Current Designs Celebrates Another Great Year!

Wenonah Canoe and Current Designs held our annual holiday party this past weekend. Over 115 employees, friends, and guests made their way to Jefferson's Pub and Grill in Downtown Winona, MN to celebrate another great year of business. The evening was filled with delicious food, rockin music, and great company.

The highlight of the evening was the awards ceremony where owner and founder Mike Cichanowski handed out the "Years of Service Awards". It is a Wenonah Canoe tradition to award employees that have been with the company for five years a specially engraved paddle in recognition of their commitment. Every five years after that they receive a plaque to add to their paddle. This year Mike C. was proud to hand out more service awards than ever before. 19 employees received recognition including eight 5 year, five 10 year, two 15 year, a 20 year, a 25 year, and two 35 year awards! Very special recognition and gifts were given to kayak plant manager Dave Thill and Rick Thrune who have been with the company for an astounding 35 years! Employees like this are what makes Wenonah Canoe and Current Designs so special, dedicated hard workers that have spent their whole working career helping form the company into what it is today. A big thank you goes out to all our employees and their families this holiday season.

"Untamed Science" Invades Current Designs Kayak Factory

Producer Dan Bertalan & host Suze Roots from video production company Untamed Science visited the Current Designs Kayak factory last week to film an educational video featuring rotationally molded kayaks. The video segment will be featured on a DVD alongside a high school Chemistry text book to be released in 2011. The exact content of the video is a secret for now (can't spoil it for the kids!), but it was a great time working together both in the factory and on the water. Bill Kueper, Vice President of Wenonah Canoe, who also sports a PhD in Chemistry from The University of Kansas, impressed everyone with his uncanny acting abilities......who knew?

Learn more about Untamed Science at:
www.untamedscience.com

Current Designs Launches New Logo

Current Designs is excited to unveil a sweeping transformation of its brand identity including a new logo, boat graphics, and website update. The new look is designed to reflect the high performance style and grace that Current Designs Kayaks are so well known for.

“Over the last 5 years we have added new cutting edge models while expanding our line to over 30 performance designs”, said Mike Cichanowski, owner of Current Designs and Wenonah Canoe. “The style, look, outfitting, and paddling performance of our kayak designs has never been better, and it was time to update our aged logo to reflect that.”

The new Current Designs logo is available for download on our website at www.cdkayak.com/downloads. If you’d like a full set of logos, including vector format please contact webmaster@cdkayak.com.

The New and Improved Whistler!

Re-designed for 2011, we updated this old favorite with a modernized deck profile, keyhole cockpit, and recessed deck fittings. Now featuring increased foot room, the Whistler is a great option for paddlers wanting to move up from a recreational kayak, or start out with a more seaworthy transitional design. Stable and very user friendly, the upswept bow makes the Whistler highly maneuverable while keeping you dry when waves kick up. A great boat for activity oriented paddlers like photographers or fisherman. Offered with an optional rudder.

New Model Introduction!- Kestrel X Series

New for 2011 we introduce the Kestrel X series, full-sized recreational style kayaks designed to comfortably fit paddlers of any size and put even the most wary beginners at ease. Extra deep and wide, the Kestrel X's feature generously sized cockpits for easy entry, as well as two composite bulkheads and storage compartments for maximum capacity. The largest members of our recreational family they are extremely stable and maneuverable. The Kestrel 120 X and Kestrel 140 X paddle as efficiently as any of our recreational designs and are a great option offered in our light weight composite hybrid layup. The Kestrel 120 X roto is great for beginners of any size who want to get into the sport on a budget. The Kestrel 140 X is offered with an optional rudder. Find specs and price information on the new Kestrel X series on our website!

Current Designs Delivers Boats to the National Scout Jamboree

July 26th marks the beginning of the 2010 National Scout Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill in Caroline County, Virginia. 38,000 Boy Scouts and 3,700 adult leaders from all 50 states and from countries around the world will spend 10 days of fun, adventure, and fellowship together as they celebrate the Boy Scouts of America’s 100th Anniversary since its founding in 1910.

Current Designs and its parent company Wenonah Canoe has worked closely with this years event organizers to supply 85 Current Designs Kestrel 120 kayaks and 78 Kevlar Ultra-Light Wenonah Champlain’s. These special edition boats all feature the 100th Anniversary Boy Scouts of America logo. Three fully loaded trailers delivered the boats to be used by the scouts at the Jamboree early last week.

Owner of Current Designs, and Distinguished Eagle Scout award recipient Mike Cichanowski is in attendance at the event. “Wenonah Canoe and Current Designs has had a long standing special relationship with the scouts, both on a local and national level”, Cichanowski said, “I am proud that our company is able to provide the Jamboree participants with great paddling, high quality boats. The Boy Scouts organization has done so much for this countries youth and companies in the outdoor industry such as ours.”

The 2010 National Scout Jamboree runs July 26th - August 4th.

Independent Shipping- How We Do It

Wenonah Canoe, Inc. and it's brands Wenonah Canoe and Current Designs Kayaks are set apart from other companies in our industry in many ways. One example is the way we ship our boats from our Minnesota-based factories and warehouses to our retail partners. Since it's inception, Wenonah Canoe has managed and controlled its own logistics department. Today, nearly all the boats we ship are shipped on our own trucks and trailers by Wenonah Canoe employees. This ensures safe handling of our composite boats without cross-docking and never involves fork lifts! This approach completely eliminates the dreaded Canoe-kabob - a canoe pierced through the hull by an unknowing forklift and driver.

Our fleet includes specially outfitted, heavy duty trucks with auxillary fuel tanks and racked trailers specially designed to all but eliminate shipping damage. Our largest trailers and fully racked trucks can carry 46 canoes or over 80 kayaks and canoes together.

Our peak shipping season is early October through early summer. In these times, multiple loads depart every week to destinations all over North America including Canada and Alaska. The same logistics team is also responsible for our international shipping program that utilizes a containerized freight approach to ship Wenonah Canoes and Current Deisigns kayaks throughout the world.

Managing a vertically integrated logistics function from factory to retailer is a huge undertaking. We accept these challanges because it ensures the integrity of our product quality until it reaches our customer.