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For the record, I do not now, nor have I ever worked for any equipment manufacturing, wholesaling or retailing company. I am just another boater who has sung the praises of Cataract oars. I see on this site that I am in the majority on this issue. In turn, I am not too shy or reserved to publicly speak disparagingly of a product that does not offer the best choice to consumers. That is what conversation is all about.
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Originally Posted by Andy H.
And I have to wonder about what kind of agenda someone has when they log onto the Buzz for the first time and proceed to make their first posts disparaging of one brand of oar and sounding like Cataract Oar advertisements. Indeed a couple of your posts (I deleted one of the duplicates) used identical text, bold fonts, and emoticons.
Danny's been a member of this online community for a long time and has added a lot of good dialog - and to his credit I don't think I've ever seen him bashing his competition's products.
Hey since you are the Johnson Outdoors Rep why the hell cant we get our hands on the Lendal four piece paddles. It sucks when Walmart (i.e. Johnson) buys out good products and then doesn't have the courtesy to continue building them. It would suck to see Johnson destroy another good brand.
I only have one dealer in this territory which encompasses four states that has requested these parts and I am working on getting some for him. The rest of my dealer base as well as most of the dealers out there simply have not gotten the requests to stock these parts. As well as I have a few dealers that have in the past installed them and they were not satisfied with the installation, as it is installed at the factory with a pneumatic machine.
Yes, their are quite a few people on this site and out in the world that do not like the Carlisle product and that is fine, our product was designed with the commercial outfitters in mind so it is a heavy stiff oar. Sawyer makes a fantastic product as well as the other brands out there and I understand completely why a private rafter would lean towards those products.
Johnson Outdoors is a big corporation just like all other corporations when they purchase a smaller company that smaller company will never be same, and there is always a reason why that smaller company sells. It wasn't because that big company just came in and took it, it is usually because that smaller company is struggling so they sell it to a larger corporation. In doing this the larger company examines the new companies business practices and will make changes as they see fit.
It is an unfortunate part of corporate America, I can site examples within my company as well as the competition.
Rando,
Yes, it has been frustrating trying to get the 4-piece shafts form Lendal, the reason is, we moved production from Scotland to the US when we acquired that company. In doing so we have been building the shafts and then sending them back to Scotland for them to be inspected by the old factory to make sure that we have up held their high standards.
So it took a little bit to get the production set up to their standards and then we were back ordered and it is a timely process to produce these things so we have been behind for a while.
I have been told we will be fully stocked with product by mid may which is right around the corner.
I think you meant "Danny" - I'm just a regular private rafter who rows with Sawyers on my main boat (see my profile photo) and who got Cataracts for the raft I share with another boater. I personally don't plan to get Carlisles because, like Danny said, they're "designed with the commercial outfitters in mind so it is a heavy stiff oar. Sawyer makes a fantastic product as well as the other brands out there "
That said, I'd love to pick up some used outfitter Carlisle raft paddles because they're sturdy and coated with plastic so my friends won't get aluminum oxide all over their hands.
-AH
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Nothing in the world is more yielding and gentle than water. Yet it has no equal for conquering the resistant and tough. The flexible can overcome the unbending; the soft can overcome the hard. - Lao Tse
Buy Carlisle paddles as a private boater? Those things will be all over the place after this summers runoff. (If your one of the guys that actually returns them, thanks!)
Danny-
Have you inflated the Stinger yet? I'm almost done at A-Basin, time to play!
so, I thought that most everyone used carlisle blades with cataract shafts. anyway, it does kinda suck that carlise is owned by johnson outdoors, stupid corporate world we live in. we as paddlers should be able to make quality gear and sell it ourselves. that is why cataract is a better company, because they didn't sell out to the man. It really sucks that our industry standard comes from a bunch of butt wipes in their corporate offices.
I want to stay out of the online fray, but Down River Equipment does have some of the Carlisle handles still around. 10 or so years ago, we made our own oars and used Carlisle handles. We have some handles left over from that process. We do not replace handles or have any advice on replacing handles.
The only other comment I have on this issue is some people may not like that Johnson Outdoors because it is a big corporation and that is fine. We can all choose to support whichever companies we want. Big corporations have their pros and cons, but please if you are going to try and influence people’s decisions HAVE THE APPROPRIATE AND CORRECT INFORMATION. One thing that is undisputed is Danny is a great person and an asset to the paddling community.
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