ESCONDIDO, Calif. (KGTV) — First it was toilet paper and now there are reports of a shortage of outdoor recreational equipment, specifically kayaks. But one local business owner says San Diego is ready to meet the demand during the COVID pandemic.
Bruce Damon, the owner of Nomad Ventures in Escondido, says after a 10-week shutdown they are back serving outdoor enthusiasts.
"We're just hoping that people can get out and enjoy themselves safely, and kayaking was one of the first things that I understood was considered a safe endeavor," says Damon.
In what came as a surprise to Damon, he saw media reports saying kayaks were in short supply due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That hasn't been the case at Nomad Ventures
"We've had the busiest year as far as I can remember in terms of kayaks selling a lot of kayaks here," Damon said.
So to say there is a kayak shortage, at least in San Diego, would not be accurate as far as Damon is concerned.
"Our shutdown was right when we were at complete inventory," Damon said. "Stock levels were high, and when we reopened, we had stock."
He was quite alarmed when customers were steered towards shopping online when his shop was completely full of outdoor products.
"We have back stock in storage units that we pull from to restock the store. We just picked up a new load of five kayaks, so we are fortunate that we have product," Damon said.
His message to customers in the market for a new kayak is quite simple, shop small business and local.
"We've been in business 40 years, so we felt it was important to get our message out. We are open and we have product," says Damon.
