Kayak manufacturer rides out export market’s rough rapids
For the past two decades Charles Sage has ridden the ups and downs of kayak manufacturing as the New Zealand dollar has inexorably gained in value against the United States greenback.
To borrow his favourite expression, it has been a ‘‘gnarly’’ ride as the Kiwi dollar has increased in value from 45 cents to the United States dollar since he began his manufacturing business in an old woolshed by the banks of the Rangitikei River.
The kayaking legend said his company Bliss-Stick used to manufacture ‘‘thousands’’ of freestyle kayaks for export but the appreciation of the dollar had forced him to reassess the business.
‘‘To be a manufacturer in New Zealand is practically impossible. Once 90 per cent of our market was export, now 90 per cent is domestic,’’ he says.
At one stage he employed 12 people to build the kayaks, as well as others who marketed and distributed them.
From those giddy heights, BlissStick has largely reverted to a one- man band – a change that Sage welcomes.
‘‘We don’t employ anyone any more. The business has become a lifestyle again. Beforehand we might as well have been a factory in China,’’ Sage says.
Now in his 50s, Sage has been based in the Rangitikei region all his life. His parents Brian and Robin owned a 1000 hectare sheep and beef farm until they sold it and launched a whitewater rafting and lodge enterprise in 1982 called River Valley.
For Sage junior the Rangitikei River was the playground of his youth. By the time he was 16 he was a fulltime rafting guide, at a period when there were eight rafting companies. All but the original, River Valley, have disappeared.
The first kayakers turned up about then to play on the river’s class 4-5 rapids.
‘‘They used big long fibreglass kayaks, relying on courage rather than technique – carnage was an early art form,’’ Sage recalls of those pioneering days.
The turning point came when Sage met a US kayaker and photographer whose job was to kayak alongside rafting trips and take action photos. The US had taken the lead in kayak design
‘‘ We don’t employ anyone any more. The business has become a lifestyle again. Beforehand we might as well have been a factory in China.’’ Charles Sage
with nimble and durable plastic craft.
‘‘He took me on an intense kayak tour of the South Island and at the end I bought his kayak off him and set myself up as a kayaking photographer. You had to be pretty hard-assed – I became pretty accomplished,’’ Sage says.
So accomplished that he soon became a world champion freestyle kayaker.
Before that occurred however, Sage had to overcome a problem holding New Zealand kayakers back. The craft they used came from the US but were the previous year’s design, so when New Zealanders competed in world championships, they were disadvantaged.
That prompted Sage to design his own kayaks. They took the kayaking world by storm in 1999 when the first three places were taken at the lead up to the international freestyle championships, held on the Waikato River’s Full James rapids.
‘‘And so began the trials and tribulations of manufacturing kayaks in New Zealand. I had the brainwave to come up with the name Bliss-Stick. At first we used a variety of manufacturers with differing degrees of success and failure, but it became inevitable that we would have to set up our own plant,’’ says Sage.
Even though the company had the advantage of a low value Kiwi dollar, costs of manufacturing were much higher than in the US. Nevertheless, in the niche world of high-performance kayaking, the New Zealand product beat the Americans on quality.
Finally though, the decision had to be made to stop manufacturing in large volumes in the woolshed as the dollar increased in value and exporting became prohibitive. Fortunately, Sage’s design skills are in high demand and the world of kayak design is continually evolving.
‘‘Now the emphasis has changed from freestyle to creek boating. Kayakers try to race down the gnarliest rivers as fast as they can, in kayaks which are longer and more buoyant. The pinnacle of our design now is our creek boats,’’ Sage says.
His own days as a thrillseeker are over following a car accident a decade ago in which he broke his neck, leading to a loss of strength. ‘‘I could no longer keep up with the boys,’’ he says.
But life has turned full circle now he has reunited with his original business partner Kenny Mutton on the design of a kayak called Tuna which is being manufactured in the Czech Republic.
It had been a difficult split when the two went their separate ways – ‘‘when you kayak down dangerous rivers it’s like being in the war, you depend on your partner to save your life.’’
Keen kayakers now come from around the world to Bliss-Stick’s headquarters where they can help create their own bespoke craft.
‘‘That’s their bit of Kiwiana they can take back home. They get a real emotional buzz out of seeing it come out of the mould,’’ he says.