We spent the last few days up in Old Town Maine listening and scrutinizing Johnson Outdoors' approach to Lendal Paddles. Nigel Dennis, Fiona Whitehead, Nick Dyslin and I were invited in for two days last Fall. This time Neil Baxter, formerly a designer at Lendal, came up. Nick and I met to see Johnson's progress, along with the bigger Lendal management team. As we found last Fall, Lendal’s production side of things is first rate. The paddles are appreciably more true to Alistair’s designs, are extremely solid, reliable and repeatable. Availability has already exceeded production in Scotland so finally we should all have better availability here very soon.
All classic blades remain, and the Kinetic family has a new smaller blade for higher reps or smaller frames and larger version (for the Fiona types). The Paddlok remains the brilliant, functional, multi-useful feature of the line. Nigel Dennis is about to come out with a forward paddling video and a series of workshops on this dominant stroke. .
While there Neil Baxter was able to redesign a proposed smaller Kinetic Touring blade on the CAD, and we were able to computer cut out the blade, see it and feel it all on the same day. This is truly fantastic.
When not working we all wandered into the existing wood department where canoes have been made on the same machines, with the same plugs and templates for generations. This year is Old Town’s 110th anniversary. The factory has many repair projects awaiting the old timers who still do it all the same right way. We should be appreciative that Johnson has the resources to protect and keep this Maine wooden canoe tradition alive.
Tom Bergh
