Apex Watercraft Owner/Investor Summit, a Huge Success

The past three days has been a whirlwind of activity in Rock Island, Tennessee, home of Apex Watercraft and the Jacksons.   

 

We just received a new container of our carbon fiber boats from Nelo on Tuesday and Joe Ball spent the week preparing the factory, while Kristine and I got the house ready for hosting 25 people from around the USA.   Some goals were to have a good time paddling, socializing, and learning more about Apex, but it was mostly about getting to know our customers and investors more intimately and personally.   For those arriving to pick up their new boats, we would provide a custom outfitting experience, with Joe Ball and EJ on duty.    They would get to paddle their boats, and then if needed, we could tweak anything not perfect.   The cooler was loaded with iced down beverages and the factory became a place of new friendships, learning, and a clinic on outfitting, boat repair, kayak design and more.    Each day we broke at 3pm to go paddle.    We had 1 generator on Thursday and Friday, which was perfect for breaking in your new boat, surfing, and a low stress cool down by the falls.    Mid 80’s temps, sunny weather is no match for Twin Falls and the cool water and spray.   Natural air conditioning and unmatched scenery make hours at the river feel like never quite enough on a hot summer day.

 

I watched Cheryl have a surfing breakthrough day, becoming unafraid of the “diagonal wave” for the first time and fired up at her new confidence.    While she couldn’t say for the three days, that one session seemed to do the trick.  She signed up for my October playboating clinic on the spot, and will learn to use her Rebound for what it was designed for.   Awesome, this is a large part of what my life has been dedicated to for decades- facilitating breakthroughs for paddlers of all skill levels.   Geoff Branco was also one of the first to arrive and one of our early investors and a new Apex Owner in 2025.   I had never hung out with him before and he was clearly a “mother duck” that would be helping me as an expert paddler, and very in tune with the needs of others.    It was pretty cool and he helped make sure everyone had the attention they needed.

We went to our local Mexican restaurant that night.   Michael Hood, who is more deaf than I am and one of Apex first investors came for the duration.    Steven O’Bryan, from Texas, our token fishing kayak owner and investor was also there.    How I met Steven is worth telling.     In 2019 I was fishing a Kayak Bass Fishing Tournament on Lake Caddo and arrived at midnight at the motel by the boat ramp in Uncertain, Texas.    It seemed that I just fell asleep and suddenly I was woken by two women pulling me out of bed.   I was startled and confused and the only thing I could think of in my dazed condition was that I was in the wrong room.    The yelled, “Fire!” And pulled me out of the door.    I saw that the motel was REALLY on fire and ran back in to get my stuff as it was 2 rooms down from mine.    There were lots of locals showing up to see what was going on and there were loud “booms” as propane tanks were exploded out back.  The volunteer fire department showed up and we had about 20 of us watching the fire, staying out of the way.    Soon, we had coolers of beer, and it became a social scene, drinking beer and watching the action.    One of the locals was Steven O’Bryan.    This is a hard core fishing town (their slogan is “A quaint drinking town with a fishing problem”).    We spent the entire night watching the fireman in action, as the motel burnt to the ground.   They would not let us near to help, so we simply made the best of what was going on and created some new friendships.   When the dawn started appearing and the little breakfast place behind us turned on its “open” sign at 5am, I put my last beer down and walked over and ordered a coffee and biscuits and gravy, and spend the day training on the lake.   What a night.    After I started Apex, Steven contacted me and asked if he could be an investor, three years later, he arrived at my house for our first face to face meeting since, and our first time fishing together.   

At 5:45am Friday we woke and loaded for the river with the goal of having Steven catch his first ever smallmouth bass.    Michael joined to watch and we did a 4 hour paddle/fish catching about 15 fish each, but no smallmouth for Steven.    At 10am Joe Ball picked us up and we went to the factory and there were people waiting for us.  Tom Hehnen was working with one customer and we had several folks oogling over their new boats, waiting to get then outfitted.    The new couple of hours was about getting everyone organized and ready to go for today’s paddle.   Geofrey wanted to learn to repair boats and we put a couple of patches on his boat that he took down the Yampa’s 74 miles of Low water action this year.    I advised him that if it were my boat, I wouldn’t patch it as the hairline cracks were not structural, didn’t leak, and were almost impossible to see.    I think he wanted to repair for the experience more than anything.    The patches look great.   Black on black, you almost can’t see them.     It was a hot sun and the resin cured quickly and he had it on the water 90 minutes after patching it.   Sweet!

