First it was Savage Designs. Then Riot Kayaks. Now industry stalwart Corran Addison is moving on from the third company he’s founded in the paddlesports arena, this time leaving stand-up paddleboard company Imagine Surf.
“We have different ideas on which direction the company should go,” says Addison about the company’s January 2012 sale to Hong Kong-based the Pryde Group. “My strengths are in innovative design and brand building, and this was not the direction they wanted to take the brand, so the relationship with Imagine Surf no longer made a great deal of sense.”
After leaving Riot Kayaks, Addison founded Imagine Surf in January 2002 in Montreal, Quebec. It started as a surfboard manufacturing company, and in 2004 he also began to teach surf classes on Montreal’s St. Lawrence river waves. By 2006 Imagine Surf had an international distribution for its surfboards and was arguably Canada’s largest manufacturer of surfboards.
In the spring 2007 Imagine began manufacturing standup paddleboards, beginning with a trademark-Addison, cutting edge design called the Cutback that was only 7’11” – like the kayaks Savage Designs pioneered, remarkably short for the time. The evolved design is still in production today.
Following the sale of Imagine to the Contrarian Group in August 2010, Addison moved the operation to Southern California and continued on as the company’s President.
“The brand will continue to grow, and I wish them the best of luck,” he says. “As for myself, I’m very excited about what the future holds in this fast growing sport and industry, and my continued role within it.”
