Paddleboard manufacturer riding wave back to Salida
BOARD » 11A
Colorado’s original stand-up paddleboard company — Badfish SUP — is returning to its roots in Salida. Badfish, one of the first companies in the U.S. to design high-end boards for downriver paddling and whitewater river surfing, is not renewing its six-year partnership with Southern California’s Boardworks Surf. That means all Badfish operations are returning to Salida, where the company pretty much created the sport of downriver stand-up paddling in the Arkansas River.
Call it “a re-independenting,” Badfish co-founder Mike Harvey said.
Bringing everything back in-house will allow Badfish to react more quickly to the demands of paddlers and surfers and build stronger relationships with the company’s top retailers like Durango’s 4Corners Riversports and Denver’s Confluence Kayaks, Harvey said.
“Product development through a licensing partner was slow. They were making decisions on our brand based on how our products would impact sales of other things they were selling,” said Harvey, who also manages the development and construction of whitewater parks for Boulder’s Recreational Engineering and Planning. “For us to be able to really make the products that we know hit the bullseye for our customers, we needed the autonomy to make those decisions.”
Harvey and fellow co-founder Zack
Hughes birthed Badfish a decade ago in a garage in Salida. Shaping boards that could be paddled through whitewater and surfed on standing waves, the duo helped forge the now ubiquitous sport of downriver stand-up paddling, or river SUP.
Focusing on popular inflatable boards, which can be shipped in small containers versus bulky boxes for rigid boards, Badfish “will be banking on the broader market, while still staying relevant in our niche,” said Harvey, whose boards run $800 to $1,150.
Stand-up paddling is one of the fastest growing segments of the paddlesport market, with inflatable boards leading the charge. Analysts last year projected the global stand-up paddleboard market would grow more than 15 percent a year through 2020.
Badfish, with its focus on whitewater boards — which, of course, can be paddled in flatwater — is focusing on a niche within the stand-up paddleboard market. And the company is aiming to establish Salida as the epicenter of river SUP. It’s not all downhill, though, with the paddleboard market — especially the inflatable portion — saturated with cheap, nonbrand crafts that are not well constructed. For example, a non-descript inflatable board is available with a paddle at Costco for less than $400, while a built-forwhitewater Badfish board is at least twice that.
“SUP is becoming a massmarket commodity with all your big players in the space now. We are not real- ly competing with companies that make products like ours — which are driven by design for a very focused use — as much as those $400 boards made for general use,” Harvey said. “We have a pretty authentic brand message and we have real users and real paddlers behind the brand. We are hoping that helps us.”
Four years after founding Badfish, Harvey and Hughes inked a deal with Boardworks, joining the California surf company as it branched from ocean boards into river-running SUP boards. That deal had Boardworks handling operations, production in China, warehousing and fulfillment while Harvey and Hughes handled marketing, branding and research and development on new board designs.
Now the pair have brought in river SUP superstar Luke Hopkins as a partner to help handle the extra workload. Badfish will have a renewed focus on inflatable board designs, downriver sup boards and the increasingly popular river surfboards that allow surfers to carve river waves without a paddle.
Whitewater parks like the new River Run Park on the South Platte in Englewood are built by companies like Harvey’s REP and other Colorado whitewater park builders like Lyons’ S2O Design and McLaughlin Whitewater Design Group to cater to the growing demand for river surfing. Badfish’s latest offering is a blunt-nosed inflatable river surfboard — the I-SK8 — that fits in a backpack and can surf the country’s growing collection of riverpark waves.
When parks open, Badfish sees a spike in demand for its surfboards from residents near the new wave. Harvey just helped build a surf-wave whitewater park in Dayton, Ohio.
“And we are selling boards now in Dayton, Ohio. We are going to continue to be the cutting edge in river surfing,” said Harvey, whose 15-year-old son Miles is considered one of the best whitewater standup paddlers in the world.
Badfish is partnering with Colorado Kayak Supply, the West’s largest online whitewater sports retailer, for warehousing and fulfillment out of Colorado Kayak Supply’s Salidabased campus.
As Badfish settles into the nuts-and-bolts of its new gig, new employees will be joining the effort. How many, Harvey isn’t sure, but he said “we’re ready to have a bigger impact and contribute more to the economy of our hometown.”
“Businesses like this are an important part of our economy,” said Michael Varnum, the head of the Salida Chamber of Commerce, who hopes outdoor companies like Badfish growing in Salida will lure more recreation-type businesses. “We appreciate everything Mike Harvey has done with our whitewater river park and Salida. Thousands of visitors and locals enjoy SUPing, rafting, kayaking, fishing and tubing through downtown Salida because of him.”