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So it ’ s not all bad , I suppose , if you ’ re someone like me looking for product testers , or you ’ re someone of Marc ’ s fantastic skill set looking for sponsors . But if you ’ re paying retail for your gear , and everything you own seems to be ‘ poorly built ’ ( regardless of brand or sport – “ it ’ s all built like crap ”), perhaps it ’ s not the equipment that ' s the problem ?
PRODUCT TESTING The flip side of this is that I ’ m a terrible product tester when it comes to seeing how gear will fail . I take such good care of my equipment that nothing breaks . But I have friends who paddle my boats that are ‘ Karl lite ’. It ’ s accelerated testing in my eyes . These guys will break in weeks what most people take seasons to break . Want to know what ’ s going to fail ? Give it to them – you ’ ll get your answer quickly , which helps bring the product to market faster as you quickly learn what ’ s going to break and how .
I ’ ve tried to treat gear I ’ m testing like this . But I don ’ t seem able to break it , no matter how hard I use the gear or how hard I abuse it ‘ in normal use ’. When it comes to breaking things , I simply don ’ t have the Midas touch . One of my friends , Marc Godbout , I now sponsor . On top of being the 2016 two-time World Cup freestyle silver medalist , Marc destroys everything I give him . Paddles , boats – it doesn ’ t matter . If there is something that ’ s going to fail , Marc will find it and find it fast .
MORE ATTUNED TO THE PHENOMENON I ’ m not a psychologist . I have no clue what our upbringing or personality makes us one or the other , but since my days in the 1990s with Karl , I ’ ve become far more attuned to the phenomenon . I know that I ’ m teaching him to look after his stuff in my son ’ s case and have explained the performance advantage as to why . Would he have been one of the careful ones anyway ? Or would he have been a breaker , and I have cured him ? I ’ ll never know , I suppose .
As a boatbuilder , I ’ ve learned to spot this when I get an ‘ it just broke ’ email , and I see that everything around the broken part looks like it ’ s on its last legs too . Yeah , my product isn ’ t defective , mate . You just broke it !
So which one are you ? Are you the sort of person that looks after their gear , or are you that other ‘ happy go lucky ’ one that ’ s always wondering why nothing seems to last or work properly for long ? I ’ m not picking on either one , just giving the readers a chance to reflect a little and ponder over this .