Independent Retailer Spotlight: The Complete Paddler (Ontario, Canada)
4-minute read
The Complete Paddler (TCP) has been North America’s largest paddlesports shop since 2005. Its Toronto headquarters is just minutes from Lake Ontario and just a couple of hours from some of Canada’s best canoeing destinations.
Brand new canoes ready for the showroom floor
TCP’s 10,000-square-foot warehouse provides a home for its extensive retail sales department, rental shop and repair shop. It also serves as the base for the courses, tours and movie nights they offer.
A Brief History of TCP
When current president and owner Kelly McDowell started with the company in 2004 it was called Evergreen Canoes. He had just returned to Canada after traveling abroad as a sea kayak guide for ten years.
“My family is from Ontario so I stopped there first,” he said. “My destination was the west coast of Canada because that’s where the best sea kayaking was—or what I thought was the best. But the competition’s high for guides there. Some were working for free just for the lifestyle. So there wasn’t a lot of opportunity.
“I opened up the Yellow Pages (back then we didn’t have internet in the house), looked up canoe and kayak shops, came to the closest one and it happened to be Evergreen Canoes.
“So I applied and they hired me on the spot. They knew a lot about canoes but nothing about kayaks. They wanted to hire a kayak instructor to start some of their courses. So that’s when I started to bring kayaks into Evergreen.”
Kelly bought the business in 2007 and renamed it The Complete Paddler to better represent how their offerings had expanded.
Chris Wrath of Nova Craft Canoes (based in London, Ontario) bought in to TCP as a business partner in 2020. They’ve been working together ever since.
The Complete Paddler’s Specialty Areas
TCP is a full-service paddlesports shop. They sell canoes, kayaks of all kinds, paddleboards, PFDs, paddles, whitewater accessories, apparel and more. They also have team members who specialize in repairing and restoring canoes.
The team offers courses in Intro to Kayaking and Rescue and Learn to Roll on nearby Lake Ontario or in a local pool. They also offer Paddle Canada Level 1 Certification courses for sea kayaking.
Toronto Islands sunset tour looking over the cityscape
TCP runs sunset tours to Toronto Islands, a popular paddling spot just a few minutes away from their building. The tours are especially helpful for first-time paddlers and those looking to buy a boat who’d love to test one or two out first. But anyone eager for a sunset view of the downtown skyline is welcome.
TCP has a robust rental department with its fleet of canoes, sea kayaks, rec kayaks and paddleboards. Their website recently upgraded to an online booking system to better serve their rental customers. People can rent for a day or for up to seven days if they want to bring canoes and gear to one of the wilderness tripping areas not far to the north of Toronto.
TCP stocks plenty of kayak fishing boats, paddles and gear
Flat Rate Shipping Across Canada
At the time of our interview, Kelly and his team had just completed an exciting website update that makes them the first company in Canada to offer flat rate shipping for oversized items like canoes and kayaks. After just the first week they saw a dramatic increase in their online sales.
Kelly said, “When you try to get a canoe or kayak shipped to your door, every Canadian website—including ours—would say to call for a quote. That’s a huge barrier for a lot of people. We spent 10 months updating our website so we could change that. Now we offer flat-rate shipping quotes instantly for almost every postal code in Canada—all the major cities.
“We use what I refer to as our ‘intelligent box system’ that gives customers live rates right in their checkout. The website re-calculates the new box automatically for each item added to their cart.”
TCP’s flat-rate shipping is a huge benefit for their local customers too. “We just became the worst city in North America for traffic,” said Kelly. “I did a delivery a couple weeks ago. It took me three hours to get from the store to the other side of Toronto and back. Now people don’t have to cross the city to buy from us.”
The Complete Paddler’s owner and president, Kelly McDowell
The Best Canoe Tripping Spots Near The Complete Paddler
We asked Kelly where his favorite canoeing spots are near him. While he does every style of paddling—whitewater canoeing, whitewater kayaking, sea kayaking—he does canoe tripping more than anything. “Mostly because it’s my wife’s favorite,” he said.
“We like to go to Algonquin [Provincial Park], Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park or Georgian Bay. They’re all only a couple hours drive north from the city.”
Learn more about The Complete Paddler on their website. You’ll also find them on Facebook and Instagram.
All photos courtesy of The Complete Paddler.
What paddling questions can our friendly Customer Service team help you with? Contact us here: 715-755-3405 or [email protected]
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