Pacific Paddler October 2017 - 27

Ozone: Mike Giblin on building canoes
By Naim Ferguson

Ozone was founded by canoe designer
Mike Giblin. Based in Maui, the mecca of
ocean sports and home to a strong paddling
community. The journey from made-onMaui hand-layup canoes to factory single
piece pre-preg carbon canoes is one that has
tested and shaped Mike and his company
into what they are today.
I rode along with Mike as he ran errands
on Maui to ask him questions about the
company and his experience.
Q) So let's start in the beginning. How did you end up
in Maui?

I spent a few months here after college, before
starting work in NYC. I think a lot of paddlers
can understand the pull of the ocean and the
islands. I spent a couple of years resisting that pull.
Sometimes it's better just to give in and follow your
heart.

Q) How did you get introduced to canoe paddling?

A friend, Lindsey Richman, was coaching
Novice B at Hawaiian and said, "Brah, you
should paddle!". Dave and I both joined and
recruited the rest of our friends to paddle.

Q)Where did you learn to make canoes?

Dave Ward and I had started Maui Fiberglass in the
garage. We built anything we could get paid for from cattle troughs and fish boxes to water tanks for
HC&S. The idea was to get experience with fiberglass any way possible.

Q)When did you make your first canoe?

Dianna Ho, president of the club asked if I could
build an OC6 for the club. "I need this canoe in 30
days," she said. Dave and I looked at each other and
said, "How much we talking here?" We built the
molds and the first canoe in an open shed with a dirt
floor in a month. Things have changed since then.

Q) At what point did OC1 come into the picture?

By strange coincidence, Daniel Waadt moved into
the downstairs unit of the house we were renting.
He was studying Naval architecture, and stashed the
plug for 20' catamaran he was working on under the
stairs. Crazy guy, but fun to work with. We collaborated on a couple of powerboats. Eventually he
moved to Oahu and designed an OC1, the Makani.
Great boat, way before its time, but he had no ties
to the paddling world and couldn't sell them. So we
bought the molds from him. They arrived at YB on a
Tuesday. We finished the first one in time for a race
that Saturday.

Q) That's quick. Who raced the canoe?

We showed up to the beach and my coach Lindsey
turned to me and said I should race. I'm like,
"What? No." I'd been on a one man once for about
5 minutes.. Lindsey said, "only difference on a one
man vs six man, you have to stay smooth and you
can't bounce the boat around." I reluctantly paddled
up next to Mark Clooney, who was the fastest canoe
paddler on Maui at the time. Someone, probably

Ricky Balidoy said, 'Hey Clooney, give us chance!"
Mark pointed at me and said, "it's this guy you
should worry about". Again, I'm like "what?" The
field jumped off the start and left me in their wake,
but I put my head down and just paddled as hard as I
could. The canoe was bouncing all around and I was
doing everything wrong, but I was gaining. I knew
if I could smooth it out I would pass him. I did and
won the race. I should have quit paddling right then
and there - best day ever.
When I got back to the beach people were lining up
to ask about the canoe and how to get one. We took
orders for eleven canoes that day and never looked
back.

Q) So you established yourself on Maui. How soon
after that are you guys building canoes and making a
name for yourself on the scene?

We built canoes and paddled a lot. The lifestyle was
great. Building canoes is really gratifying. But
as time went on, we couldn't get past working for
wages. Growing the business meant more paperwork, more taxes and more stress. We were stuck.
Dave Ward decided to go back to business school,
and I started thinking about how to move forward.

Q) I sense this is where things started to evolve for
you. Did you start looking overseas now?

