Our journey from opening Paddlecraft in October 2006 with 6 kayaks and my kitchen table and cash register, till today, has seen us embarking on a path forward that has been completely new to us! We are Helen Morrow & Ross Crawshaw, owners of Paddlecraft Kayaks and we are so proud that our customers took the time to say thanks and got us to the finalists in the Northern Beaches Awards for specialised businesses, out of 92 other entrants.

As any new business does, we have struggled to define ourselves and try to find the right place for our product and service, so it can make a difference. Our message has taken time to come through, but I believe that because we were so new to paddling when we started, we still remember our uncertainty and can relate to customers still growing through the sport. And – we still have the freshness of a new found passion!

From the start, I listened to sales people that seemed to have the best products and were happy to explain “why” to me without condescension – and I told their stories to my customers. Ross and I also began paddling with Jackie Wilson, our trainer who loved paddling as her own personal passion and we caught the bug from her. We struggle to offer the best value and mix of products, but there were times when other places could just offer better deals and we would miss out on some of those customers. But what emerged for me was that we could offer our own best service and attention to every customer every day, in a place like Pittwater which embodies the perfect paddling lifestyle, just here at our front door. So we feel lucky and we thank you for recognising this in us!