Talk about your business

Located in mid-coast Maine on Damariscotta Estuary near Christmas Cove, Thrumcap Island, and Damariscove Island - the oldest year-around settlement in the U.S. Also near Pemaquid Settlement, credited as the first site for contact between Native Americans and Europeans. (What do you mean you haven't read about these facts in your history books? It tells you something about the history of marketing in the U.S. doesn't it? Or the marketing of history?)

Poseidon is a small, specialty retailer of sea kayaks that excels in matching paddlers with the correct kayak for their planned paddling needs. We offer free instruction, forever, with any kayak purchase. Instruction includes forward stroke to surfing in big waves at Popham Beach (where "Message in a Bottle" was filmed.) In the sequence where the heroine was running on the beach, Ken Fink was huddled down in dune grass to remain out of view during filming. No stranger to Hollywood, Ken had appeared 30 years earlier in the James Bond thriller "Thunderball".

Ken Fink pioneered many expeditions years before others tried them; including Labrador, Newfoundland, Iceland, Scotland, Queen Charlotte Islands, Polynesia, Lake Superior, among others. Ken also conceived and founded the first ever Sea Kayak Symposium in 1982 in Maine; symposiums are now a popular venue for educating paddlers and introducing them to various styles and aspects of kayaking, and are held all over the U.S.

What is the best thing about being a kayak retailer?

Best thing about being a sea kayak retailer is introducing new paddlers to the essentials of the sport and watching new recruits grow into the lifestyle.

How do you view the current state of the kayak industry? What trends do you see forming?

The current state of the kayak industry tells me we have somewhat lost our way recently. Traditionally, kayaking was about adventuring on the sea or wherever you had sufficient water. It involved skill, knowledge, experience and judgment. Over the last few years, the thrust of kayaking was appropriated by so-called manufacturers' representatives. Few were paddlers or had any experiential knowledge of sea kayaking so they promoted the selling of widgets; the widgets in this case being small, plastic, and above all, cheap "rec boats". When sea kayaking began in earnest in the mid to late 70s, almost everyone involved in the industry was a paddler him or herself. As sea kayaking grew in numbers, it attracted the attention of "big business" and mergers of more than one small manufacturer occurred. Run no longer by paddlers; instead by MBAs and accountants, sea kayaking lost its identity and instead concentrated on selling. Great designs were sacrificed or eliminated in favor of the next most easily-sold simplification of a boat. In the long run, we will recover from this and seaworthiness will once again rule among manufacturers' designs and additions to kayak models.

For trends, it is clear that fishing from a kayak is growing in popularity and well it should for many reasons. Another trend not yet recognized by more than 2 manufacturers is the desirability of short (17-19 feet) day-use doubles in lightweight constructions. Tandems are a much overlooked segment of the sea kayaking market and often sacrificed in lieu of the "independence" of a single. Anyone who has paddled for years soon appreciates the superior flexibility, safety, economy, and efficiency of 2 paddlers in one craft.

What do you hope to see in the future for our industry?

What I hope to see in our industry is a return to the education of paddlers in the subtleties and finer points of paddling on the sea or anywhere else we have water. No other segment of the sport of paddling has enjoyed the growth we have seen in kayak touring or sea kayaking over the last 30 years. Canoeing has actually diminished in popularity and whitewater kayaking languishes with only a few new entrants each year and those only briefly. Only kayak touring has the potential for new and vigorous growth.

How does Epic Kayaks fit into your store?

Epic kayaks fills the bill for a true multi-use kayak that is well-designed, manufactured with care and thought for the user, and provides the ultimate in satisfaction after the purchase. We have kayaks from other manufacturers that in the past would have appealed to many paddlers but now sit in our inventory. When potential customers arrive, compare the models available, and then lift the various boats for weight followed by paddling the boats in a true on-water, real conditions trial, it becomes only a matter of choosing the price point appropriate for his/her use.

How do you view Epic’s place in the industry?

Epic is designing and manufacturing kayaks, not according to a widget seller's marketing plan, but adhering to what a casual or serious paddler will want to realize in a craft that is used on the sea, lake, or river. We have waited for a long time for such boats to be designed and available. Epic is poised to become the preeminent provider and industry leader for performance kayaks for paddling on all bodies of water.

Contact info for Ken Fink and Poseidon Kayak Imports