponsorship dollars vanish.
In May, GaleForce Sports Marketing canceled the 2nd Annual Telluride 360 Festival—a roundup of outdoor competitions like bouldering, adventure racing, fly fishing, as well as a World Cup mountain bike race—due to the lack of sponsors. Though the event did not include paddling, it was aimed at the same demographic of generally young athletic people who enjoy the outdoors. In 2002 GaleForce came in “well-short” of making any money off the event, says GaleForce owner Rick Sutton. Though he didn’t expect to make a profit after the first event, Sutton says he didn’t want to sustain the same losses the second time around. And scaling down the festival was not an option. “With a bad economy, I wasn’t prepared to take the financial hit that would’ve taken place,” Sutton says. “Nor were we prepared to change the event we were trying to deliver. We have a history of putting on a particular type of product and I didn’t want to lower the quality.”
Like Sutton, Shawn McBride, program director for Octagon Sports, one of the owners of the Gorge Games, blames the struggling economy on the lack of sponsorship interest. When money’s tight and risk is high many businesses place the top priority on riding out the economic storm. “We’re very disappointed that the Gorge Games had to be canceled because it’s built quite a reputation for itself, but this is something that’s facing sports business in general,” McBride says. “In trying economic times, these are realities we are all facing. It’s the same thing in pro golf and tennis that we deal with everyday at Octagon. It’s the ebb and flow of the industry.”
Others point out that spectator and sponsor interest may have reached a plateau for whitewater-specific events where the main attraction is a rodeo competition. As Adam Druckman, Teva’s sports marketing manager, points out, “There are only so many people who can watch a guy go around and around in a hole for hours. There needs to be other attractions for spectators.”
The Rum Runner Challenge, a 100-mile paddling and outrigger race in the Florida Keys put on by Florida Bay Outfitters, also felt the sponsor squeeze. After three successful years of running the race, this year the shop couldn’t find a sponsor and had to cancel it. “We run a business so it’s hard to spend money on going after sponsorships,” says Monica Woll, who owns the shop with her husband, Frank. “We had a few leads but nothing came of them. We’re a little disappointed in the kayak companies because they didn’t offer us much.”
Woll says one kayak manufacturer the store carries mentioned the Rum Runner in its catalogue but didn’t want to provide any sponsorship. “It’s a very expensive race to run,” she says, adding that in 2002, Pussers Rum contributed $1,000 to cover the cost of the medals. “We probably could’ve sent out media packets and specific race information, but we don’t know how to do that. It’s probably partly us not having the knowledge, but money was tight. It’s too bad because it was an awesome race.”

Sponsors Want Variety
By most counts, the 2002 Gorge Games was hugely successful, drawing 1,500 athletes and 40,000 spectators. It was broadcast on NBC, but title sponsor Ford didn’t renew its one-year contract, and organizers couldn’t find a replacement. It was the second time in four years that the Gorge Games had been canceled for the absence of title sponsors. As a psuedo-replacement, Ford and Octagon partnered to create the Ford Adventure Sport Challenge, held July 17-20 at Beaver Creek, Colo. It had all the elements of the new adventure racing craze: trekking, mountain biking, kayaking, whitewater rafting, whitewater swimming, climbing/rappelling and land navigation. There was also a 24-hour Balance Bar adventure race. Apparently, Ford didn’t think the Gorge Games, with just whitewater and mountain biking, did enough to market its vehicles to outdoor enthusiasts. “We are always looking for ways to connect with our SUV customers,” says Lisa O’Connor, Ford SUV marketing manager. “This (Beaver Creek) event embodies the spirit of our go-anywhere, do anything lineup of SUVs.”
On the other hand, the 2nd Annual Teva Mountain Games at Vail, Colo., this summer was dynamite, according to Teva’s Druckman. He attributes much of the success to the fact that the Teva games offered spectators and athletes more than just athletic events. In addition to whitewater paddling races, mountain biking, climbing and trail running, there was music, an outdoor film and art festival and plenty of side attractions for families, spectators and athletes. “Sponsors like to see a lot of activity and energy in one place,” he says. “We had lunar and solar events, so there were activities going on from morning until midnight. And Vail’s great because everything is centrally located.”
In leveraging the Teva name for the Vail games, Druckman put every bit of elbow grease into promoting the event. Leading up to the games there was an orange and white Teva Mountain Games ad in nearly every outdoor publication. The same ads were made into posters and distributed throughout the mountain states. “We squeezed as much juice out of it as we could,” Druckman says.
Roughly 10,000 people showed up and it was broadcast on Fox Sports Net, but Druckman says he judged its success by the positive vibe that floated among the crowd and athletes. Of course, Teva, a leading footwear manufacturer, has more resources to use than most paddle shops looking to host a local whitewater event or flatwater race. But it goes to show that paddlesports events can still be successful; it just might take tweaking an event to provide something for the spectators as well as the athletes.

