What’s New at Umingmaq June ’22

It’s been a while since I wrote a new blog or was very active on Social Media. There’s a lot to talk about with the shop, but I’ve been so busy, the promotional part of the business has not been a priority. Thanks to all of our fantastic customers telling all of their paddler friends about the great gear (and service) they got from us; word of mouth has been our best promotion. Thank you!

There are some exciting things going on here at Umingmaq, so I thought I’d do a quick blog post to call out some of the highlights.

Tiderace Sea Kayaks Restock*:

* We also have another Tiderace Sea Kayak container coming in August of 2022, so order your dream boat today!

Just this week we took delivery of 10 new Tiderace boats. Three of which were already spoken for and one of which has already sold to a customer who came and demoed on Friday morning, but we, again, have a good selection of Tiderace Sea Kayaks. Here is a list of the new kayaks.

• Xceed S (Light Grey Hull/Neon Yellow Deck Stripe and neon yellow keel strip in Hardcore layup)
• Xceed (White Hull/Dark Crimson stripe and white stealth keel strip in Carbon Layup)
• Xceed X (White Hull/Italian Blue deck Stripe in Hardcore layup)
• Pace Action with Skeg (White Hull/Gray Deck Stripe and neon Green decals in Standard Layup)
• Pace Tour (White Hull/Bright Red Stripe and matching bright red keel strip in Hardcore Layup)
• Pace 18 (Italian Blue Hull/Reflect Gray deck stripe in Carbon layup)

Feelfree Aquarius Sea Emotion 505:

Umingmaq Paddle Touring Center will be the first dealer in the US to carry and stock this new Feelfree Sea Kayak. After hounding Jim, the President of Feelfree US, for several months since we found out that Feelfree makes this sea kayak for a company in Poland, he has gotten some Sea Emotion 16’7″ kayaks made specially for us here at Umingmaq. The Sea Emotions are in production as I write this and they will be on a container bound for the USA very soon! I am still waiting for finalized pricing, but they should retail for right around $1799. This is a fantastic price for a well made sea kayak in Polyethylene.

We also have a fair stock of Feelfree Aventura 12.5 and 14.0 V2 light touring kayaks in stock. Although they are selling regularly, so if you’re interested in a great light touring kayak with two hatches, two bulkheads, a skeg and full perimeter deck rigging for $800 (12.5) and $900 (14.0) respectively, give us a call and we’ll get you hooked up with a nice entry level touring kayak.

Gram Kajak Greenland Paddles:

We have a fantastic stock of Lars Gram Kajak Greenland paddles from Denmark. We have 2 part and 3 part carbon paddles in a large shouldered and small shouldered model. We have 2 part wooden paddles in several beautiful and unique models. We also have a good selection of paddle bags and Greenland paddle floats to go with your Greenland paddle. Lars continues to be an excellent business partner and friend. It’s been a great experience working with such an upstanding, honest guy!

Euro Paddle Offering Shake-Up:

I am notoriously fussy when I select boats and paddles to bring into the shop. I will not sell Werner paddles, even if they paid me (but that is another post altogether). I have very specific criteria that must be met to even consider carrying a paddle at the shop. I thought I had a pretty good lineup with Epic touring paddles and Lendal NA paddles. However, that all came crashing down, this last winter and early spring.

Late last winter, we heard from Epic letting us know that they had made the decision to drop their touring paddles from production, due to such high demand for their wing paddles and limited manufacturing capacity. Unfortunately, the Epic paddles were an excellent choice for the money. Greg Barton knew what he was doing when he had designed the Active and Relaxed touring paddles. Plus the offering of the full carbon and hybrid glass/carbon version covered a range of price points for most customers.

Then, this spring, we learned (by being at Canoecopia) that Lendal had chosen to go with Rutabaga as another dealer in our area. Lendal then wished to continue our business relationship, however, the way in which Lendal made the move to Rutabaga left a bad taste in my mouth. As well as a bad taste in my customers mouths who were still waiting for paddles when Lendal made paddles to sell at Canoecopia, instead of making paddles for customers who had their orders (and deposits) in to Lendal for months in advance of Lendal opening Rutabaga as a dealer. It became abundantly clear who was more important to Lendal, and just a little hint, it wasn’t the small high-end paddle shop. So, not to beat a dead horse, Umingmaq will no longer be selling Lendal NA paddles once our current stock is gone.

This has been a disappointment as Lendal NA made some nice paddles and we promoted them accordingly for the last 3 years (When we could get them, due to their production issues). However, ethical and up-front business practices are just as, if not more, important than quality of product for us, so we have gone back to the drawing board to find new paddle lines to offer to our discerning customers.

We have already begun testing paddles from many interesting suppliers. Fortunately, our success in the last year or so, has allowed us to slow down and take our time to find some paddles that will be up to my standards. We may even be offering high end full carbon paddles, mid-level glass and even beginner paddles under our own brand: UMINGMAQ PADDLES!

Stay tuned and, as always, I hope this missive finds you well and getting out paddling. Let me know if you need anything!

~Umingmaq