12th April 2020 - To wear or not wear a mask
August 14th update Auckland locked down with level 3. The rest of the country level 2. Mask use in Auckland. The rest – take your pick. Minister of Health Hipkins MORE »
18th June 2019 - Kayak Design and Construction
“I do not think that the evo’s will ever be beaten in design and performance. They were so far ahead of their time it wasn’t funny and still nothing tops MORE »
28th May 2019 - This one is for you Frank
I have just re-read the book ‘Share my Joys’ – The Frank Alack Story. It’s a mountain story. Linked to 1930’s alpine guiding. I consider myself fortunate to have known MORE »
17th March 2019 - New Zealand’s Darkest Day
Just like the FBI Officer who connected-the-dots and foresaw 9/11……. “Complaint dismissed”. A terrorism security expert and former SAS soldier Chris Kumeroa says the public can’t just rely on security MORE »
18th January 2019 - What can be done to prevent fatal police chases?
18th January 2019. https://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/assignments/109970148/what-can-be-done-to-prevent-fatal-police-chases No mention in the above article that at least one of the boys had a repetitive hobby of stealing cars. Question. Do car converting 11 to MORE »
6th January 2019 - Apple Fan-Boy?
Fan-Boy – No more! My very first Apple purchase was a 15 gig IPod. Solid. Still works. Still gets used. The Firewire port on my PC cost me heaps – MORE »
27th October 2018 - Protected: The Art of Fibreglassing – as practiced by Sisson Kayaks
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
24th October 2018 - Simon Bridges needs to call the hazmat team and order a full scale clean-out
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/108058857/simon-bridges-needs-to-call-the-hazmat-team-and-order-a-full-scale-cleanout This problem started with Muldoon In order to sell a property that we have owned since 1972 – we have to visit a Justice of the Peace – in MORE »
3rd October 2018 - Space Ship Earth – It’s all that we have.
Ah well – NASA’s marvellous Kepler satellite (Click here) has done its best to find us a new home. Maybe NASA’s new ungraded TESS satellite (click here) will find us MORE »
22nd September 2018 - “Control of my time is the greatest privilege I have now.”
“For many years I didn’t. In business you get on a treadmill and you’re not always in control as much as you think you are,” Craig Heatley. https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/107284044/millionaire-heatley-rates-ardern-at-book-launch-shared-with-key I admire the MORE »
17th September 2018 - Water 4 Gas
Water4Gas (Browns Gas) works. I have used it for 10.5 years (Smiling) In March 2008 as diesel fuel hit it high of $1.60 per litre I discovered the Water4Gas website. MORE »
12th September 2018 - Willi Huber – 1958 Ski Retailer
6th August 2018 - Time to contemplate the middle class future
Read this https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/105958939/slum-culture-has-a-solution-to-aucklands-housing-crises-researcher-says Read it again. Contemplate the TV documentary on the booming Indian slums. Now read this https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/latest/105881301/consent-for-ninemetre-retaining-wall-as-much-as-construction Lunacy When I started school I was taught that ‘one-and-one equals MORE »
About the author. Authors note: You may also like to read my permanent Drinkable Water page. This webpage is intended to empower the reader with 21st century Drinking Water Disinfection MORE »
22nd May 2018 - Thank you Steve Chapman
How an ‘unemployed’ carpenter permanently repaired my two dis-locatable shoulders. I dislocated my left shoulder in the fog at Temple Basin in 1960. It was re-located many painful hours later MORE »
16th May 2018 - Anakiwa Outward Bound Village
Well – if Methven can be Methven Mt Hutt Village – why not? There are several publications that record the history of this area up until about the late 60’s. MORE »
13th May 2018 - https://www.nzski.com/legal-privacy
https://www.nzski.com/legal-privacy All pass holders must abide by the ski area user responsibility code. Misconduct will result in cancelation or suspension of the pass with no refund. Misconduct includes, but is MORE »
6th May 2018 - “Wairarapa dairy farmers contributing to clean up”
Update 29th January 2019 https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/110103636/the-public-relations-war-over-freshwater-has-restarted The words from the Federated Farmers representative on Q & A 6th May 2018 – made me chuckle. Steady! Keep the right wrist twisted back to MORE »
How a simple visit to my GP for my ‘Annual’ check – turned into a two week medical misadventure nightmare Visit trusted GP with – for the first time in MORE »
13th April 2018 - The delights of Mountain Biking
Sam Gaze has made the news for mostly the wrong reasons. Here is my letter to Sam. 13th April 2018 .Dear Sam Long before you were born, the sport of MORE »
Without a doubt Sisson Kayaks was once the largest composite kayak and open canoe manufacturer in the Southern Hemisphere Say it with pictures! And a view from the stern How MORE »
7th April 2018 - The 1979 Muldoon Boat Tax
How an unhinged accountant scuppered a nation. His grand followup was the 1982 – 84 Wage and Price Freeze. And car-less days! I seem to remember that the fatal news MORE »
24th March 2018 - The on-set of geriatric hearing loss
Over the years I have been increasingly uttering the following question “What did you say?” I have been watching the hearing-aid industry for several years – awaiting the technology ‘breakthrough’ MORE »
23rd March 2018 - Your question #9 – what is the basis of your 75% deduction suggestion?
