COVID-19 has turned everyone’s lives upside down and while we have all been physically distancing from the comfort of our own homes, the lack of business has impacted everyone from canoe manufacturers, to canoe outfitters. We chatted with a few of them to hear what they had to say and frankly we were blown away by the honesty and frankness of their thoughts.

Canoe Outfitters

If there is anything we have learned from chatting with outfitters, is that a tremendous amount of thought and planning goes in to their operations. Owners have been drafting up numerous plans for when they might re-open their business. It might not be the first thing you would think of, but where the outfitter is physically located has a direct correlation to their business model as well. Outfitters near, say Algonquin Park might open up much sooner than businesses further north who are still waiting for ice-out. This means northern outfitters have more time to wait for the rest of the industry to get into motion. Once Summer hits though, everyone is in the same quandary.

Outfitters such as Algonquin Bound who offer services ranging from rentals, trip packages and shuttle services are completely closed down and all the employees laid off. The owner, Jason Marleau had this sobering comment… “If we cannot at least operate to some capacity this year we’re gone.”

Killarney Outfitters owner Ted East was blown away by many of his customers who instead of cancelling their summer bookings and rentals and demanding a refund… instead told him to keep the deposit and transfer it to August. Their dedicated customers definitely show how he’s remained in business for almost 50 years. Ted asked with a chuckle… “Now how do you sanitize 700 life jackets overnight?”.

Even though trippers like us can’t venture out, Outfitters are also hurt by other revenue streams that have been completely cut off as well. Ric Driediger from Churchill River Canoe Outfitters (located in Missinipe, Saskatchewan) mentioned that during May and June about 50% of their business is from school groups which of course aren’t visiting. The other 50% of their business comes from people booking their cabins to go fishing and thanks to social distancing many of the reservations are being cancelled. Ric even forecasts a rough summer as well…

“Most of our guided trips are filled by people coming from a long distance away – US, eastern Canada and Europe. All these are cancelled.”

Francis and Johanna from Smoothwater Outfitters have faced closure before back in 2018 when Temagami's backcountry was closed for much of July and August due to forest fires. Many of their 2020 projects have been put on hold, but Francis did offer a note of positivity saying that it is giving them time to work on planning and admin jobs, which would sometimes get pushed to the side during busier times.

“We hope that we will be permitted to operate this summer (we will be ready!), but do not know when that will be or what level of business to expect. New bookings dried up when the lock-down came into effect, but we haven’t had many cancellations yet - we expect people are waiting to see what the next few weeks bring. We know that our clients want to enjoy Temagami’s wild spaces, but there are many factors that will influence their willingness and ability to do so once the restrictions are lifted. We have already accepted that our American and overseas clients will likely be unable to visit this year. Additionally, many of our domestic groups won’t follow through with the plans they made prior to the outbreak. The outfitting side of our business lends itself relatively well to social distancing; it’s more of a challenge to make our lodging and meal service work in a socially-distanced world, but obviously we’re keen to follow proper practices and regulations.”

Cody from Whynot Adventures (Outfitting, Rentals & Canoe Tours for Nova Scotia's Kejimkujik National Park) shared that 2020 had started out as a record year, but then that quickly changed…

“It’s a little scary to have your revenue stream dry-up and then you start giving money back, but Karlene and I feel strongly about treating our guests with fairness and compassion. We’ve known from early on the success of a business relies on a mix of happy guests, happy team and fair prices.

I think it’s safe to assume it’s going to be a few years until the international travel industry returns to pre-Covid volumes, if it ever does. Travel will be more domestic in nature this summer, and everyone is going to be more price sensitive. Experiences will need to reflect best practices for sanitation and social distancing, too. These considerations will be our guidepost if we are able to resume operations this season.”

Canoe Manufacturers

Scott Way and Bill Swift from Swift Canoe saw a bit of a silver lining to the whole situation they are in…

“We wanted to connect in a manner better suited to their current situation, and let them know that we’re here and as committed as ever. We’ve done regular live broadcasts on social media encouraging people to interact with us, and we’ve built interactive tools on our website that provide a virtual shopping experience even if customers can’t visit us in person. We asked paddlers ‘how can we help?’ and listened to their feedback. It’s been as much about continuing sales as it has been engaging with the paddling community and giving them something to look forward to. We’ve enjoyed teaching people about paddling and the outdoors, and it’s given us all a chance to prepare for the unusual season ahead. The response has been very positive, and this new interactivity might become the standard across our industry going forward. The situation certainly hasn’t been ideal, but if our customers were stuck at home waiting for the backcountry to open, that’s where we wanted to be too.”

Wayne Docking from Souris Canoe was kind enough to share that sales leading up to their factory closure had still been brisk (but not quite normal) and want to return to work quickly to continue building and fulfilling those orders.

“The real concern at the moment is that we are selling off the inventory we had in stock before the production went down and it is quickly diminishing, now completely out of some model colors. Perhaps our biggest problem this year is our delivery schedule has been severely disrupted by all the closures, hotels, restaurants, bathroom facilities and international border. We normally have to deliver about 350 canoes a season throughout Ontario, Manitoba and 8 US states on our huge 44 place trailer. We usually start hauling around the first of April, this year we will attempt our first load next week, May 10th. That puts us more than a month behind and where we normally haul our last load the end of June/first of July we’ll probably be well into July this year, summer’s half over.”

Michelle Laframboise from ClearWater Design Canoes & Kayaks said that they had already set their booth up for the National Home Show when suddenly it was cancelled. With the Spring Cottage Life Show and the Ottawa Cottage Life show also following suit, many of their typical orders had disappeared. With retail stores being closed and in conjunction with them not being able to hold their yearly scratch and dent sale, it’s been a hard year.

“Things are picking up now. We are starting up production again on Monday. So, hopefully we can still have an ok season.”

It isn’t just the large manufacturers that have been impacted, sole proprietor Jon Babulic from Backcountry Custom Canoes felt that “the timing was terrible”. The shutdown happened right at the peak of sales season and of course people are concerned about their own financial stability which in turn has eroded canoe sales in the short term. Jon had a positive outlook to share as well…

“We feel pretty lucky, we had a healthy backlog coming into this, have a relatively low overhead and thankfully so far all the folks we love have avoided getting sick. We’ve probably met more people online than we would have otherwise, the online format of the Ontario Backcountry Canoe Symposium and tools like Facebook Live and Zoom have worked well for our winter seminar series, and we are optimistic that those things will help expedite the rebound in canoe sales before too long.

In the longer term we think this will actually help the canoe industry. Our message has always been that backcountry canoe tripping is a safe, simple and fun way to spend your time. I think we all hope that more people get to discover it, love it, and help protect wild spaces. ”

Canoe Gear

We have also now seen our first business closure with Hunter and Harris announcing that they are going to close up shop…

“It is with a heavy heart that we are announcing the closure of Hunter and Harris. We want to thank all of our customers, followers and friends that we have gotten to know over the years for your support. You truly were our inspiration and wish all of you happy paddling! Catch you on the water.....”

We are extremely thankful to all the canoe manufacturers and outfitters that took the time to respond to our call-out. We are also impressed by the positivity and ingenuity during such trying times from business owners. All in all, once things return to normal, be sure to support your local outfitter and canoe manufacturers any way you can. Start now by following them on their social media channels and sending them messages of support, then later stop in on your way to your next adventure. Together we can return the favour of support after so many years of them supporting us.