Sponsorship Gets Sophisticated
As extreme sports were thrust into the national spotlight in the 1990s, many event organizers could count on sponsors stepping up to the plate with money and prizes without demanding much in return. For paddlesports, the attractive, trendy sport was whitewater kayaking. A strong economy allowed sponsors to be comfortable in helping an event for hospitality reasons. Money was moving, consumer confidence was high, and sponsors were everywhere. But those days appear to be over, according to Octagon’s McBride. Now, potential sponsors want to see specific numbers on what kind of return they will get from sponsoring an event. “The days of expecting a sponsorship to be akin to donation are over,” McBride says. “They want to see a return on investment. If you’re a soft drink company, you want to know how many more cans of cola are going be generated by the sponsorship.”
McBride notes that it is growing difficult to get a sponsor to cover an entire event, or be the title sponsor. But having a strong media presence is important to sponsors. “Everyone is looking to build a presence in consumer’s minds but it’s much more strategic now,” McBride says. “By and large, you can’t go back to the way it was. When companies get involved in these events, they’re trying to drive their business.”
Druckman, in proving McBride’s point, says it has never been easier to sponsor an event due to the sheer volume of events taking place. As Teva’s go-to guy for events and sponsorships, he receives dozens of calls per day from people wanting Teva to dole out sponsorship dollars. “So we can afford to be choosy about which events we sponsor and which ones we don’t,” he says. “And going into an event, you need to know what’s in your budget and you need to know how to leverage an event.”
If an organizer doesn’t know how to negotiate he’ll have to keep searching, and learn how to deal with the big dogs. And when money is tight, it’s easier just to cancel the rodeo than risk losing money on an event that has no outside financial support. But, as Joe Royer of Memphis, Tenn.-based Outdoors Inc. attests, it’s not absolutely imperative to have a title sponsor to throw a successful paddling event.

We Don’t Need No Stinking Sponsor
For 23 years, Royer has been organizing the Canoe and Kayak Race on the Mississippi River. It has grown from a small grassroots event to one of the most successful paddlesports events in the country. Roughly 500 paddlers, from elite pros to novice kids, come out every year for the three-mile race. It’s taken some time, but Royer says he has figured out how to make an event successful. “The secret is that everybody has to win,” Royer says. “It can’t be a financial drain on the promoter, the paddler has to feel that the event was worthwhile and enjoyable and a good value, and sponsors need to feel like they got their advertising dollar out of it.”
In 2002 Royer did not have a sponsor other than his own business. “After 9-11 people got careful with their ad dollars and insurance went up,” he says. “But I decided to put on my biggest race ever.”
It was a huge gamble; bad weather alone could’ve ruined it. But hundreds of paddlers participated and he received heavy exposure from local press. To increase coverage, he hired a professional photographer to shoot the race, and within weeks after the event, when it was still fresh, he distributed the photographs and write-ups of the event to potential sponsors for the 2003 race. The gamble worked. This year he had more sponsors than ever, with Jim Keras Subaru being the largest. “If I hadn’t gotten sponsorships this year, I probably would’ve scaled it back,” Royer says. “But I really believe in the health and fitness of paddling. And sponsors like that.”
Royer says that while strong events attract strong sponsors, the most important goal a promoter can have is to make it enjoyable for all people who participate. From competitors and organizers to volunteers and sponsors, everyone needs to walk away feeling like their time and money was worth it, he says.
To make his race successful, Royer concentrates on three priorities, safety being the first. The second priority is to make sure the race runs smoothly, from a precise starting time to getting the results correct and delivered to the competitors and news media on time. He offers many different age categories for paddlers. “I like to have a lot of winners,” he says.
Thirdly, Royer tries to make the post-race festivities fun for everybody involved. But if the first two priorities are met, the party takes care of itself. “My experience is if you don’t hurt anybody and get results out, then you can’t keep the party from happening afterwards,” he says. “If people are hurt or disgruntled about the results, it doesn’t matter how nice the T-shirts or balloons are.”
Royer believes that it helps an event to have a mission statement—his being to improve the health and fitness of the local community and to foster an environmental awareness of the Memphis riverfront. “We have a tremendous opportunity to improve our cities with that approach,” he says. “Once people paddle their homewater, they take an ownership of it and want it to be clean.”
But the path to gaining sponsors doesn’t end there. Royer seeks pro paddlers to compete in and endorse his race. He’s been able to get Olympian and World Champion Greg Barton. Adding to the race’s prestige was a letter Barton wrote proclaiming his appreciation for the race. “It’s important to seek out those kinds of paddlers,” Royer says.

