Wow you guys and gals are a rough crowd! As I scratch sawdust from my hair after ripping strips all day I sit here writing this. We try and run our business as open and responsive as possible. When we developed our web site we had no intention to upset anyone. We started building wood boats because we love it. As with many small wood boat companies we are just happy to get an order, build it well and get paid enough to pay our bills every month.

We had no photos in a “fancy” fashion. When it came time to build a web site we had the choice of either making it look like a family photo album or find some other way to make it look professional. It would have been cost prohibitive in materials and labor for us to spend months building inventory boats to take "fancy" pictures of, then buy all the software you need to build a web site.

We searched for photos of wood kayaks in available public photo databases and there were only a few. We consulted with our legal counsel and it was recommended that even if we purchased the rights to use these photos we could get into trouble by using them on our web site to sell our boats. Kind of like using the picture of a Ford car on a GM web site selling cars. Therefore we used scale models we had in our shop that we use to show customers our boats. We used these photos on our web sites only for “ambiance” shots. We tried to make sure that on no pages where we say this is model “x” do we show a “fancy” photo. And more importantly no one was out there to sue us like Ford suing GM for using other pictures. If we missed any let us know.

For our boat artistic styles we originally developed this design technique to communicate with customers a representation of their chosen wood strip designs, rather than using faxes and mailing hand colored drawings. We did this to make sure the customer was able to see a representation of the designs they wanted. On our web site we offer approximately 1,000 different designs and wood combinations for our kayaks. We could have made more but at a point it becomes too confusing and complicated to manage. When we build our 1,000th kayak everyone here will be astounded, very very old and gray.

Using this display technique we hoped to show to customers the beauty of the wood strip construction technique. All of the designs are based on the actual lines of the boats we offer. We made them as representative as possible so customers can get a good idea of what they are buying rather than leaving them guessing as to what they will get.

Since we also “custom fit” every kayak to customers when the customer selects their body dimensions the kayak we ship is actually shorter, longer, wider or skinnier based on their body size. Every kayak and kit we ship is custom designed and built for that customer. On our web site we only show the “base” model dimensions in the boat pictures. Proportionally pixel for pixel they are as accurate as we could measure, but then re-adjusting them on-line as the customer set their body dimensions would have been well beyond our level of ability and resources.

We also consulted our legal counsel about placing a disclaimer on the web sites regarding this, we thought we would and wanted to get the wording right, as usual with lawyers it was expensive and they told us “no not needed.” Their explanation, when Brooke Shields’ face is attached to the body of another person on a magazine there is no disclaimer. When the interactive car color green is selected when you “build a car” on the GM web site there is not a disclaimer the car was actually white when the picture was taken. When a wire frame kayak diagram is shown on a web site there is no disclaimer that this is not an actual kayak. When Jeep shows their car on the top of a mountain there is no disclaimer that this Jeep was never on that mountain.

Yes, when we have the money to hire a professional photographer and carry a full inventory of shiney boats that we don't sell at the drop of a hat, we will put up some "fancy" glossy images to which we all have grown accustomed.

In sum, we just wanted to build our web sites so they are interesting, informational and something people would enjoy. We tried to be as accurate, thorough and legal as possible with the resources we had. We’ll add to them as time and money permits so thank you to everyone that has sent us suggestions on ways we can add to and improve them. We hope you enjoy them and have fun paddling.

Best regards,

Eric Lazo
Benner Boat Company
Action Fish Kayaks