Apex Watercraft- 2023- A Year in Review

Our goal is to enhance and extend your paddling careers through lightweight, high performance kayaks.   This year was the first year where we had boats in stock to do that for quite a few paddlers.   One person at a time is discovering what a boat that is 1/2 of the weight of a plastic boat can do for them.  

I spent a lot of time in Portugal working with the incredible people at Nelo to get all of the details sorted out.    There is a lot involved in this process if you want to do it right.   The construction, aesthetics, outfitting, boat bags, repair kits, etc.   Sergio in lamination is somebody who really does an amazing job in getting the boats to where they need to be.   There are several people on the trimming and prep of the boat, cockpit rims, and then assembly that are incredibly skilled and hard working and really make a difference in the quality and appearance of the boats.   Every boat is buffed out in the end and pristine.     Gomes and his team in the sewing shop make each boat bag one at a time and they are form fitted for each model.   Nunu “Surf” created our custom boxes for each boat and the packaging that cradles them inside the boxes to assure that we can receive the boats and ship them to paddlers anywhere in the world without damage.    Overseeing the entire thing is Andre’ who manages the factory, and Nelo himself who has such an extremely high expectation of quality in everything his factory does. 

Some of the steps that people wouldn’t think are huge factors, but are start at the very beginning.   

Mold preparation.    You can’t make a perfect boat out of an imperfect mold.   The downside of expecting a perfect mold is that it takes a long time and only the most skilled and experienced person can do that job.  This is why after a year we only have 5 molds done.    We have 2 more being done for spring (small Ringer and Large Rebound), but they still have hundreds of hours of work left on them.   

Cutting materials- and laying into the mold.   Scissors are easy, right?   Yes, anyone can hack up some material and lay it in the mold, but cutting cleanly, which includes the foam core, and laying in nearly perfect is really difficult to do well.   Done very well, the fibers are all aligned, there are no loose “hairs”, no pockets of resin due to poorly fitting foam, etc..  

Resin- the girl who mixes the resin does it at the right time and with the right amount and the laminators pick up the resin the moment the boat is ready for it.   This requires enough volume of work to have a full time resin mixer.   

Bagging, cooking in the oven.     The laminators vacuum bag the whitewater boats after doing a wet layup, versus infusion.  The wet layup allows us to use foam core and reduce the weight over an infusion kayak by about 2 pounds.    The fishing kayak is 7 pounds lighter for this reason and the fact that we lay it up in two separate laminating periods.   We literally lay up the deck once, with infusion and carbon only.   Then we glue the thick foam standing pads and there reinforcements on the inside of the deck, and then we laminate over that and bag it as second time.   This is why it is $11,000, but it is also why it is so lightweight and strong.     The ovens are pretty cool with swinging doors that you can run the boats into with one person, like in a hospital with a bed.   The boats all cook in the ovens at the perfect temperature for the right amount of time before being pulled from the molds.   

Cutting and Trimming-  This is a step that is ripe for messing up a perfectly good part.   It is about skill, the right equipment, and taking your time, if you want to do a GREAT job time and time again.   Cockpit rims are 100% cut by hand, grinded down by hand, and cleaned up by hand.   A smooth curve and straight lines where they should be straight and baby smooth edges all around also is a work of art.   Inside the gluing and laminating the rims on the boats is another area of challenge and potential for rough edges, leaks, or weak spots.   We don’t have those. 

Grab handles- feel inside of an Apex and you’ll feel a smooth nice area where the grab handles are carbon fibered into the boat from the inside.  No rough edges.    The outside edges are near perfect in the lines and application, but there is always an overlap area that can’t be avoided, but it is subtle. 

While plastic boat seats are thermo formed plastic and then foam covers are molded and attached, our seat is solid foam and much lighter weight, much more contour/bucket, and more comfortable.    In order to do this they have to be CNC Machined one at a time at a pace of about 4 hours/seat.    This is a lot of machine time.   The same is true for the hip pads.   The benefits are more contour, more control, more comfortable, and lighter weight. 

Creating instruction on how to use my new outfitting designs and components for a custom fit is a challenge as people have lost that skill over the past 16 years of ready to paddle generic outfitting.  Sure-Form?  Sand paper?  Contact Cement?   These are important tools for putting my boats together properly.    

Sorry I got off on a tangent on what goes into the making of each individual Apex kayak.   Back to the rest of the year.

In March, I got to use my production Apex Rebound to compete in and make the USA Freestyle Kayak team again for the World Championships on “Goodwave” in Columbus, GA.   Making that team was such a great feeling.     I love competing in any World Championships, but a wave event is awesome.  A wave event in the USA- epic!  It has been 10 years since the World Championships were in the USA.

In the spring I also got to compete in the World Kayak Fishing Championships. So many epic fishermen on our team!   I was lucky to be on the Gold Medal Winning team and fished out of my Apex Tyr.

When Summer hit, it was mostly training for the World Championships, going to Portugal, and working hard on my projects.   However, I got in some good training for the Kayak Bass Fishing Challenge Series Championships on Lake Guntersville, which was only 2 hours from my house, and 4 hours from Columbus, GA where I was training for freestyle kayaking.  I also competed in the National Slalom Championships and paddled pretty well.     I took second to Scott Shipley in the Master’s class.   I also went to the Ottawa River and met up with some awesome kayaker students of mine and we had 6 days of epic kayaking together, which includes Speedo Thursday, of course.

