14 years old, the age of a teenager, 14 years since I created Redwoodpaddle!
2008, alone in my garage working with Red Cedar to create wooden paddles... 2022, surrounded by a great team of enthusiasts in a 1500m² room, shipping thousands of boards, paddles and other accessories all over the world . It's a great story, a great adventure that we continue to create every day thanks to you, for you!
The early years of stand-up paddleboarding were crazy. The evolution of materials, shapes and practices has been considerable. A new hobby was being created and developing at breakneck speed, constantly challenging us, opening new paths for us!
Today, stand up paddling is an integral part of the panorama of board sports. New toys are being developed: surf foil, sup foil, wing, wing foil, efoil... Like 14-year-old teenagers, we are still going full throttle, still just as enthusiastic, still driven by the same passion from the start! Thoroughly to continue to offer you quality products, to equip you with the best equipment at the best price.
We are constantly looking to improve ourselves. We are constantly refining the shapes, designs, decorations... We are always looking for new materials, gaining in quality, reliability and durability.
Our main objective today is to be part of a societal approach: to broaden our vision, to look much further. We are thinking about adapting our work to best practices, injecting and establishing a “Green” approach in our processes. The wood used for our SUPs and Surfs is paulownia, a very fast-growing tree with exceptional ecological virtues: it is capable of absorbing up to ten times more CO2 than most other plant species; we recycle your wetsuits in a solidarity workshop 10km from us; we have switched to eco-packaging for all our boards; we use rail transport for many parts...
We are not only passionate about sliding, we love the spaces in which we evolve. We are only at the beginning of our actions in the environment, many others will see the light of day soon. It is often during adolescence that we make big decisions that commit us to life as a young adult. We are at this turning point, we are working to include our companies, our brands, our products and our team, in this approach where economic logic, social responsibility and eco-responsibility are naturally associated.
So, while waiting to have the pleasure of meeting each of you and sharing a session together, I hope you have as much fun riding as we do developing these beautiful toys.
Chris Defrance
