Who are your favorite canoe retailers/dealers?
Northeast?
Southeast?
Upper Midwest?
Lower Midwest?
Northwest?
Southwest?
I can’t buy a canoe sight unseen from the internet. Please list your favorite dealers and where they are located.
Thanks!
A non answer
I haven’t bought from a dealer in years. I have a lot of paddling friends and we swop boats and then I find what I want and look for it secondhand.
Usually. Colden and Placid are the exceptions and both are boat works that sell direct to their customers.
Lets see…
NE -
Poysonally bought new fro’
Neal’s Sports Emporium
Ramsey Outdoors
CampMor
Joisey Paddler
Hemlock Canoes
Mid Atlantic
Hard to beat Blue Mountain Outfitters for an old school, mom and pop, brick and mortar store that stocks more than many of the corporate big boxers !
www.bluemountainoutfitters.net
Appomattox River Company…
…in Farmville, Virginia. They stock over 2500 canoes and kayaks. You can’t believe it until you see it. Also a family operation. Very nice and very knowledgable, though with that stock, it certainly helps to have some idea what you’re looking for so they know which warehouse to start looking in.
Midwest - Rutabaga
2500 might be a stretch
I find it hard to believe a store banks it’s reputation on pictures of a warehouse. I hope their store looks better than their website.
Another non answer
Hemlock Canoe in Western NY. Great people. I prefer “pre-scratched” canoes,but sometime can’t find what I want in that state.
Turtle
Nermal
Agreed, their website is lacking, but if you doubt it take a trip to Farmville and go thru their warehouses. I too doubted their claim until I went there.
They also have more traditional retail stores in the Richmond area, but the Farmville complex is their main distribution point, and you can buy directly there.
Don’t get me wrong, this is no big box operation. Farmville is in the middle of nowhere, the facilities are literally large barns, and it is a family operation.
All I can tell you is that if you know what you want, the inventory is amazing. I’ve purchased three kayaks from them and have been pleased.
Adventure Carolina in Columbia SC
These folks are really tops in service and attitude and I just really like to stop by and visit. They feel like family and even though they carry all kinds of outdoor sport gear, they specialize in paddling. They always seem to have some GOOD sale prices on stuff that always gets me in a buying spirit. They sell new and used boats and do guided paddle trips locally. Check’em out!
where are you
Um…you can’t buy sight unseen, ok good, but you travel to every part of the country by car? Sounds fishy at best.
Bill H.
rutabaga
paddlesports shop in madison wi