About Us

We live and play in Hood River dead-center in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. Most of our play is centered around sailing (windsurfing, boat sailing, kiteboarding) so when our son spent our Christmas Bonus on a kayak, we first asked him "How do you sail this thing?" We soon learned to paddle, and quickly found out that paddling into the wind and waves was wet and tiring. And "sailing" back home downwind using only an oar/paddle blade for a sail was uninspiring. There had to be a better way. So we set ourselves to developing a kayak and canoe sail.

Our learning curve consisted of the following;

-The obligatory umbrella. Results: An inverted and then trashed Titlist golf umbrella "borrowed" from the local golf course. End of unbrella testing. Break for beer.

- Kites. This was where we thought we were going with this. But before it was made painfully clear to us that a kite was absolutely the wrong direction to persue harnessing the wind for our kayaks, we had a blast. NEVER have we planed out a two-person kayak before; with the front pilot hanging onto the kite and the back person trying to somewhat steer with an oar and just stay in the boat, we laughed our heads off. We've never had so much fun! But the launch needed too much room for the kite, the winds needed to be perfect and, well, this wasn't for the casual day paddler. This wasn't even for the serious sea kayaker. This was just a small arc in the learning curve of life. With broken kite strings, lost paddles and spilled beer, this wasn't for anyone. End of an educational but Fun era.

-Sails, finally. Finding a sail that was safe, able to be quickly set-up and taken down while out on the water, lightweight, corrosion resistant, durable and cheap were our objectives. Our Mom ended up sewing our very first prototype sail which we flew in the "Nuclear" winds of the Tri-Cities (WA), and the sail worked. And we celebrated. We then solved what we termed "the batten issue" which is the circular/periferal supporting member or hoop. We then made a few more prototypes and sent our son out on the water in his kayak to test them, as he had the only kayak. We of course needed to be shoreside to film and study the action of the sail, note the harmonics the sail and boat together created, pat ourselves on the back and of course drink beer. He survived the testing sessions and we awarded him the corporate position of Crash Test Dummy. We then celebrated once more before getting to work establishing suppliers, establishing debt and building sails. We named the first sail, "The Sail".

First sails. These were our early early days (as we are barely a year old anyway). Our first sails were what has become the "Sport" model sail. It was and still is our lightest weight sail flown from a paddle or oar. This sail has found a home with canoes and fishing kayaks. It also works real well in light wind conditions where a better breeze can be found higher up off the water.

Second sails. The "Adventure" model was born from the input of paddlers who wanted to keep their paddle or oar in their hands for bracing (we now know what that is and how important it is) and who wanted to see where they were actually going. We answered by making a deck-mount system that didn't require the drilling of holes in the boat (one of our original objectives) and placing a window in the center panel of the sail for visibility for the sailor. We also adjusted the batten stiffness for better function in an on-deck application.

Today we continue to make state-of-the-art, lightweight sails for the sea kayaking and canoeing communities, and enlighten the masses with the process of folding the sails in what has been referred to as an origami-like fashion.
We are expanding our retail base, promoting WindPaddle sails, and continuing to listen to our fellow paddlers for their input. Feel free to give us yours at info@windpaddle.com

Sincerely,

The Gang at WindPaddle.