Paddling Matures
Despite the challenge of wooing sponsors, McBride points out that paddlers and adventure sports enthusiasts still make up one of the most attractive demographics for sponsors. Consider these figures from the Outdoor Industry Association: 52 percent of whitewater kayakers make between $40,000 and $79,000 per year; the mean family income for sea kayakers is $70,000 per year; and the mean income for sit-on-top paddlers is $72,000. They like SUVs. They like gear. And they like to travel. “These are educated and active people,” McBride says. “These are people looking to push the limits and for the next cool thing, and adventure sports is that next cool thing and it’s gathering steam.”
With the growing attraction of adventure sports, paddlesports, as its own entity, may be shifting to the backseat after claiming shotgun for the last several years. While that may cause some to take an alarmist position, GaleForce’s Sutton, who primarily promotes biking events, cautions people not to dramatize the situation by thinking that a canceled event or two means the end of the world. “The reality is that as these mountain sports mature they become more susceptible to typical market and economic influences,” he says. “Although biking and paddling have been around for a long time, American outdoor sports only matured in the last decade. And the first decade of any industry’s introduction is like filling a vacuum. When you’re the new kid on the block, it’s easier to fill the vacuum because people search you out and are interested in what you’re doing. The first time you experience a downturn doesn’t mean that you’re going downhill but that you’ve matured and are susceptible to factors that other businesses and industries deal with all the time.”
Royer adds that it can be easy to be disgruntled when putting on a race, especially if outside support is waning. But what an organizer needs to remember is that paddling events add to the overall attraction of a community and give paddlers a sense of ownership. “It’s really important to give back to the community,” Royer says. “It adds to the city. It might not be the symphony or opera, but this race is just as important as a chamber concert in the community.” When that happens, he says, the real prize is won, and sponsors take notice.

Side Bar
Throwing down without sponsors
Just because you lose a title sponsor doesn’t mean you can’t provide an event for local paddlers. After Idaho Rivers United pulled out of the Boise County Throwdown and the Payette Whitewater Roundup, Stan Kolby of Idaho River Sports was left scratching his head about how to continue to offer fun events for his customers. He decided that an event doesn’t have to be huge and attract pro paddlers to be successful. In fact, he has found that pro paddlers intimidate many locals from participating at local rodeos.
So Idaho River Sports offers a Tuesday-night grill out and rodeo on the Payette. Paddlers of all skill levels are invited to kayak and bring something to grill on the barbecue. The shop gives small prizes, like mugs and visors, to boaters who throw down. Kolby says it provides paddlers a local event where they can be recognized by their peers and it keeps the shop’s name out there in the paddling scene. “When you do something local and involve local paddlers, like a barbecue to give away small prizes, it doesn’t matter what they get as long as they’re having fun,” Kolby says.
--Matt Hansen