My daughter Joely and I approaching sunken ship off Milos, Greece

Ocean Planet Is Still Providing You Our
Complete Range Of Paddling Training Programs

    Ok, this should be the last word on what was the real motivation behind the decision to restructure Ocean Planet and will with luck dispel a few myths and misconceptions about what has "happened."

    For those who are interested I hope it gives you an insight into me personally ......... for those not interested then really quickly skip to the next page OK.

    For me, having a kayak shop (or two as was our case) was a life long time dream of mine.

    Having paddled since I was very young, running the paddling shops was something that was in many respects challenging and exciting. It at first fit in very well with what I had been doing all my life. The pride of being able to say that I, along with my family and staff, had pieced together all that was needed to run the shops was for quite some time very satisfying on many levels.

    I found in time though that the reality was that my personality does not fit in very well with being a retail shop person.

    I have worked outdoors pretty well all of my life. All that was involved in retail sales was simply "not my thing". Additionally, while we have employed over the years some very capable staff, they have all been very outdoor oriented people. As a result, I often found that I could not "light them on fire" to get them to happily work inside in the shop.

    So in the end I was the one who spent a lot of time in administration/selling/ordering/stocktaking ..... blah, blah, blah ..... while everyone else was out on the water. I came to realise that a happy Wayne is on the water and a very unhappy Wayne is sitting in the shop.

    The rewards, in every form were simply not there for me. For those few people who seem to think that running a paddling shop is a licence to print money ..... all I can say is you are wrong.

    So ....... something had to change. My thoughts ranged from selling everything to selling part of the business to finding a business partner to share the business to closing down the whole business completely and variations of all those themes.

    Nothing really seemed to fit what I wanted. It took stepping back from he business to rediscover the aspects that I really liked ......

    I like meeting people. I like having the time to spend to get to know them. The paddling part of the business gives me the opportunity to do that. That was why we started the business ten years ago - to share the joys of paddling and meet more like minded people who were looking for adventures in life and people to share that with.

    The path of the retail shops diverted me away completely from that - even though I have met many wonderful people through our stores, it pales in comparison to the sheer volume that I have met on the water through tours, training classes and out on expeditions.

    So now I will be focusing on my family, my friends, myself and remodeling the web site to be a great paddling resource.

    But ............

    Expect one thing - we are working towards a very simple life of satisfying our lives for ourselves AND our friends.

    So, remember, if you email us asking for advice it may take time to respond and as we need to justify the time to respond we may even ask for remuneration .... yes, we even may want to ge paid.

    Good advice is worth it - free advice is worth, well, you decide. If you don't want to pay then in some cases we won't provide the advice.

    We are going to be running a predominantly one/two person show here. If you can cope with that, then talk to us and we will do our best to take care of you - our friends when we can get to it.

    If you can't, I can frankly say ........ PLEASE go to the competition and make their life over wrought with demands.

    No more bigger is better, more is better, faster is better.

    The only thing that is better is quality for everyone in the future. So if you are ready, I am willing to give it my best to help you get out on the ocean and enjoying an incredible paddling life.