A friend of mine, Kai Hopf, was the sail designer
for North Sails. North had their production in Sri
Lanka and he offered to help me set something up in
Columbo. So I cut up some molds, wrapped them in
cardboard, checked them as oversized luggage, and
flew to Sri Lanka.
The whole enterprise in Sri Lanka was pretty shortlived, but a lot of good came from it. Sri Lanka
was in the middle of a 25-year long civil war so
it was nearly impossible to get things in a hurry.
Pretty quick you learn that you gotta be able to get
supplies.
I also got my first look at carbon prepreg in Sri
Lanka. Bernie Brandstatter, who was running
North's production introduced me to John Hoboken.
He ran a company making carbon fiber tennis and
badminton racquets out of prepreg. John gave
me access to every detail of their production and
patiently answered thousands of questions. I realized really quickly that carbon prepreg canoes was
the endgame.
They were shutting down the factory and John was
going to run things in Malaysia and suggested that
I bring the canoe business there, which I did, later.

Q) When did you start thinking about improving
designs and building the Hurricane?

Back on Maui, Wendy was working with North Sails
as a seamstress making prototype sails. They were
making 2 or 3 prototypes a week and testing them
all. Kai Hopf did the designs on the computer, and
she plotted them out with a 2-axis plotter onto sailcloth, then stitched them together ready for the team
riders to test the next day.
I couldn't stop thinking about how great it would
be to be able to prototype canoes the way they did
sails. Of course, canoes would be more difficult, but
I built a 3-axis CNC router in an old Matson shipping container with parts from catalogs and some

steel I scavenged from the abandoned overhead hoist
that was in the shop. It worked surprisingly well. I
made a bunch of prototypes refining along the way.
The result was the Hurricane.

Q) Did you build the Hurricane in Maui or overseas?

After Sri Lanka tanked, I was back in Survival
Mode. While developing the Hurricane, I had bills
to pay so we made a bunch of fiberglass whales and
a really big sailing canoe for Mike Muller. After
making a few Hurricanes on Maui, I sent the molds
to John Hoboken In Malaysia. Matt Fullard-Leo,
who had been working with me on Maui building
the prototypes, stepped in to help make Malaysia
happen. We alternated three-month watches at
the factory. We had our first real taste of success
with the Hurricane. Jim and John Foti endorsed
the canoe and helped us connect with people like
Chris Maynard in Australia and Tim Dougherty in
California.
But the quality wasn't improving and we were struggling to keep it up. Matt tapped out, and I'm at
another decision point.
By now I had a hard learned lesson that quality
comes from quality people. The turnover of the staff
in Malaysia was too high, and it wasn't going to
change. It was time to look elsewhere.
China was the center for manufacturing by this
time, it had opened up to the west and the supply
chain was off the hook. I had some reservations,
but I knew that moving to China would improve the
product quality and accessibility. We would be in the
epicenter.
I got to work learning Chinese and lived in the
factory dorm, overseeing every aspect of production and training the staff. Things really accelerated.
Once in the new facility we started new techniques
and methods in construction, shipped in two autoclaves from the US, and I became focused on quality
at scale.
And damn if it didn't happen again. Just when
things are really rolling, the fan got hit, hard. The
owner of the company that I was working with
figured he wanted to take over the canoe business.
So I told him to stick it and went to a hotel and cried.
No, I didn't, but I should have. Instead I called
Wendy, who was near term with Keala, and started
discussing what to do next.
China had recently changed the rules regarding
foreign ownership and it was now possible to set
up a WOFE (Wholly-Owned Foreign Enterprise).
Basically, I could set up my own business in China,
without a Chinese partner, and run things my way!.
I had come to love China as a place to work. The
pace is fantastic. The whole country was making up
a fifty year deficit in a decade. For the first time I
felt like I was driving a Mech, like Sigorney Weaver
in Alien 2 or 3 or whatever. I commanded legions.
Ok, that's too much, but you get the idea. I could
leverage my canoe builder skills into something
much bigger. Much like I had found a home in
Maui, Ozone found it's place in Weihai.
Weihai was a fishing village for all but about 30 of
the last 1500 years. With a strong heritage in fishing,
it became the center of carbon fishing rod production

OCTOBER 2017

PACIFICPADDLER.com

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pacific Paddler October 2017