Worlds 1st fully custom inflatable paddleboards by Water Rascal Ltd

There you have it folks you read it correct “Custom made inflatable paddle boards with no minimum order” here at Water Rascal just for you.

To all who know me on my LinkedIn network, I am an entrepreneur and a business owner in the commercial lighting industry. My passion has always remained in manufacturing bespoke lighting systems and will continue for many years to come. I can now add to this love affair in business after investing in my accidental idea which has quickly turned into an exciting opportunity in this family valued water sports arena.

Made for you, a one off bespoke custom designed inflatable paddleboard in your style, your graphics including printed photograph image/s.

Whether you’re a business owner wanting to advertise your company on a Paddle board, Captain of a Yacht wanting the same name and print on a board or Jet ski Dock to match your beautiful boat CI, an individual wanting something special and unique to you and you alone or an interior designer wanting some funky piece of inflatable wall art this service is for you.

The strange Storey of how this opportunity came about:

I am the original Water Rascal and have been since I was a young child, always being drawn to the call of the ocean waves, lakes and rivers around our beautiful coastal and Inland UK waters. Wind surfing / surfing / boating / Wakeboarding / fishing / snorkelling and diving to name a few, only age and fitness (mainly fitness) has stopped me from continuing some of these adventures, So I decided I wanted to take up Paddle Boarding, a sport I can continue to do for many years and well into retirement and beyond in partnership with my children and grandson no matter what my fitness level will be. On the water is where I find my true inner self and my happy place away from the stresses of commercial life as a business owner and employer.

I have never been one to buy cheap off the shelf items and as the saying goes “you get what you pay for” neither did I want to spend out on a more expensive board with a well known high street brand at the huge cost they are just because of a name, and not to mention there are so many of the same board designs owned by 100’s if not 1000’s of people.

I wanted to be different; I wanted a one of a kind inflatable Paddleboard that only I have with graphics or images in my own style and design matching my personality! I am a unique individual what can I say. This proved very difficult if not impossible to find, the go to Brand names were a minimum order of 100 boards for any single print with limited colours and designs to choose from. I was willing to spend a lot of money on my own Paddleboard but no company that I approached would give me the time of day for just a one board design to purchase, I was told it could not be done. I was very frustrated and felt there had to be a way around this.

I am in a very unique position as a current business owner and employer of inhouse designers, I was already set up to design my own Paddleboard, and as a custom lighting manufacturer I had access to worldwide manufacturing companies and colleagues to share my frustrations with and take advice from. Several months later my colleagues found and introduced me to the real true inflatable manufacturers, those who build the products rather than the usual distributers and 3rd parties claiming to be manufacturers one has to go through, which seems to be the normal process.

The door was open, the initial quoted price for a one off designed board was extremely high way way out of my budget, once I explained the design would be supplied in the required format on the required software and template the cost came back below the budget I originally set myself, this is solely due to the design already being done by my team, this is where the cost is, in specialist design time. Negotiations for just one board was complete and finalized leaving my entrepreneurial mind telling what a great idea it would be to share this with others, as I am sure many would love a bespoke unique one of a kind inflatable Paddleboard (The Light bulb moment, excuse the phrase).

I spent time on a business plan including the usual SWOT and PESTLE analysis taking on board everything I have learnt over the last 25 years in business only to confirm to myself if this was in fact a worthwhile idea to invest in and offer this service to the public and BtoB professionals alike. The result on paper was looking great as a potential investment for a small start-up part time hobby. I decided to go for it and invest some of my retirement savings, a gamble every businessperson knows all too well.

Before my team and I even put pen to paper many of my close entrepreneurial friends and business colleagues who I talked with to take advice had spread the word amongst their friend’s network, after a short time I was inundated with emails requesting a reserve of my designers time to design one-off custom boards for them when/if we launch. Most of these designing around their own company logos and names (which is Tax Deductible of course in any companies marketing budget).

I had no web site, no content, no finished product (Actually no product at all) only ideas and a vision. The friends network resulted in a very healthy verbal forward order book without any advertisement or marketing. This was now looking like a great small business opportunity in a fast growing young industry, an industry I never imagined I would have the opportunity to be involved in only to enjoy in my spare time. An entrepreneurs dream!

I needed help to bring this to life as a small business model so, I decided to share this new start-up with my 2 very long serving design managers, loyalty goes both ways in life as it does in business and believe me, they deserve it. With their help and strong design flare and newfound passion we stayed late into the evenings and came up with the company name whilst creating the Brand, the start of Water Rascal Ltd. Watching my 2 design managers take the lead creating the brand and CI, I witnessed them turn into young Entrepreneurs in front of my eyes that just filled me with pride.

After receiving my custom board we were blown away with the quality and workmanship, I was so happy to finally have my very own one of a kind paddleboard that I designed, so we designed a few more as a further test this time investing in and own branding all the accessories and bags to our CI. We created the ecommerce website waterrascal.co.uk and after just 6 months building, designing the brand, testing and brain storming we launched on 22nd November 2021 just a few days ago.

My initial business plan was this: a part time joyful escape from the commercial world enjoying this in our spare time as a hobby generating a small amount of Return Of Investment. I could not of been more wrong with my initial assumptions. Thanks to my commercial friend’s networking and spreading the word after just a few days of launching our order book filled up with orders coming in from World Wide locations, we are now employing a few full time designers to keep up with demand.

It's funny what life throws at you and the opportunities that come about in one’s life, I decided this accidental opportunity was not to be missed, but to enjoy and embrace and see where it takes me, after all what’s the worst that could happen? I lose all my financial investment, and that’s the calculated risk every entrepreneur makes time and time again.

I am unique and I want to be different from everybody else, I go against the tide and always have, it’s just me and who I am. Maybe this is the reason I remained in the custom manufacturing industry for many years and look forward to many more alongside this beautiful, family valued and highly respected leisure industry in this magnificent sports arena.

We can design and print your Graphics, print photo’s (Min 300DPI higher the better) or logos on your inflatable board and ship to worldwide locations so please, check out the website and spread the word and start ordering and remember, nobody in this world will have the same inflatable paddleboard as you, you will stand out from the rest and be unique just like me!

Your unique adventure begins here!

#BeARascal

Contact us at [email protected] or visit our website www.waterrascal.co.uk