The solution, we agreed, was to run an essay question and the person who sent in the most compelling essay as to why they deserved a FREE van, would receive it. Then we decided that the best way to judge the contest was to let the readers of Windsurfing Magazine pick the winner.

So the essays rolled in, and there were some doozies. We narrowed it down to eight finalists and published them on the Windsurfing Magazine website. Cheating was highly encouraged: convince all your friends, relatives and casual acquaintances to vote for you. Do whatever it takes to get those votes—get creative, get down and dirty!

A month later when the votes were tallied, the clear winner was 16-year-old Marek Prussak from Seattle. What??? A 16-year-old wins a free car? Heck – he didn’t even have his drivers license!

He drove down to Hood River with his family (all fanatical windsurfers) to meet the owner of Shockles (and the van) as well as the Editor of Windsurfing Magazine. This was one happy boy, I’ll tell you. His father loaded up the van with enough emergency gear to hopefully get them back to Seattle (this was, after all a 26-year-old van with 130,000 miles on it) and off they went.

So our Shockles van has a new home, and from what we can tell, it’s a good one. Indeed, it apparently serves many purposes, from transportation to equipment storage to camping cottage to billboard. Marek posted this photo of his invite to his girlfriend Annalise to the homecoming dance at his high school. We weren’t sure if Annalise’s last name was Shockles, or if he was inviting her to the Shockles Homecoming.

In any event, if you happen to be in Seattle and see the big white Shockles van weaving it’s way through traffic (at a top speed of 50mph… downhill), give a wave to Marek. He’s a great kid!

“You won’t need anything custom,” company president Eric Sanford told them. “Our regular Mini-Shockles and ShockStraps will do the trick. Trust me, they won’t break.”

Well, the 25,000 miles turned into 42,000 miles and included thirty-three crashes between the two of them (Wade was the “winner” with nineteen, including two which sent him to the hospital and one which cracked the frame of his 900# motorcycle.

“Those Shockes are amazing,” said Phillip. “One of the best pieces of gear we had. I never had to worry about my bags coming loose, and trust me we were on some pretty rough roads. We could have sold a thousand ShockStraps along the way from people who saw how well they worked. Bloody awesome!”

Just to make sure they were telling the truth, Sanford showed up in Patagonia to welcome them at the finish of their ride. “It was an amazing accomplishment,” he said. “I tested some of the original ShockStraps when I was riding my moto in Patagona eight years ago. It’s great to know they’re still working as designed.”

Now the trio of motor-heads is heading to Antartica, but leaving their motorcycles behind and going by boat instead. “I bet I can find some good uses for Shockles on board this boat,” mused Sanford as they boarded the expedition ship for the ice.

And what better way to securely attach all that gear to the bouncing sleds than with Shockles ShockStraps. After several days and many miles of wild riding over all sorts of terrain, they had exactly ZERO strap failures: their gear never came loose, and they could load it on and off their sleds in just seconds. The whole crew is now totally sold on ShockStraps.

Shockles Anchor Snubber

Joan Croft, past Commander of the Cape Cod Sail and Power Squadron, is working on revising the chapter on anchoring for their 100-year-old non-profit organization’s Cruise Planning Manual.

They educate their members and the public in boating safety and provide courses from seamanship to celestial navigation as well as electives in marine electronics, engine maintenance, sail, weather, and cruise planning. The Cruise Planning Manual is being totally revamped. As Joan puts it,

“It needs quite a bit of updating related to equipment and techniques. Through www.MyBoatsGear.com, I found your product and photos on your site.”

She has identified the Shockles Anchor Snubber as a great way to reduce shock to anchor chain, and will suggest their use in the updated manual, as well as show photos of the Anchor Snubber in use. We’re happy we could help out by providing yet another great Shockles product!

No promotional codes required, no need to add it to your cart. Just order 2 Line Snubbers and we’ll automatically include in a free pair of LineGrabbers with your order.

Our latest project is designing and making custom Shockles for the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research institute (quite a mouthful). The Institute (www.mbari.org) has a series of ocean sensors that they deploy in various locations. These consist of a 600# device that needs to be anchored to the ocean floor so that it remains about twenty feet below the surface. Obviously it is subjected to tides and currents that want to move it up and down during it’s month-long stay under water.

To alleviate the potentially damaging shock of having a static tether to this sensor (that would also not allow it to remain at a fairly constant depth), the MBARI scientists came to us to design a system that would solve their problem.

While the sensor pod weighs 600# on the surface, it’s buoyancy is only 200# when submerged. So we had to design a system that held it at a steady twenty feet below the ocean surface, while at the same time allowing it to go up and down at least five feet in either direction – meaning the Shockle is under constant tension yet able to stretch and retract continuously with a 200# force.

More than that, the Shockle needs to be strong. Very strong, since it will also bear the force of lifting the sensor buoy and the anchor (actually a 500# iron railroad wheel that will be buried in the mud after a month on the ocean floor) when it is retrieved. This is where our patented ‘limiter’ technology comes in. Not only does it control the ultimate movement of the buoy by limiting how far the internal shock cord can stretch, but it also serves as a strength member. For this project the limiter is made from 3/8” Dyneema, a polyethylene fiber rated to 19,700# (www.dyneema.com).

