If you’re between the ages of 18-26, apply now to become a Paddlesports Youth Summit Delegate!

Tell Your Family and Friends! Entry deadline is May 24, 2010.

On June 19-20, 2010, up to 500 young leaders will gather in New York City to celebrate and champion an active, outdoor lifestyle, and Confluence Watersports wants to send you. You may know us better as Dagger, Wave Sport, Perception, Wilderness Systems or Mad River Canoe. Just like you, we have different interests and paddle different boats; but our love for being on the water unifies our family of brands. If you share the love of paddlesports and of the outdoors, we want to send you to New York City.

As delegates to the first ever Outdoor Nation Youth Summit and Festival in Central Park, NYC, young adults (ages 18-26) from across the country will have their voices heard. The Summit is a platform for attendees to influence outdoor policy and create solutions to the inactivity and lack of nature-driven activities that are plaguing the health of the country. Confluence is sponsoring five delegates to the Summit. This is your call to action and door to opportunity.

Continue Reading…

April 30, 2010

Confluence Watersports is a lead sponsor for the Outdoor Foundation’s Outdoor Nation Youth Summit. Backed by the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), and in conjunction with “Backpacker” Magazine’s Adventures NYC, the weekend long event is an industry wide effort to promote youth participation in outdoor activities.  As the sole “platinum” level sponsor from the paddlesports industry, Confluence is committed to increasing participation in paddling and is tangibly empowering young adults to lead the charge.

The sponsorship consists of several levels of participation:

• Partnering with Eastern Mountain Sports for the Adventures NYC event in Central Park, Confluence brands will be available for test paddling, with free instruction and tips. Adventures NYC is one of the largest, urban, outdoor consumer events in the country, with an opportunity to offer an authentic kayaking or canoeing experience in the middle of Manhattan. It is free and open to all.
• Dagger and Wave Sport will host a “Paddling Place” hang out, adjacent to the Outdoor Nation Youth Summit.
• Confluence will recruit and choose five delegates (ages 18-26) for the Youth Summit. After the Summit, these delegates will be important resources for the Confluence team’s efforts in youth outreach, participation and product development.
• A $1250 grant will be awarded to one of the Confluence-selected delegates to apply toward encouraging the outdoor movement in their hometown. Continue Reading…

Given it is a touchy and often misunderstood issue, I wanted to share some perspective on our composite boat product offering that is manufactured in China (affecting Wilderness Systems Tempest PRO, Zephyr PRO, and Tsunami PRO). Just back from a visit to our production facility in China last week and was very pleased with the overall commitment to quality.

Fact: Confluence Watersports manufactures 99.6% of its total boat production in Easley, South Carolina.

Fact: Confluence eliminated NO jobs as a result of moving composite production to China.

Fact: Confluence employees develop and oversee the entire production and quality process.

Fact: Confluence was one of the last, if not the last, to execute a composite production program in China.

Fact: This new product is now lighter, less expensive and higher quality than we would have previously been able to offer—something that benefits our consumers as well as our retailers.

Fact: If we did not pursue manufacturing these particular composite sea kayaks at lower labor rates, we would have had no choice but to discontinue the product offering. This would have a negative impact on the organization (lost business), employees (potential lost jobs) our retailers (smaller product offering) and our brand loyal consumers (no product offered in this category).

While I do not support moving manufacturing to other countries as a matter of course, it’s important to realize that in our case it was done out of necessity. We take great pride in offering high quality, high performance products. We did not want to discontinue our composite program as it is an important part of our overall Wilderness Systems product offering.

In order to ensure that our product met expectations, we also sent our team to China to set up the production process, materials sourcing and quality standards. In addition to having a direct employee located in China to overseeing the facility, we continue to have our US based team intimately involved to ensure our process and standards are maintained.

Most things aren’t ever quite what they seem. While I can not speak for the many organizations that have made decisions to move jobs to other countries, I can say that we did it for the overall benefit of all of our stakeholders—consumers, employees, retail partners and shareholders. Our composite sales are on a dramatic rise, our business has benefited from a more fiscally appropriate program, and we now have the ability to further invest in our brands and our organization as a result of this success.

Sue Rechner

CEO Confluence Watersports

Confluence CEO, Sue Rechner, recently responded to an op-ed piece written in the Washington Times by South Carolina Senator Jim Demint. Her letter to the editor in response was published by the Washington Times and has received coverage from the outdoor industry.

Sen. Demint says the White House is conducting a “land grab” that could hurt already slow economic growth, and singled out outdoor activities such as backpacking as the wrong priority over private use for job growth.

In Sue’s response to the article, she notes that outdoor recreation is a great contributor to the economy and responsible land stewardship is essential to sustaining the outdoor economy in the future.

The Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) also released a statement today on their website thanking Sue “for making the voice of recreation heard in the national debate.”

Related Links:

Read Sen. Jim Demint’s original op-ed “White House Land Grab” at the Washington Times website.

Read Sue Rechner’s Letter to the Washington Times Editor ” Outdoor Recreation Stimulates the Economy” at the Washington Times website.

Read the Outdoor Industry Association’s release “Confluence CEO Rechner Challenges Senator’s Diminishment of Recreation.”