When Lendal was an independent company there were reps that took care of me but since Johnson Outdoors bought them it seems the reps have disappeared.
I have a couple of Lendal paddles that have cracked ferrules (crack running the long way). I also find that my paddles often get water inside the shaft after a long paddle. Has anyone had any lucky getting Johnson Outdoors (the parent company) to do any repairs or replacements?
Johnson Reps
I live in Michigan and personnally know the Johnson rep, so I assume they have one for each state.
Check with vendors that carry Old Town, Necky, and any other lines that Johnson now owns and they can give you the name of the rep.
Best of luck.
or . . .
Since Reps sell to stores, and stores sell to customers, you should really be talking to a Lendal dealer. Neither a rep, nor Lendal can help you, but a Lendal dealer definitely can. Every cracked ferrule I’ve encountered has been a warranty replacement, done through a Lendal dealer.
Only way to keep water out of a Lendal shaft is to tape the joints. It happens in every Lendal paddle I’ve ever owned and mine go way back.
Lendal is “done” at JOI folks…
– Last Updated: Oct-16-09 2:18 PM EST –
They (JOI) messed it up soo bad and have essentially written it off. I know of one deal in the works re: Lendal, but cannot say anymore. If things go the way I hope they will Lendal will be once again in good hands, and a great product.
Thanks!
Thanks for the heads up.
I am glad there is some light at the end of tunnel for Lendal, they make excellent paddles.
Very Sad
I recall some folks going to JOI’s Maine facility where Lendals were to be made and being excited about high quality production and expectations of paddles with greater precision and conformity with designs. Then it all went away. I really liked my Lendal blades.
The opposite happened
Corporate folk are great at presentation and surface “look good, sound great”. But all along the cost savers are at work cheapening the materials and cutting production corners to pay the MBA’s their insane overhead. Quality suffers, reputation suffers. Short term thinking. This is a case study in business failure from moment one.
JOI knows they sucked and I think are trying to fix the mess. I wish them well.
Lendal Product Future
I hope there is a future for lendal.
They make/made a great product and within the right hands and future product development, they could and should be a serious contender for Werner. Competition always makes the market better.
If lendal goes the way of the dinosaurs Werner has very little competition which will actually make their product worse in the long run.
Werner, may have only pushed into making better touring and whitewater paddles based on the competition from Scotland.
FWIW the lendal 4-piece I have 
is still one of the coolest inventions known to man.
keep us updated!
Shocked
Johnson Outdoors also owns Old Town, which still makes wood/fiberglass canoes. Hard to believe they can’t reproduce the Lendal paddle.
Unlike what Salty said
If you work through a Lendal dealer, Johnson Outdoors WILL warranty your paddle.
They have inventory so,
– Last Updated: Sep-18-09 11:45 AM EST –
Yeah, you might get a replacement part. How good that part will be is questionable.
Here's an example of "why" they failed. A guy who posts on this board waited several months for his warranty paddle. When he got it was the wrong paddle and shaft. I worked with the Lendal Pro Team at the time and tried to facilitate a solution with the Old Town crowd. They couldn't get it right and I sent the guy one of my personal paddles out of frustration and representing Lendal I wanted to take care of a customer. It was a Scottish built paddle to boot!
JOI is trying to heal themselves but with Lendal they flat out sucked in every aspect. Please don't try to argue that.....
But, the future looks like it might be bright for Lendal. Let's all send positive thoughts in that direction.
Happy paddling!
Lendal
Rusty125-
I used to be one of those reps pre-Johnson and watched with my jaw to the floor as the line I had built up in the territory was given over to a group of reps who rarely touch a paddle. Your best bet maybe to go to a local Lendal dealer- preferably specialty and see if they can get you some warranty help.
I can tell you that Johnson Outdoors has killed the brand. It did not make the workbooks for Spring/Summer 2010. There are some rumors circulating about it’s possible sale. Kills me.
Hope you find some resolution on your paddles.
Face time
Your first sentence applies not only to paddles, not only to equipment, but unfortunately also to interactions with those people. Lots of jargon, lots of catchy phrases, not much hands-on knowledge or experience. Scratch the surface and…that’s all there is.
I’m not concerned . . .
Well, I hardly ever kayak anymore, but when I did . . .
Werner does make good paddles, I liked them better than Lendall. However, there are many small companies because the tooling isn’t unattainable. My favourite paddle was a Nimbus Wavewalker carbon. I never bought an ONNO, but heard they were great. I reckon there will always be plenty of good paddles being made by enthusiasts in small batches. They never pay the executive salaries, so their prices are usually better for the quality.
Just my take on it. I may well be wrong.
agree
bought two
used carbon Lendals, gave one to my uncle who broke the shaft. I didn’t expect Lendal to replace or repair it because it was used.
Times have changed. If you don’t have proof of purchase then they aren’t going to know if someone bought a used one off eBay. (not saying you did)
About a year ago I heard J&J were having problems with the molds, and decided to stop production until the quality issues were resolved.
I like the 4 piece and blades but the construction is outdated.
There are no “molds” for shafts, and
that is where the problems were. Pre preg Carbon and in some casses glass material is wrapped around a steel mandrel which is pre heated. That gets wrapped by a clear tape to apply external pressure and is then cooked in an oven. The bends for MCS or DT shafts are done by a proprietary method which has to be done “right” or you get wrinkles in the shaft at these bends and the shafts are weak.
If your mandrel temps are not adequate or your pre-preg is too old or not cared for properly you won’t get a strong shaft. Cost savers cut corners,and quality. But MBA’s like them, and reward them.
But that’s history and hopefully Lendal will go to the right place and become great once again…
You are correct.
76 is also correct
They killed the brand with astonishingly bad management. But, the sell of Lendal to the right person will be happy news to most here! I think it’s 90% there!!
I still like many at JOI, and the new VP seems a smart guy, as is the new watercraft director. Both guys who would never have purchased Lendal to begin with.
And their composite boats from Thailand are crazy good quality.
Hope so…
I wanted some regular Kinetic blades but I like the Werner shaft much more.
I got mine from P&H. They were demos and P&H were switching out to the Werner foam core. The P&H rep told me Lendal makes a very good 4 piece, but Werner had past them in design and construction.
There were probably some other issues as well.
Don’t know if it’s possible, but I would like to see foam core kinetic blades on a Werner shaft.