Ke Nalu started as an e-magazine about Stand Up Paddle Surfing in 2007. Last year we decided to add a product element to the existing magazine, concentrating on products that we believed could be improved with some disciplined testing and engineering–hence the tagline: “Powered by Physics”.

While the magazine was started by Bill Babcock, the term “we” no longer means Bill and his dog. We is:

The Designer: Lane Mead
Lane has more than 25 years of experience in composite design. He operated a surfboard production company in Maui, shaping and glassing for some of the largest shops. He also built complex carbon fiber parts for aircraft and designed and built one of the earliest molded carbon fiber kayak paddles. He is also a commercial airline pilot, and now lives in Thailand with his wife and son. Lane designed and shaped the Ke Nalu paddles, selected factories with the required equipment and experience to build these precise shapes, and oversees the production and quality of our products. He’s hard at work designing the next generation of Ke Nalu paddles and working to produce other innovative products.

The Marketer: Diane Jenkins
Diane is the co-founder of Babcock & Jenkins, an advertising agency that has been operating successfully in Portland, Oregon for twenty years. She is a graphic designer by training, and a disciplined business operations expert by necessity. Diane is responsible for the artistic elements of Ke Nalu as well as keeping the financial and operational sides on the straight and narrow.

The Geek: Bill Babcock
Bill is responsible for the test and measurement side of designing our products. We believe we can make incremental improvements to how products work by understanding their current performance and limitations. A good example of that is the measurements we made using existing paddles that helped us decide areas of improvement. Bill also does the web development, writes articles, does general testing and corresponds with our customers and prospects through social networks. Bill and Diane are married and live in Hood River and Maui–arguably the two best places in the world to develop SUP products.

The Dog: Sam
Sam is still an important member of the team, providing useful insight on random things like birds, or the likelihood that small children will drop food. Here he is pointing out that he has inexplicably discovered a pumpkin on our steps.