Manic
A potted history!
Chris asked if he could have a kayak for his twelfth birthday.
His father Bob liked the idea and got a kayak as well.
Together they joined the Port of Plymouth Canoeing Association and Chris learnt to paddle and Bob learnt to swim.
Bob and Heather opened a canoe shop in Plymouth and Bob took up sea kayaking which he found involved less swimming than white water paddling.
Time passed.
Chris went to school and Bob did his day job on ships and submarines. Roundy appeared one day to run Kayaks and Paddles. Nobody knows where Roundy came from or how he got the job, it didn't seem to matter.
Roundy ran everything else as well and is still doing so, rivers that is.
A box arrived one day and Andy asked, "what's in the box", and that's how Manic got started. New words got added to the paddling dictionary, we all have fun and Manic is our expression of things we like and their endorsement.
More time passed.
Andy went to Ecuador so Bruce ran Kayaks and Paddles.
Si1 wanted a job and Bob wanted Chris out of the house by now so Bournemouth Canoes came along.
Bob gave up his day job much to Heather's disgust.
Si2 wanted to be an "Engineer" and to save the world. To save the Engineering world Brighton Canoes arrived and Si2 got a job.
Kermuffitypuff
Introduce Andy M who used to stand in for Andy R at K&P when Andy R went off paddling for months at a time. Andy M is a good friend of Si1 (Bournemouth) and let it be known that he too would like a canoe shop. At about the same time Si2 was banished from Brighton Canoes and Steve now runs that operation.
Si2 and Andy M were put together and Gloucestershire Canoes Ltd was formed in Cheltenham.
Si2 was sad because his dear heart Helen was alone in darkest Cornwall. So without fear or favour Si2 found a spare £50 and formed Cornwall Canoes Ltd.
Ireland
Ireland is Ireland, surprising that!
Roundy and Bob are a bit Irish and paddling around Cork just has to be done.
Coming soon "A Canoe Shop near you in 2007".
We are always on the lookout for someone worth employing. Thus far we have had to put up with what the Job Centre sends us.
If you're called Si3 or Andy Alphabetti please please don't apply for a job with us. If your called Bob, forget it too, its the worst name in the world for a swimming kayaker!
Roundy says :
---Don't believe everything you read but somehow, although it is hard to imagine the above is mostly true, I know you will believe me being that I am the only sane member of staff.
OK so I live very far away now and never seem to get a pay check, although that maybe something to do with never showing up for work? But you can trust me, I think.
It was fun watching Bob swim but I do have one complaint --after years of asking, I am still to actually learn 'what is in the box' other than a bunch of kermuffitypuff, 'What is in the Box' ? Who the hell knows.
It is true I went paddling for months at a time and haven't showed up for work for almost 8 years and that Andy M somehow survived the ordeal of filling in for me and now I hear he turns up for work on a regular basis, I take my hat of to him he is a better man than me, although I also hear that hair loss can be attributed to stress and from what I hear Andy M is looking rather thin on top and whats more my top is down right anorexic ! Its an Italian super super super model and then some!
Is the stress from not knowing 'Whats in the box ' ? Or from having to rescue Bob from another flat water swim or perhaps both, another question unanswered? If you want to keep your hair please don't apply for the job.
Instead do what I do forget about the box and work and go kayaking somewhere nice for a long long time.