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Management owned, proudly designed in the Pacific Northwest, headquartered in Sparta, Tennessee.
Founded by legendary designer, Tom Derrer, Eddyline Kayaks has manufactured premier touring kayaks since 1971. Eager to share our passion for paddling and the outdoors by offering the most comfortable kayaking experience, we pioneered vacuum bag and thermoformed kayak technology. Thanks to these design advances, we manufacture the highest quality lightweight touring kayaks for sea kayaking, open water, recreational kayaking and fishing.
Today, Eddyline Kayaks is majority management-owned and operated. As a small team, we are uniquely positioned to connect with our customers personally, providing excellent customer service to each one. In return, their passion for paddling inspires us.
We at Eddyline Kayaks are proud to be a part of kayaking tradition and respect the courage and ingenuity of our paddling ancestors and their passion for being on the water. We invite you to be a part of this tradition with us!
Our world-class production facility in Sparta, Tennessee produces high quality kayaks for our customers throughout North America and beyond. Our location central to our key vendor partners allows us to produce high quality products while maintaining our quality and limiting our carbon footprint.
Eddyline Kayaks continues to invest in and support our strengths: customer-focused innovation, quality production, and stellar service.
Our lightweight kayak designs are a direct reflection of our team’s years of paddling experience and our philosophy of constant improvement. Our founder, Tom Derrer, summarized this best saying, “If we cannot make it better than what we already know, then we are not improving, and neither is the sport we love.” Living this philosophy for 47 years, we’ve remaining focused on building quality lightweight kayaks in an environmentally conscious manner.
Eddyline Kayaks has honored the tradition of kayaking by passionately innovating to improve kayak design. Striving to inspire a passion for kayaking, we design all our lightweight kayaks with paddler comfort in mind.
Tom Derrer finds his passion for kayaking when he is first introduced to white water kayaking. He becomes a governing member of the well-established Washington Kayak Club, organizing races and pool practice.
After building white water kayaks for himself and friends for several years, Tom Derrer founds Eddyline Kayaks in Boulder, Colorado.
Eddyline Kayaks moves to Seattle, where Tom Derrer begins building touring kayaks designed by Werner Furrer Sr. Tom takes up sea kayaking, then in its infancy and builds a reputation by bringing advanced laminating and aerospace technologies, like vacuum bagging, to the commercial construction of touring kayaks. Throughout the 70’s, Tom immersed himself in kayak design and continued to develop and refresh the Eddyline product line.
Eddyline Kayaks finds the high-performance thermoplastic, later named Carbonlite, now used in the manufacture of all our kayaks.
After extensive research and development, Eddyline Kayaks introduces the world to the benefits of thermoformed kayaks with the launch of the Merlin LT touring kayak.
Tom and Lisa Derrer hand over the reins of Eddyline Kayaks to its seasoned management team. The current ownership / management team of Todd Keane, Janet Sutton and Scott Holley, along with the entire Eddyline staff, stand committed to honoring the Eddyline legacy of innovative design and superior customer service.
Eddyline expands production to Queretaro Mexico to improve capacity and innovation from proximity to critical suppliers. RZC, the investment office of Steuart and Tom Walton, makes a strategic investment to facilitate the company’s growth.
Eddyline relocates to Siloam Springs near several world-class kayak parks. This central location helps Eddyline improve its distribution throughout North America.
Eddyline is acquired by Jackson Kayak, and moves production to Sparta, Tennessee.
From superior hull design, to the use of aerospace technology, to high-performance thermoplastic, every Eddyline touring kayak represents years of design innovation.
Since he began designing kayaks in the 1970’s, Tom Derrer has been committed to improving the sport he’s passionate about. He has been deeply immersed in the industry since it was in its infancy, helping to form a trade association called the Trade Associate of Paddle Sports, or TAPS, where he served as president for three years. As one of the original organizers of the West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium, Tom designed the event’s successful format,which is still used today. He also helped develop the safety video “Before You Go” released by TAPS in the nineties and still in use today.
Throughout our 47 years in operation, Tom’s focus has been to bring advanced technology to the design and construction of our premium touring kayaks. Starting with vacuum bag technology in 1971, Eddyline Kayaks has introduced a number ofother remarkable advancements, including the H-channel seam, the four-way adjustable backrest, spring-loaded rudders, flexible bulkheads, and flush hatches.
First to apply computer-aided design and use computer machined originals, Tom Derrer significantly improved hull symmetry and performance. His commitment to superior quality ledhim to deliberately avoid the trendy but lower quality roto-molded Polyethylene models that were common of many manufacturers. Instead, Tom waited for more advanced technology, which came in the form of high-performance thermoplastic, named Carbonlite 2000. Now used to produce every model of Eddyline Kayaks, this revolutionary new material offers dimensional stability, high heat distortion temperatures, hardglossy finishes, easy repairs, UV resistance, and lighter weight.
