A LIFETIME OF SHAPING ADVENTURE

From the jungles of Honduras to the Sierra Nevada to the backyard classics on the Arkansas River in Colorado, Zack Hughes and Mike Harvey had kayaked all over the world together by the time they both settled down in Salida, Colorado in the late 1990’s to raise their families. Mike was designing whitewater parks throughout North America and saw the possibilities for surfing rivers in a new way. Meanwhile, Zack had been tinkering with ideas for a river surfing board in Salida, shaping short river boards in his garage out of blue board home insulation. In the summer of 2009, Mike tried a paddle board on the Arkansas for the first time and immediately saw the potential for a SUP to surf a river wave. He walked over to Zack’s garage shaping bay a few blocks away, asked Zack to make him a SUP board specifically for river surfing—and Badfish was born. In 2017 the final ingredient was added to the team when former professional kayaker and longtime paddlesports industry guru Luke Hopkins came on board. Luke, Zack and Mike bring their decades of experience in paddling to designing Badfish products…without ever losing sight of that spark of creativity that started in Zack’s garage.