We’ve just delivered the first of six units for testing. The MBARI staff is going to hitch the giant Shockle (stretches from 9’ to 18’) to a crane and lift a 5,000# weight with it (equivalent to a Ford F350 diesel truck). That’s going to be one strong Shockle! Then it gets hitched to the sensor, put on a boat and taken out to sea. We’ve been invited to come along on the launch voyage – so there are occasionally perks to this job!

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute Current Projects

Antipodes

We recently got a note from Randy Sysol who just traded his 34’, 12-ton fiberglass Californian trawler for a 55’, 50-ton custom steel trawler made by Yachtsmiths in Nova Scotia. Yahoo!!! Because his new beauty is a pretty sizable boat, he ties her to the dock with five, 1” thick dock lines.

The problem is, in the marina where he is docked (Ensenada, Mexico) there is a significant surge during the winter – enough so that, as Randy says, “The stress on the lines and cleats is impressive to say the least.” He went on to say, “We’re looking for a quality snubber solution that would reduce the strain on the docklines and cleats. We’re also hoping that the product would eliminate the creaking of the lines when under pressure. Our steel hull likes to amplify this sound and it makes for a long night when the boat is moving a lot. Can you suggest the proper product or products from your company that could help us?”

In reality, the Shockles Line Snubber would be hard pressed to completely solve this problem on a boat so heavy. So we put our heads together and came up with the perfect solution: we made up some custom ‘double Shockles’ for Randy and his boat, Antipodes.

By hitching two Line Snubbers side by side onto one carabiner, we were able to double the shock absorbing characteristics of the Shockles—more than enough to take both the stress and the noise from his dock lines and hardware. He attached them to his five lines using LineGrabbers so that he could easily adjust them for just the right amount of tension.

Randy and Antipodes are now happily sitting at the dock, safe, quiet and secure while the ocean swirls around them.

We have all our toys on board—from folding bicycles to dive and fishing gear—including, of course, our inflatable kayaks and inflatable stand-up paddle boards (SUP).

Being far too lazy to inflate and deflate our SUPs all the time, we just leave them inflated and strap them to the side of the flying bridge with our handy ShockStraps. The ShockStrap is by far the fastest, easiest, safest and BEST way to tie down any inflatable toy on a boat. We just haul the board up along side the flying bridge railing, clip a ShockStrap front and back, cinch it up and there we go: solid in any conditions.

But the best part is that we don’t have to worry about the board getting pinched too hard in hot weather when it expands (or coming loose in cold weather when it shrinks). The stretch portion of the ShockStrap is just snug enough to keep it perfectly secured.

In fact, when we were putting Shockles (the boat, not the company) to bed for the winter, we decided to just leave the SUPs ‘shockled’ to the boat for the winter. We’re not worried about them coming loose, even in the harshest northwest winter storms. The boards stay nice and firm up against the railings.

Now it’s time for our winter boat: Jangada. Jangada (www.jangadacat.com) is a 42’ Fountain Pajot catamaran we keep in Mexico for trips down south when we need to get our heads out of the cold northwest winters and into the sunshine. Of course we have lots of toys of there as well; and lots of ShockStraps keeping them secure.

We’ve been paring back our costs as much as we possibly can in an effort to make our products as affordable as they are good. This isn’t an easy process when your goal is to make the best products you possibly can!

We could use cheaper materials, cheaper manufacturing, cheaper parts, and irregular quality, but that’s not our goal. We wouldn’t trust our boats, boards, bikes and other gear to poor quality tie-down straps and securing systems and we don’t want you to either. We could use cheaper carabiners and flimsy webbing but safety and security is our first priority with our products.

So where can we cut costs? Where can we try to save you money?

One place is with our shipping. Unfortunately there’s a lot that goes into processing an order and shipping our products. It goes through our communication system ($), our computer system ($), our order processing system ($), and onto our shipping department ($$$). We pay them well because we want your order to go out quickly, smoothly, efficiently and promptly. We have to pack your products securely ($), weight the packages and determine the best way to ship ($), put on labels and seal the boxes ($), then get your order out the door and onto the truck (the fastest and cheapest way we can get your package to you). Oh yeah: $$$$$$.

In reality, it costs us no less than $10 to ship even the smallest product. Pack up and ship a ten pound package and it can cost us up to $35, and our costs are doing nothing but going up. While some big companies (REI, Eddie Bauer, Patagonia, West Marine, etc.) can negotiate better shipping rates with their carriers because of the big volume they do, we’re a tiny company and when we inquire about a better shipping rate (or cheaper boxes or packing materials) they just laugh at us.

While it’s standard policy for most companies to simply pass on the shipping costs (and usually a 20% – 40% profit for the shipping as well) to their customers, this is one place where we’ve decided to help you out. We recently reduced our minimum order for free ground shipping from a $100 purchase to a $75 purchase. While this might not seem like a big deal, it’s something we’re willing to do to help our customers during these tough economic times. And we can do it without having to reduce the quality of our products or our service.

We’re doing everything we can to keep our prices reasonable and provide you with great products.