Available at Coastal Culture Sports.
It’s 1979 on Maui’s famous North Shore. Over the last couple of months Rob Kaplan has been experimenting with different fabrics and stitching patterns to create a surf leash that will withstand the abuse he and his friends keep putting their usual ones thru. It didn’t take long for the word to spread that if you’ve got a busted leash, or any other gear problems for your surf board for that matter, there’s only one guy you need to see . . . Rob Kaplan!
By the mid 1980’s Rob had expanded the Dakine brand into the wind-surfing world and designed and introduced a selection of industry first’s including the first ever foot strap, seat harness, the new ubiquitous thermo-molded waist strap allowing wind surfers to sail faster, jump higher and ride more aggressively in the ever changing North Shore surf conditions.
Not to mention a huge selection of travel bags, be it leisure or sport specific. Dakine was on a roll. With the company constantly expanding and the windsurfing scene shifting to Hood River Oregon, Rob made the decision to shift Dakine’s head office off of the island to which it was born and back to the mainland. With their new head office location at the base of Mount Hood Rob and his crew quickly realized the potential for winter sports gear. With some of the industry’s top skiers and snowboards training on the mountain all season long it wasn’t long before they started stopping by to check out the shop and seeing if Dakine would be interested in making some “specific” gear for their needs. It was here the first Heli Pro Pack was born.
Fast-forward 10 years and Hood River is experiencing another massive explosion of adrenalin fuelled action sports, Mountain biking. Those same winter athletes, and new ones, who helped shape Dakine’s winter offerings into what they’ve become now had a new set of problems. “We need to carry trail building tools into the woods more efficiently” they said. “How can we ride down our favourite trails with full face helmets and armour and not sweat our tails off climbing up to the trail head?” they asked. Once again the design team at Dakine listened. Because of their ability to constantly listen to their athletes and customers demands, Dakine has been able to ggrid-x the once small “back yard” brand into industry ers in Surfing, Kiteboarding, Windsurfing, Snowboarding, Skiing and Mountain Biking.