We thought about going to the Foglight that night but it was too busy for a group of 15.    Kristine made a couple of pots of chili instead and I had a keg of Fat Tire and we we had house party #1.    Such a great environment to mill around and get to know everyone better.   Much better than a restaurant sitting only next to a couple of people.    

Saturday was a bit more of madness.    Our 6am fishing expedition was very successful with Steven getting his first smallmouth and it was an 18.5” one, under the falls, perfect!  His trip was complete already!    Running the rapids in his Tyr was also enough to get his heart rate up and give him an adrenaline fix.    While it was class 1+, he was carrying expensive gear and flipping could be a “thing”.    He handled it like a champ, however, and had the best of both worlds.  

The factory was now hopping as Saturday was the “Big day” with a planned BBQ at the Jackson Ranch (my home) and we had about 25 people there.    Investors from around the USA, including Steven Smith, who I raced slalom with in the 90’s and has a campground on the Ocoee (Smith Mountain Campground),  Geofrey from DC, Steven from Texas, Louis from Corpus Christy Texas,  Michael from Ohio, Dave from Cookeville, TN (president of TSRA whitewater club),  and Tommy from Georgia.    Each of the Apex investors has a great story of their own, but the common thread, from what they tell me, is that they want to see me, personally, and my vision of Apex succeed and believe in me and what I am doing.    It is such a good feeling to have the support and confidence of those who have their hard earned money in my care for the purpose of bringing the Apex Watercraft mission to its fruition.  To them, I say, Thank you!    Then there are those who have traded their hard earned money for one or more of our lightweight carbon fiber kayaks.    They, too, of course, are key to our long term success, not only from the cash for the boats, but for their endorsement and spreading the knowledge and benefits of owning a kayak that is 1/2 of the weight of their plastic boats.    One couple, Jeff and Jamie, purchased two more kayaks yesterday.   This brings their Apex fleet to 7 boats.    They have an awesome background story that I captured on video that is worth telling here.    Jeff, who is 5’11” is the lead ER Doctor at his local hospital in Columbus, GA.    Jamie is an ER Nurse and 5’1”.     One year ago, Jeff weighed 242 pounds and Jamie weighed 200.   Today Jeff weighs 185 and Jamie 105.    In 1 year they lost a combined 180 pounds.   Their motivation?   1. They just decided to be healthy.  2. They took up kayaking and wanted to be able to kayak well and paddling every day become a part of their lives, their marriage, and they are now setting an example for anyone who is around them on what is possible and what the benefits are.      I am fired up to announce that they are also the owners of more Apex boats than anyone else in the world.    They love Apex and I am very grateful for that!

After wrapping up the outfitting at the factory, which finished with Ashley Dean’s boat (clinic customer/Apex owner/musician) we hit the river.    Today the generators are not running.    That doesn’t bother us as we will attain up the river from the boat ramp, hike around Brave Wave Rapid, and practice attainments from the main hole up to the dam.   In good form, I was the only one to make it all of the way up.  I say that because it shows that there are challenges worth your time even at zero generators.    In my Ringer I can make it up in one try, but there are 3 spots that are a challenge of skill, as much as speed.    I could teach a lot to people here with no water.    (No water means 160 cfs).   

On the way down we scouted (well, except for Chery who rallied it blind??!!), Brave Wave Rapid and about 6 of us ran it while the rest walked it.    A final strokes class at the end, a few rolling mini-clinics (like Debbie from Boulder, CO, who rocked it- she also owns 10 Jackson Kayaks, so has been a customer of mine for 20 years.). 

At my house my job was mostly to burn burgers until I got the temp right, but I served the beer perfectly.    We finished the keg at 11:45pm, and had live music compliments of Tommy Joyce’s son Thomas, and the final “encore” to close down the party was a jam by Ashley Dean.    There were folks spread around the property camping cars and tents, while others were at the Happy Yakker, Rock Island State park, etc..  

Now, I am in the passenger seat, while Kristine drives as we make our way to NYC for Jessie Stone’s kid’s camp that starts in the morning.   We are about 400 miles into an 850 mile drive today.   

Thank you to those who made the journey as Apex owners and investors.   But I don’t want to forget those who couldn’t make it.   You are equally important to me!  Thank you too!    I appreciate each of you spreading the word about how awesome our boats are, and letting others try out yours!   I hope you join me in a clinic at Rock Island, or will be able to make next year’s Apex Owner/Investor Summit!

🙂

EJ