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The new beginning? Retirement hobby kayak production starts.

Thursday, June 6th, 2013

It is 15 months since I last cranked up the WordPress machine to update my Sisson Kayaks website.

Lynda and I have enjoyed the 18 months since I locked up the kayak factory. In that time we have :-

  1. Greatly enjoyed the complete absence of daily ‘pressure-to-perform’ – as we have done for the previous 38 years.
  2. Wound up the company – Sisson Kayaks Ltd.
  3. Dismantled all of the business overheads – and returned to the settings of 40 years ago – when the business started in ‘The Shed’ – as a hobby.
  4. Pondered “what-if-we-take-the-locks-off-the-kayak-factory-doors-again”

The kayak factory is still 100% operational. One snag though. We choose to live six hours drive away for eight months of the year. For the remaining four months we live right beside the kayak factory.

Why? The factory is located on farmland that is our winter holiday-home at Methven Mt Hutt Village. Yes we relocate to Methven – because we ski – and ski – and ski.

Over the past 6 months several loyal customers have ordered new replacement kayaks off my new hobby business. I will be making low numbers of kayaks in Methven this winter – in between the skiing.

This is your chance. If you want a new Sisson Kayak built between mid-June 2013 and mid October 2013, contact me on – or email me at .

This offer is make only to real customers – who know about kayaks – who largely know what they want – and do not refer to the paddle as “an oar”. All others can buy their kayaks from the nearest branch of the Warehouse!

And now the good news. We live in times of low inflation. Currently many of the items I personally desire to own – are subject to deflation – the prices drop. My new 2013 kayak price list suffers from deflation too.

This lower kayak price-list is possible because operating as a ‘hobby’ means much lower overheads. We still pay our taxes. But not GST (except on our raw materials). Because kayak production costs contain heaps of LABOUR – my retirement hobby customers are the price-deflation winners

Request a factory-fresh-new-kayak quotation. Email  or phone me on .

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Earthquakes

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

In recent months it has been clear to all that retirement has taken precedence over the kayak business.

Firstly we celebrated Xmas and my 90 year old father-in-law’s birthday. Not always in that order of importance or timing.

Then we took a month holiday looking at parts of this land that we had previously missed.

Then we headed back home to Anakiwa and wham – received that text from our son Richard “chch leveled by eq”

I wish to say sorry to those people who have been waiting for me to respond to their kayak enquiries. This is the city where Lynda and I were raised. This is the city that still has a mysterious bond. This is the city wrecked.

For the following weeks we have tried to do our best to support family and friends. Then just as we seemed to be seeing things settling into some sort of normality – the Japanese triple disaster happened.

Those who have known our business since 1990 will remember when almost 50% of Sisson Kayak’s annual turnover was exported to Japan. Container after container of sea kayaks heading to Kleen-tex Japan Inc. The final shipment to Kleen-Tex was delivered in 1997.

About the same time I chose to become a one-man-band ‘hobby’ business. And Kleen-Tex closed their outdoors division. I am proud to say that, all these years later, I still remain in contact with the company President Fukuhara, Outdoors Division boss, Matsumura and the office administrator, Hisanori.

All are safe but I am concerned that should the wind turn to the East, Matsumura may be at risk at his Sado Island home.

Back to Canterbury. Our Methven factory is fine. Our son Richard has been living there at times in order to escape the aftershocks. He was working very close to the PGC building, and came within centimeters of being clobbered by a huge light fitting.

At times such as this family comes first. They are all visually OK. Friends are, as far as we know, OK. But many including Steve Gurney are homeless. We intend to ramp up our help after some sort of direction returns to their lives.

Only one positive item has happened lately. We have our multiple 2011 season SKI PASSES secured.

And today I am about to answer a lot of kayak enquiries that have hit my in-box in the past few weeks. I say “sorry” to all of those who have waited for my response. I admit to you that I could have found the time. But somehow my head was pulverized by the events.

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