By Rolf Boone
Local paddleboard manufacturer grows from home-based startup to manufacturing site on Olympia’s Marine Drive
About two years ago, Kitson Boards was nothing more than a home-based business, a prototype of a carbon-fiber paddleboard and a vision of tapping into the growing popularity of paddleboards. A paddleboard looks like an elongated surfboard, except that you stand on it and paddle.
But what a difference two years make.
Kitson Boards today has expanded into 7,500 square feet of manufacturing and office space on Marine Drive at the Port of Olympia — filling a longtime vacancy in the process — and has grown to 15 employees.
That spot looks out across East Bay, between Swantown Marina and the port’s boatworks division, and makes for the perfect location to demonstrate its products, said owner Michael Kitson, 61.
Kitson, originally from Vancouver, B.C., used to be a lumber trader, then opened lumber brokerage houses, then imported goods, then that morphed into selling those goods online.
That eventually led to an earlier business where he sold wine racks on the Internet.
Kitson Boards finally emerged to fill a growing market and to do so using carbon fiber, which is stronger and lighter — the lightest boards weigh about 20 pounds — while also making it a safe manufacturing process compared with fiberglass.
During Kitson Boards’ infancy, it could produce one board in nine days, but now it can produce a board a day and has been able to build up its inventory for customer orders, Kitson said.
The boards, which range in size — the largest being a 14-foot racing style paddleboard — sell for $1,200 to $5,000.
The company also decided to drop surfboards because it’s a mature market, and instead concentrate on the fast-growing paddleboard market.
Kitson Boards’ sales manager Patrick Faulkner said just in the Puget Sound area, between Seattle and Olympia, are several paddleboard groups, totaling 500 to 600 people.
Paul Anderson of Olympia is a Kitson Boards customer.
“I have mostly used Kitson Boards for flat-water paddling in Budd Bay — kind of a fun way to exercise,” he said in an email. “However, being an avid surfer, I plan on taking one out to the coast and give it a try in the waves this summer.”
Anderson said the board is light, easy to carry and the carbon-fiber construction gives it the necessary strength and durability without all the materials used in a traditional board.
“Performancewise the light weight makes it a dream to paddle,” he said. “It glides well and is very responsive.”
Paddle Boarding Magazine 