Talkin Tarn Water Day

Every Year we take 2 vans and 2 trailers full of Canoes and Kayaks over to Talkin Tarn to help with their Water Day. This year it was in June.

The lake is really handy being 10 miles from the shop, but close to the A69, It has full changing rooms, an Excellent cafe, lots of parking available and a lake small enough not to lose everyone, but with space to move and paddle round.

We ran the sessions as fairly fixed 30 minute groups with about 24 people in each, but if anyone wanted to demo specifcic boats, we could also accomodate this too.

With 4 staff on the water at any time, we managed  to get 6 sessions done, so in total we have about 200 people on the water it seemed summer was here, as it turned out it was one of the few sunny days we have had watch out for an indian summer soon! The sessions were very relaxed with a mix of first timers, and more experienced paddlers, some informal instruction took place but mostly everyone was left to get to grips with the sport in their own time, After 5 minutes everyone was happily paddling in straight lines, or just enjoying beiong on the water on such a nice day

We will be arranging another day probably in 2009, look out for it soon !

Open!

Well we are open, Last night we had a very successful open evening after another hectic day.

The shop is more or less complete, with a few bits of behind the scene stuff to add in after Canoe Expo. We even had a delivery of new Novacraft Canoes. Six in, and four out last night!

Oh and we have a few beers left if you want one come on in !!

We had the first look at our new Catalogue, please call us for your copy

Canpexpo

After opening the shop, the following weekend we were closed for Canoexpo! It was a great success, Here are some pics of the staff on the Saturday night, and some of the stands before we opened on Sunday….. bring on next year!

The past few days we have been dealing with all the orders, and extra stock we got. latest products include aquabound, h2o paddles, goretex socks, keen footwear, bliss stick kayaks, and north shore sea kayaks and accessoriess

Outfitting Party week3

We haven’t done too much in the new shop this week, been to busy sending out orders from the old shop. Just a bit of tidying up.

We were due to get a van and trailer full of canoes and kayaks, but bad weather put paid to this both Thursday and Friday.

The racking will now come up on Monday, together with two vans full of boats. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we plan to empty the old shop then the Arches, with the help of 3 staff from Stockport. Don’t worry,once we see an empty space, we fill it! We plan to fill the Arches with boats, and the old shop with boxes of stock with all the new kit we are buying for Canoexpo.

We are now in full preparation for Canoexpo on the 16th and 17th of February, we had a planning meeting on Wednesday to finalise the plans. We will have 68 speakers in the programme all included in the price of admission. Cavavans, Motor homes and Camping will be available on site too, see here

Outfitting Party Week 2

The last 2 days as seen further frenzied activity in the new shop. Chris, Mike Hulme, and Simon G have been up with Antony fitting all they could. Antony sorted out all the gridwall late last week.

Yesterdays’ big job was fitting the carpet…. completed but not without some expletives…. maybe we should have employed the professionals? we also completed most of the Slat wall fitting.

Today we finished off the partition walls for the changing room, and behind the main counter. The counter itself was also finished,we also sorted some storage/display units.

The Nice man from BT was in today to look at the phones, we now have a telephone line! , so the major issue of no phone line in nice new shop is now avoided! just need to get a telephone up there!

Antony and Mike moved the three big double open boat racks from the Arches, into the new Unit, using a trailer with no problems.

Next weeks plans:-

• New boat racking will arrive
• move boats from the boat store into the new unit

The following week we will be moving the old shop, to the new shop, everything should fit!! the exact day of opening is TBA still – hopefully we will be open before our big open evening on the 7th!!

Outfitting Party Week 1

Well yesterday we got started with fitting out the new shop. Ant, together with some staff from two of the other shops – Mike H, Chris, and Simon have been working hard

(this was at the end of the day!)

The Carpet arrived, and we started fitting out. We have started battening the wall for the software slatwall, and the desk has been started. hopefully today we will finish something!!!

The place still looks huge but it is still nice and warm. You can see from the second photo, we have managed to get the new Remix 59 demo boat as the first boat in the shop!

The racking has just arrived this morning, so over the next few days that will be getting up. the new Canoe and kayak racks should arrive next week.

The old shop is still busy, with lots of new kit arriving all the time, ready for the move. Our storage is also full, ready to expand and fill the space we will have

We will be having an open evening on the 7th of February, but should actually be open by the end of January. In the mean time, you can still contact us on our telephone number 01228 531703

Keys

Well we now have the keys for the new Unit, Electrics went in this week. Next week we have the big outfitting party, with carpet, and shopfitting going in. Its all looking good at the moment. The new racking, and carpet has been ordered, and we have a good idea of the boats we want in.

Watch this space about the phones, but we will be keeping our old number, despite moving into a new phone district…..(don’t ask me how!) and we will be using the internet even more than the Skype we currently use between shops. More electrickery coming soon!

Christmas Meal Tastic

This weekend we had a most excellent adventure. After work Antony and Pete Drove down to Sunny Lancashire to Stay at the Anderton Centre For beer and food, and Go Carting. After a walk to the pub, then a 30 minute walk to the Restaurant, (a bit of a Brookbank tradition) we were all warmed up for Pizza pasta and Perrini. A bit of a late night ensued involving much beer.

In the morning we went go carting!! Off to the Three Sisters Circuit Near Wigan, the first test was getting there!!. After Practice, and Qualifying we had the finals where Adam T (main Website techie at Stockport, and prior employee at the circuit!!) won, with all of us having an ace time on the ourdoor mahoosive circuit. Highly Recommended. A pity one of us was a bit under the weather…

The Following day 10 of the staff were off to Pyranha for some training. Included were a factory tour, a look at the new Shiny boats, and a chance to paddle. As It was a bit cold (we needed to crack the ice off the canal first!!) only 5 hardy souls went out. and Simon from UK took the (old) everest out for a spin.

Everything well in the shop as we continue to make preparations for our move

Christmas Opening Hours

Here are our opening times over the festive season

• Saturday 22nd December -Open 9am – 5.30pm
• Sunday 23rd December – Closed
• Monday 24th December – Closed
• Tuesday 25th December – Closed
• Wednesday 26th December -Closed
• Thursday 27th December – Open 9am – 5.30pm
• Friday 28th December – Open 9am – 5.30pm
• Saturday 29th December – Open 9am – 5.30pm
• Sunday 30th December – Closed
• Monday 31st December – Closed
• Tuesday 1st January – Closed
• Wednesday 2nd January – Open 9am – 5.30 pm

If you wish to collect orders for Christmas, please make sure your order is placed before the 17th December. This gives us time to get most out of stock from suppliers.

Ads in Ocean Paddler

here is a fancy adds drawn up by the marketing department!! appeating in Ocean Paddler Mag, if you would like Pete to go on and on and on about his trip , just give him a call!!Ad in Ocean Paddler