Expedition Kayaks & Made in Australia

We have never considered a decision to buy a product made locally as something motivated by 'patriotism' or some vague nationalist intention. It's the reason you don't see us putting our Australian Made credentials front & centre, because we'd prefer that our products stood on their own merits. 

Rather, if something made locally is as good, or obviously if it's better than the import, then we'd hope consumers would take a hard look at the local product. 

Whilst we began our business importing British sea kayaks, and continue to bring in the very best quality gear from brands reknowned for innovation like Peak UK and Reed (UK), North Water (Canada), KajakSport (Finland), Tiderace (Portugal) and Shelta, NRS and Snap Dragon (USA), we've also spent much of the past six years developing or supporting kayaking products that are made here in Australia. 

These include the three kayaks we build, the Audax & Azure, our designs, projects which employed scores of people and businesses through the myriad stages of development, and more recently the Nadgee Solo (designed by Dave Winkworth). 

We have Keiran Babich's innovative Y-Rack system, Simon McGuire's kayakers tarp (developed in close consultation with Rob), Neil Tasker's precision made sails, and Greg Davis' years of experience and skill in bringing Rob's BigFoot and Skegfoot designs to fruition. 

Winky also makes us his 2 litre water bags, foam seat and hull saddle points, maybe not the slick commercially packaged finished item many are used to, but all forged in the heat of years of expedition paddling in remote places. 

We also support local businesses like Vaikobi and Sea to Summit, both Australian owned and run companies that have become international success stories. As the world appears to be going down the gurgler, we see exciting possibilities for niche Australian manufacturing in relation to paddling, kayaks and kayaking products. 

So we're not finished yet, with further developments to the Audax range well down the pipline, as well as a range of safety products utilising the expert craftsmen and women in our broad network of friends and colleagues. 

You can see the twenty-five plus locally manufactured products we stock through this LINK. Please consider these when you next eye up a similar product from overseas.