Since my first child was born 19 years ago, getting kids into paddling and designing kayaks for that purpose has been a real passion for me.
I believe that the vast majority of kids should start out paddling with sit-on-tops. As a result, I designed two kids sit-on-tops in the past. The first was the Fluid Vaya, back in 2005. The second was the Vagabond Kwando in 2018. My kids grew up paddling the Vaya first, and later switched to the Kwando when I started manufacturing that. These two models have been instrumental in teaching them paddling skills and nurturing a love for paddling and the outdoors. At the same time, the hands-on experience and feedback that I received from them, as well as other kids who used the same, helped me to come up with the ultimate kids design.
Now I bring to you the Piper. Based on what I’ve done before, but more refined and with past glitches fixed. I foresee the Piper becoming the go-to kayak for parents with young children.
Check out lekkerkayaks.com/piper for more info. First ones will be available in SA from Nov 2024, and in the USA from early 2025. Let me know if you want to preorder one!
Here is my first new release, which marks the start of my range of touring kayaks.
The Osprey is a 430cm/14′ touring kayak, with as much high performance as you can pack into such a compact design. It is super stable and very maneuverable, and still pretty fast. With a longer-than-standard cockpit, it also handles bigger guys well.
Head over to www.lekkerkayaks.com/osprey for more info. First ones will be available in SA from Nov 2024, and in the USA from early 2025. Let me know if you want to preorder one!
After a 5 year hiatus, I’m finally getting back to writing on my blog. My life went through major turmoil after Covid: two relocations, business partner troubles, factory problems, losing what I’ve built up and generally a crushing of dreams. It’s been a rough ride.
Two years ago I said “never again”. I thought creating two kayak brands, Fluid Kayaks and Vagabond Kayaks, was enough. I kept myself busy with CAD design work for multiple international brands, designing everything from whitewater to touring to fishing to surfski to recreational kayaks for clients all over the globe, as well as some other industrial parts and fittings. At the same time I grew my paddle brand, CEKR, with no intention to create a new kayak brand again.
Yet, time heals wounds. My head keeps spinning with new ideas for kayaks; some completely novel concepts, some building on designs I’ve done in the past. Paddlers keep bugging me for new designs, while giving me feedback on what they currently use. Commercial operators keep asking me what’s next, they need something better. Dealers ask when I’ll have something they can sell again.
All this built momentum until it reached a point where it would be harder not to create a new brand. It appears I have more to offer to the world of paddling.
So here we go. Lekker Kayaks is live! It is still a somewhat bare-bones website, but it will continue to grow and get more refined as I have a lot of new content to work with.
This time around I’m doing things differently. Firstly, I’m not setting up a factory again. I’ve been doing projects with suppliers over the past two years that I’ve gotten to trust, and I have full confidence that they can manufacture to the quality that I expect. That leaves me free to focus on what I enjoy most: R&D.
Secondly, the range will be more diverse than what I’ve done before. With Fluid, my main focus was on whitewater kayaks that were distributed all over the world, with some recreational sit-on-tops thrown in (which turned out to be the best selling sit-on-tops in South Africa, my local market). With Vagabond, the main focus was on high performance recreational sit-on-tops, with a bit of whitewater. Now, with Lekker, I’m doing quite a different mix. Don’t want to let the cat out of the bag prematurely, but expect to see some interesting models being released over the next few months. It’s certainly my best work to date!
