OSCEOLA, WIS.
Dale Kicker's idea of building a better, more durable canoe paddle started with high hopes in a lowly two-car garage in North St. Paul in 1982.
His angle: Add a piece of nearly indestructible urethane on the tip of paddle blades to protect them from rocks, and also offer recreational canoeists more-efficient bent-shaft paddles, which had been used by racers.
The idea took off like a runaway canoe in white-water rapids. Kicker's company, Bending Branches (named for those bent-shaft paddles), blossomed into one of the biggest canoe and kayak paddle manufacturers in the world. Now based across the St. Croix River in Osceola, Wis., the company's 50 employees make more paddles than anyone — more than 160 different types.
"We turned the market upside down,'' said Kicker, 55, an avid paddler who grew up in North St. Paul and now lives upstream of Osceola at St. Croix Falls, Wis. "It's a lot of fun. The best part of the industry is the people: Outdoor enthusiasts are good, wholesome, fun-loving, honest people.''
The company ships paddles to about two dozen countries around the world. "If they're paddling, we have paddles going there,'' Kicker said.
Kicker and partner Ron Hultman first put Kevlar on the tip of a paddle, then discovered urethane worked better. They called the hard plastic edging Rockgard, and the innovation helped launch the company. Timing is everything, and Kicker said the introduction of his paddles piggybacked on the growing demand for the then-new lightweight Kevlar canoes that were being introduced.
"And baby boomers were really active and having families and wanting family recreation,'' Kicker said. Canoe and paddle sales took off. Kayaking became popular in the late 1990s, opening up another paddle market.