West Side Boat Shop Kayak News October 20, 2024 | The end of West Side Boat Shop kayaks?

Joey's video:

Our first video when this all originally happened with Joey Schott and Doug Bushnell:

Feel free to buy me a virtual coffee to say thanks for anything I've done that meant anything to you, if you are so inclined:

[shawneetree]

Thanks for the update. This is all understandable, just sad. I hate how hard it is to be small. You and Joey are very appreciated ❤

[skpinkfloyd]

I had Doug build me an EFT in 2004, and I raced it for three years. I have a LOT of trophies and medals, including National, from racing that boat! Doug spent tons of time with me talking strategy, training, and technique. I sold that EFT in 2007 to pursue an entirely different sport competitively. I have often wished I never sold it. Doug is one-of-a-kind, as are his boats designs. Paddle on Doug, Joey, and Dave! Dave, that was a monumental effort at attempting to keep WSBS alive - I applaud your efforts x100. So great to see Doug in your videos all these years later. A special period in my life recovering from some pretty terrible stuff - and kayak racing was a huge part of it. Peace and happy waves to everyone!

[SagaSeaCraft]

Ten or twelve years ago I would have jumped on this to help build performance kayaks, not knowing what I know now. The typical American has absolutely no interest in training and gaining skill enough for a performance kayak/surfski. Even when I lived on the OBX(NC) that has absolutely perfect kayaking conditions for every skill level, there were only a couple local paddlers that had any real paddling skill and ambition.
I designed (in CAD) and built my dream Greenland-hunting-style kayak prototype in 2011 using strip Divinicell structural foam and vacuum-bagged S-glass/CF/epoxy composites. It came out exactly as planned at 26 lbs, 19' length, 17.5" beam, 3/4" freeboard just aft of the cockpit, and 6" interior height under the front cockpit rim, with a hull bottom very similar to a Olympic K1.... an excellent rolling platform, extremely seaworthy and almost as fast as a surfski in rough water. I and an olympic paddler friend of mine tested the Raven in Hurricane Sandy (2012) in 50-70 mph winds on the Albemarle Sound OBX were I lived at the time. We were having the time of our lives out in the big conditions for two hours of play after leaving the safety of the harbor as the eye passed directly overhead. The Raven was like a duck, even beam-to the nasty seas. Nothing could touch her, hand rolling was almost as easy as you breathing right now.
I refer to it as my Ernannaq Raven ('winged harpoon' in Greenlandic) design. I took it up and down the eastern coast and demonstrated it at many different kayak events, had many well-known kayakers such as Dubside also demonstrate it, as well as many kayak instructors. But no-one wanted to purchase a copy. Any paddler that saw her was mesmerized by her good, svelt looks, but she was just too radical a design for most paddlers to fathom paddling her. Even though I had quite a few medium-skilled paddlers try it and they found it to be quite manageable for their skill levels. Their rolling and maneuvering abilities improved almost instantly. Yet, no-one wanted to order the boat.
You can see the Raven kayak (black) on my youtube page.
As one other ex-builder indicated, the paddling crowd are a different kind of people who mostly don't like to push themselves very hard and therefore can't see themselves in a performance-oriented boat. At least not in the USA. I think mid to Eastern European paddlers are different in that respect.
I do a lot of surfski (Epic V12) paddling still, but only take the Raven out to play when the water is cold and the waves are big.