What’s a local W dealer?

Our local U.S. dealers are Value Added Resellers (VAR), and they are legal and commercial entities that are independent and separate from the Wavewalk company.

What does Wavewalk offer to its local dealers?

1. We offer our dealers 30% discount on all merchandise and 27% discount on shipping on regular wholesale orders, and bigger discounts on bigger orders. The basis for discounts is our guaranteed, real-life retail prices, and not just an MSRP.
2. A W dealership area consists of a radius of at least 100 miles around the W dealer, in which Wavewalk won’t install other W dealers. In scarcely populated regions, a W dealership area may consist of a much bigger territory, and even entire states.
3. We offer full technical and marketing support for dealers and their clients, by phone and by email.
4. We list our dealers on our website’s dealers list.
5. For every W dealer, we create a full-featured website for free, with free setup and free tech support.
6. We actively help our dealers promote their websites on Internet search engines.
7. We offer our dealers to buy basic W kayak models, upgrade them, and resell them as top of the line models. This is easy, since all our models feature the same hull, and they differ just by the way they’re outfitted.
8. We offer all our dealers and their client a limited warranty for materials and workmanship under regular usage conditions, and excluding normal wear and tear.

What does Wavewalk require from its local dealers?

1. To make the W kayak and accessories available for local clients to see and purchase.
2. To help clients with information, advice and basic outfitting, if required.
3. To let local clients test the W kayak if so they wish. The dealer may charge a fee for such a live demo.
4. To respond promptly to clients’ inquiries, and deal with them respectably and fairly.
5. To make wholesale purchases from us, and maintain a minimum inventory of W kayaks for sale to clients who wish to make a purchase on the spot.
6. To make W kayak accessories such as paddles and motor mounts available for purchase to their local clients.

What doesn’t Wavewalk offer to its local dealers?

1. We work to help our local dealers develop their business, but we don’t offer any guarantee that a W dealership is forever – If we feel that a dealership is under performing without a good external reason, we’ll talk to the dealer about it, and if things don’t improve, we’ll stop featuring the dealer on our dealers’ list, and look for others to take their place in that area.
2. We don’t offer credit, even on large size orders.
3. We don’t offer any technical support or warranty for products that were not purchased from us.
4. We don’t offer a guarantee that we’ll keep supplying the dealer under all circumstances, and we will bring the relationship with our dealer to an end if we see that they don’t represent our company or our products properly, or don’t serve local W clients properly.
5. Reselling other watercraft: While we may agree that a local W dealer offer other watercraft for sale under special circumstances, we could deem it a good enough reason for terminating the W dealership.

What doesn’t Wavewalk require from its local dealers?

1. We don’t require from our local dealers to have a commercial store front, or stay open on regular business hours. A W dealer may decide to show W kayaks only by appointment.
2. We don’t require from our local dealers to have previous experience in the kayak business, or any other business experience.
3. We don’t require from our local dealers to make large orders before the kayaking and fishing season, or commit to making such orders. Having said that, some of our dealers have learned the value of keeping a good size inventory of W kayaks and accessories.
4. We don’t require from our local dealers to advertise locally, or to actively promote the W kayak locally. However, we encourage our dealers to get involved in local paddling and fishing activities, both real-life and online, and develop both personal and local content on their websites – and we actively help them do so.
5. We don’t require that our dealers sell W accessories exclusively, but we recommend they do so, especially when paddles and motor mounts are concerned.
6. We don’t require from our dealers to resell any of our products above or below certain price levels, and we don’t intervene in their pricing policies. However, we do expect their pricing to be fair and reasonable, and support long term growth and profitability.
7. We don’t require that our dealers restrict their sales to their areas. Our dealers often sell to clients who live in remote areas, and even in other states. Our northern dealers have made sales to clients who came from Canada.

More from Ray’s fishing kayak >

Working great so far… Have it mostly rigged for science, just a few finishing touches required.
Did a quick survey of Woods Hole Harbor last week with the Honda motor and the Hummingbird sidescan and was pleased with the results. Put some sump pumps in tonight for keeping water out in rougher conditions. Just need to finish integrating the RTK GPS and will be all set. I am shipping it to North Carolina for a project studying a tidal inlet next week so that will its first major test. Will send some more pics when I get a chance.
Peter

W kayak in the surf - Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Woods Hole harbor, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

It took about 5 minutes of getting used to the balance of sitting up so high on the center saddle, but after getting used to it, I was fine! I weigh 265, now I can start working out a bit again, paddling.
It was a May Grey day and windy as heck, but I went all over the lagoon anyway. No problem at all except my large profile acts like a sail going straight into the wind, so I leaned forward and that helped a lot!

I couldn’t stand up in the w kayak in the rough windy center of the lake, but when I got in the calmer waters near shore, I could! The fact is, I just don’t have that good of “sea legs!” I even had trouble standing on the back deck a big fishing boat in Alaska last year when the water got rough.

I took most of these pics myself so angles are weird, especially standing shots as I could only shoot straight down, but right at the end of the day, I talked a guy on shore into taking a few pics of me doing a short spin out in the water. It had brightened and got calmer by then too!

I’m NOT a guy that likes to just paddle around for fun. Now that I know how easy this thing is to use, I’m going fishing from now on! The guys in the float tubes just drag 4 to 6-inch plastic worms while kicking along (I saw about 5 fish caught), one about three lbs.
I have the two built-in rod holders in my W kayak, but their angle seems better for holding spare rods then for trolling, so I’m going to try the clamp-on holders. I’m going to paddle around slowly dragging a worm myself, and fish!

The bass are way bigger in this little lower lake lagoon than in the upper lake they said.

I’m back IN THE GAME NOW. That lower lake lagoon was off limits to me with my big bass boat. No power boats allowed except small boats powered by electric. It’s only 30 minutes away…so with launching, it’s only about 45 minutes to world class bass fishing. I’m taking advantage.

Next time I’m going to fish!

Mike Hancock
South California Fishing Kayaks, Simi Valley