23rd March 2018 - The old & the new – NZ Slope Safety Codes
“I have never heard of a such a Code?” “Please explain what we have missed”
21st March 2018 - NZ Alpine Resort Slope Culture & On-Piste Ski Patrol patrolling
NZ Ski Patrol Off-Piste protection is functioning well. Do you believe that NZ Ski Patrol protects you On-Piste? Having suffered a 2017 double concussion with GP feared brain-bleed – when MORE »
23rd June 2017 - Moulded 1987, Burned 1996, Launched 2017
This is the tale of a Wagstaff 660 moulded by Lynda with some help from a young factory worker. As it looked in 1990. Mast and sails in storage. Keel MORE »
22nd June 2017 - Q-Kayaks Closing Down sale
This is not a happy time for the NZ kayak industry. I brought this news to the attention of Andrew Martin yesterday. Fair to say – Andrew and I are MORE »
Wow
17th April 2014 - 2014 retirement-hobby kayak construction
Hi In about 8 weeks time Mt Hutt will be open and we will once again be based on our Methven farmland – which is where the kayak factory is MORE »
19th July 2013 - 2013 Retirement-hobby kayak order book now full
The orders flowed in! Thank you. Anyone else wanting a new Sisson Kayak – please keep checking the website to see if I make a similar offer in 2014. Or MORE »
6th June 2013 - The new beginning? Retirement hobby kayak production starts.
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 MORE »
19th February 2012 - “What are you doing with the kayak building stuff?”
No idea. Absolutely no idea. We still own the Methven farm land. We still own the factory and plant. The Methven land is now where our ‘bach’ (holiday home) is MORE »
18th February 2012 - This website – what future?
We are retired. Yeah right! We are still very very busy. And we move into retirement with heaps of options because we have sold off none of the assets that MORE »
18th February 2012 - Sisson Kayaks spare parts supply
Very sorry to those customers who ordered parts over the past 6 months. Your orders were ignored. Very sorry. After 38 years in business (36 making kayaks) we have rejoiced MORE »
4th October 2011 - Sisson Kayaks Ltd has delivered the last new kayaks.
On Monday the 3rd October 2011 we shipped out a Nucleus 60, Arctic Raider and a Nordkapp. Thus ends, for the company, 36 years of kayak production. For the next MORE »
14th July 2011 - Currently building the very last batch of kayaks
Thirty six years ago I built my first kayak. I built it for my own use. It sold before I could launch it. The next morning by 11am we had MORE »
24th April 2011 - I await your kayak order – still building.
There is a rumour out there in kayaking circles that I no longer build kayaks. Lies lies and more lies! Absolute lies. Who would start such rumours? My wife Lynda MORE »
16th March 2011 - Sisson Kayaks – proven total loss survivor
On the 19th June 1996 the Sisson Kayaks factory, and everything in it, was totally destroyed by fire. Lynda and I were in Rotorua with a trailer load of demo MORE »
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 MORE »
20th October 2010 - Glen Currie dominates Frostbuster @ Methven
Methven Mt Hutt Village is a truly “Amazing Space” (100% honest Methven marketing slogan). Great people who really get behind their very special town. And in the South Island, thanks MORE »
19th September 2010 - Sisson Kayaks new models – yes or no?
Two years ago it was planned to introduce two new top-line multisport kayaks. The Evolution Omega was the first to be developed and it was supposed to be followed by MORE »
19th September 2010 - Similar but better than “Down by the Swamp”
In 1997 when my original website went online I had a special page to run what would now be called a blog. It was widely read. And then two things MORE »
19th September 2010 - “Turkeys stay fresher longer in plastic”
Glass is fast!
17th September 2010 - Luke Vaughan tests Eliminator for speed on the RDR
Towards the end of Luke’s second RDR testing visit, I asked him to do the unthinkable – paddle my demo Eliminator over the same 700 metre course. It is not MORE »
16th September 2010 - Evolution Omega on-water comparison to Evolution Edge
Luke in his Edge @ 160HBPM – note the rolling wake Luke in Edge = Basil running even. Luke in Omega = Basil out-the-back Basil is in the Omega on MORE »
16th September 2010 - Aid Needed For Two ‘Wobblyville’ Business’s
Wobblyville is the light-hearted name that some Christchurch residents now use – its recent use helps these shattered residents cope with the debilitating earthquake aftershocks. I have offered my services MORE »
15th September 2010 - Grade 2 Kayak Certification
Otherwise know as river kayak anti-swimming insurance. Or – keeping your event competitors alive a little longer. Or – if they do survive – hoping that they will return to MORE »
15th September 2010 - Vodaphone verses Telecom Mobile
Since 1990 I have been a Telecom Mobile customer – starting with a Radiant car phone that was big enough to be denied onto an airline as carry-on baggage. Over MORE »
14th September 2010 - The Economy
Unlike Allan Bollard, we were well aware of the likelihood of the financial fiasco. A little article in The Press Business page mentioned Nouriel Roubini. Five minutes later I had MORE »
14th September 2010 - Christchurch Earthquake
It woke us in our caravan at Ohau Lodge. Our only communications were only weak texts. We later went to the top of Ohau Ski field to phone our family. MORE »
Sisson Nucleus 100 is a multisport kayak designed for intermediate racing paddler and manufactured in New Zealand by Grahame Sisson.