 

I got in very good shape, down to 155, my “fighting weight” as I call it, and also was paddling very well.     People started to pay attention to my Apex Rebound and Onni from Finland, Gael from France, Chloe from USA, Hunter Katich (former Junior World Champion),and Hitomi (former world women’s champion) from Japan all decided to compete in the new Apex Rebound.   This was a big deal.   In my first world championships where I had production Jackson Kayak freestyle boats, I only had three people competing in them.   Having Five this time was epic.    I messed up pretty badly in prelims and flushed on all three rides.   It was embarrassing as I got 21st and missed the quarter final cut by 1 place.  I had the rides that could make finals, and potentially medal if I paddled well.   I have a great record for doing well in the worlds, second best one now that Dane is now the 5 time world champion, to my 4.    Training for, and competing in the event, was reward enough, however, to keep me eternally motivated. 

The weekend after the World Championships was the KBF Championships on Guntersville.   It was a two day combined tournament.   Day 1 I struggled at the location I was hoping to do well at and moved, but didn’t upgrade and ended up 17th that day.   I moved on Day 2 and crushed it taking the top spot that day and best day of either days, and moved up from 17th to 3rd.   I was pretty fired up, but also pretty tired as I had a lot of hard paddling to get where I fished.   No electric motor or pedal drive could get there.  Not possible.   It was 1” of water in many places and less than 6” of water most of the places for a couple of miles of paddling.   The fishing was so fun on day 2.   I lost three key fish (that would have been for the win).  Day 1 I lost 2 fish over 18” in the first 30 minutes, both came off when I was boat flipping them.   Day 2 I had a 19” fish on the board getting a photo and it jumped off early.    Still, epic times, hard work, and fun fun fun. 

 

One thing we had going for us in 2023 that we never had before is Joe Ball.   Joe is a whitewater kayaker who lives in Columbus.  Retired Special forces Ranger dude, turned whitewater kayaker, helping me in customer service.   He is super smart, hard working, and creative.    He is so awesome for Apex and I love working with him.   We are lucky to have him!

We have also been funding our product development and inventory with kayakers investing in Apex.    So far 100% of the capital we have raised, other than the loan from the local bank to start up, has come from kayakers or kayak fishermen.   This is awesome.    We can borrow for a container of finished product, or have offered convertible notes for those who might want to invest and own some of the business.     What a great group of people.

We are now into the winter, and about to hit the 2024 Season.     I am pretty fired up!   We have a container of kayaks sailing from NY to GA as I type this and they will be in Rock Island on January 2nd!  Small Rebounds, Large Ringers, and some Tyrs!   Awesome!   Some are pre-sold, but most are ready for you this winter/spring if you want one. 

Christmas is here in a couple of days.   I have family here and feel very good having everyone around.  Emily, Nick, my grandkids Tucker and Parker in one house.   Dane and his fiance’, Chloe,  in the RV at the bottom of our hill.   Kristine’s brother Scott and wife Patty were here today for lunch.   Kristine’s Niece Tiffany, husband Nick (I officiated their wedding) and son “Fox” are here through Christmas, super fun.   Leif and Donita, who I have worked with since Leif was 22 years old back at Wavesport molding EZ’s for me, and came to work for me at JK in 2009 and is still in charge of molding came for dinner last night.     It is always good to remember where you came from and where you are going, but more importantly, remember who has been and is a part of your life and connect when you can.   Relationships are the only true wealth one can count on for happiness, and ultimately should be considered the most valuable asset you can put on your balance sheet.    Doing wrong by friends or anyone to gain monetary wealth is always wrong, and doing right by others, even if it means sacrificing monetary gain for yourself, is always the right thing and is rewarded in a character that brings good friends for life (most valuable assets).

Tomorrow I go golfing with Dane, it will be our 5th time in 2023, and each time is super fun and special.  We disc golf almost daily, here at the house.   There is a 21 hole course in my yard right now and some sweet holes.   We complete the 21 holes, together in 28 minutes.   Solo, I complete it in about 16 minutes if I am really hustling.    Normal golf, we do in 2.5 hours if it isn’t crowded, taking our time.     We shoot from a 90-110 depending on how hard it is and how we play.   Nothing special.  Disc golf is -3 to -10- we are much better at that.

I am planning on a trip to Florida to sell my fishing kayaks in January.    Where should I go first? I will have 3 new boats and 2 that are “scratch and dents” and don’t want to return with any of them.    I may have to catch a fish or two in the process.  

OK- back to dinner.  BLT’s by Kristine for dinner.   Who can argue with that?   We had a HUGE lunch. 

Meanwhile- I need to give a big thank you to Kristine, the rock in my life, my wife, and best friend.  She is awesome.   All of my kids are amazing.   So many friends that make life special, thank you!  Everyone that I work with, are friends more than co-workers, and make every day a fun adventure, thank you!

Here is my Highlight reel for 2023 with some of these subjects in there…

here is a Photo Essay-

 

🙂

EJ