Mad River Canoe

Mad River Canoe had admittedly humble beginnings. Frustrated in his search for a canoe suited for wilderness paddling, Jim Henry in 1971 finally gave up and decided to go one better and build his own, the original Malecite. Virtually on a whim, Jim entered the 1971 National Whitewater Canoe Championships on the nearby Dead River in Maine. Jim went on to win the Down River competition and immediately encountered demand for his boat. Jim set up shop in a shed on his property in Waitsfield, Vermont and started building canoes, taking the company name from the Mad River, which flowed through the valley below his hillside home.

Within a year demand outstripped the production capacity of Jim’s woodshed and Mad River briefly partnered with Tubbs of Vermont before bringing production home to Waitsfield. In 1973 Jim and wife Kay incorporated the Mad River Canoe Company and occupied a production facility in town.

1974 saw the first Royalex canoe brought to market. 1975 introduced the legendary Explorer, a design that 30 years later remains unparalleled in terms of capability and versatility. Mad River also pioneered Kevlar® to the canoe market, opening a new frontier in the ratio of high strength to low weight. The innovations and recognition kept coming as the company grew and expanded its’ offerings of performance designs executed in the best of materials. In 1984 the Society of Plastics Industry Association awarded Mad River its top prize for excellence in the marine category for the Kevlar-Airex Explorer, competing against luxury yachts and ocean-going sailboats with prices well into six figures. (not bad for a boat with a price tag of less than $1500). Ten years later the Composite Fabricators Association ACE award went to Mad River for its’ Kevlar-Hybrid laminate hulls. Mad River’s excellence was also recognized by the paddlesports’ industry as the company has received three “Canoe Manufacturer of the Year” awards by “Canoe and Kayak” magazine and remains the only three time winner in the history of the award.

Mad River in partnership with its’ outdoor specialty dealers also pioneered innovative marketing and promotional campaigns to spread the gospel of paddling. The national “You Can Canoe Days” program debuted in 1985 and saw 3 factory teams touring the country, hosting over 150 on-water demo days annually. In 1989, Mad River expanded its’ paddlesport accessory programs with the acquisition of Voyageurs Ltd.

In 1998 Mad River partnered with Wilderness Systems of North Carolina to form Confluence Watersports (joined shortly thereafter by Wave Sport kayaks). At the end of 2001, Mad River moved production facilities to Trinity, North Carolina where the long-established tradition of innovation continued as witnessed by the advent of the IQ and IQ2 modular gunwale systems.

2005 brought a new chapter in the history of Mad River as Confluence Watersports (our parent company) acquired Dagger and Perception and we consolidated operations in Easley, South Carolina. Our expanded family has allowed the synthesis of the best of Mad River and of Dagger Canoe, a worthy former competitor, into a greater whole.