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Shane Camden of Timber Longboard Co. in New Haven is photographed on one of his custom paddleboards floating on the Missouri River on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. The board is made of Western red cedar over a foam shell. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Shane Camden's custom paddleboard is made of burled redwood, photographed outside his Timber Longboard Co. in New Haven on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Shane and Stacy Camden of Timber Longboard Co. in New Haven are photographed beside one of Shane's custom-built recreation paddleboards, made of burled redwood, on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
A custom paddleboard built by Timber Longboard Co. owner Shane Camden is made of Western red cedar, with basswood and Purpleheart accents, photographed in downtown New Haven on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
The nose of a custom paddleboard built by Timber Longboard Co. owner Shane Camden is made of Western red cedar, with basswood and Purpleheart accents, photographed at his New Haven office on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
A custom paddleboard built by Timber Longboard Co. owner Shane Camden is made of Western red cedar, with basswood and Purpleheart accents, photographed in downtown New Haven on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Shane Camden of Timber Longboard Co. in New Haven is photographed on one of his custom paddleboards floating on the Missouri River on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. The board is made of Western red cedar over a foam shell. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Shane and Stacy Camden are photographed beside one of his custom-built recreation paddleboards, made of burled redwood, on Aug. 3. Camden, who started his company in his Webster Groves basement, now works in New Haven. (Photo by Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch)
NEW HAVEN — Hand-crafted paddleboards, river excursions and, soon, a brewery. In less than a decade, an area carpenter-turned-entrepreneur has opened three businesses.
Shane Camden was working for a homebuilder in 2012 when his wife, Stacy, asked if he could build her a stand-up paddleboard. With help from YouTube, plus plenty of trial and error, Camden crafted a gleaming board of red cedar, with a foam core and a carbon fiber coating on the bottom. He built another one for himself.
And an entrepreneurial wave was under way.
Camden began making paddleboards, surfboards, and wakeboards in the basement of his Webster Groves home, under the name Timber Longboard Co. He embellished each with inlaid exotic woods. His paddleboards feature alternating stripes of light and dark-stained woods, for a look that harkens back to the retro days of surfing.
“No two boards are alike,” Camden said. “People appreciate having something that no one else has.”
Camden found his biggest audience in the river racing community, so eventually he stopped making surfboards and concentrated on paddleboards. They’re up to 18 feet long, designed for speed on big rivers like the Missouri and Mississippi.
In 2018, Camden quit his day job and plunged into the paddleboard business full time. Sales were good — the boards range from $1,500 to $3,000 — but the hours invested in each piece made it a tough way to make a living. The couple has two children, and at the time Stacy Camden was a teacher in the Webster Groves School District.
Camden thought canoe and paddleboard rental and shuttles on the Missouri River could supplement his income. In 2019, he bought an old building in the river town of New Haven, near Washington, to accommodate his board-building, plus rentals and guided tours. He called the tour business Paddle Stop New Haven.
“That decision was based purely off profit,” Camden said. “The boards are hand-crafted pieces that take hours and hours to make. They look great when they’re done, but it’s a labor of love.”
Since then, Camden, 44, has been shuttling paddleboard racers and float-trippers between Hermann, New Haven and St. Charles. He purchased a fleet of canoes and kayaks and offers guided day trips as well as sunset and full moon excursions.
He and his wife, 43, who quit teaching, now also take groups out on a 26-foot, 12-person canoe that Camden completed last winter. He named the vessel “Eliza Haycraft” in honor of a plucky young mid-Missouri woman who, the story goes, escaped her oppressive father in the mid-1800s, stealing a canoe and paddling to Hermann. There, she sold the canoe and bought a steamship ticket to St. Louis, where she launched a career as a brothel owner-turned-philanthropist.
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“It’s a very strong female story,” Camden said. “She had the guts to steal a canoe and walk away from a situation that didn’t suit her. When I decided to make a big canoe, I had the name of the boat long before I made the boat. It’s a sexy boat.”
The Eliza Haycraft was put to the test in late July for the MR340, a 340-mile annual race on the Missouri River from Kansas City to St. Charles. Camden recruited his wife and members of his running group to compete in the “dragonboat” category, and completed the race in 81 hours, including overnights spent sleeping.
Lauren Rodriguez, of Shawnee, Kansas, commissioned Camden to make her a stand-up board for the race this year.
Rodriguez didn’t sleep for two-and-a-half days, shaved 8½ hours off her record, finished in just over 53 hours, and nabbed first place in the women’s stand-up paddleboard division, outperforming many male counterparts.
“The board was a significant factor,” she said. “I will never do a race like that again without an 18-foot board. I was doing 20 strokes per minute, others were doing 35 strokes. The effort was so much less.”
Every year, several racers using Camden’s boards place in the top three in the stand-up paddleboard category.
The Camdens and two friends are now partnering to launch a Paddle Stop Brewery in November in the back half of his New Haven building, which he’s renovating. Camden said they’ll offer as many as eight craft beers at a time and food from the neighboring meat smoker and deli, Lang-A-Tang.
The brewmaster is Matt Frank, who has worked for Square One Brewery and “has been a home brewer forever,” Camden said. Matt Walters, former owner of oak barrel-maker Foeder-Crafters, is the third partner.
Camden believes Paddle Stop will be one of the few breweries in the U.S. to produce 100% oak-fermented beer — a throwback to pre-Prohibition, before stainless steel vats were available.
He hopes the brewery will draw locals, tourists and paddlers.
“New Haven is a fun place to be. It’s not a small-town vibe, more like a beach-town vibe. Everyone’s chill and laid back,” he said.
Downtown businesses include antique shops, a wood furniture maker, a whiskey distillery, a glass blower, and an art deco movie theater.
“People wander into our place on Saturdays, and they’re blown away,” Camden said. “We’ve become as much a tourist attraction as the distillery and glass blower.”
The current hasn’t always been smooth. The town struggled in the 1990s, worked to build its arts district in the 2000s, but got hit hard last year by the pandemic. Several businesses closed for good.
Camden is optimistic, though. About New Haven and Paddle Stop.
The tours are paying the bills, he said. The brewery will bring in year-round income. Old paddleboards will decorate the brewery.
And Camden will keep building new ones, as time allows.
Stay up to date on life and culture in St. Louis.
At scattered locations throughout the area, high water and backed-up sewers caused havoc at many businesses.
The union, which represents about 2,500 workers, said the strikes would start at 12:01 a.m. Aug. 1 at all three Boeing facilities in St. Charles County, St. Louis County and Mascoutah.
Mizzou researchers set up a field trial for a system they hope can fight fall armyworms, a formidable crop pest, by prevent them from mating.
St. Louis-area Boeing workers will vote on a new, proposed contract on Sunday.
Spire points to some at least small wins the utility has recently secured in the fight over its embattled natural gas pipeline serving the St. Louis region.
Diane Sullivan is retiring as CEO of the shoe company, and will be replaced by company president Jay Schmidt.
Schnucks' chicken and fish will be cooked using soybean oil from local producer.
BJC health system tries to fill today's shortages and tomorrow's baby boomer patient influx with up to $55,000 in nursing school tuition — with a three-year work pledge.
Cancellation affects service between St. Louis and Frankfurt.
Net income fell 20% to $152 million and revenue declined 8% to $1.1 billion compared to the same period last year. But its revenue still marks the second highest second quarter in its history, Stifel said.
Shane Camden of Timber Longboard Co. in New Haven is photographed on one of his custom paddleboards floating on the Missouri River on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. The board is made of Western red cedar over a foam shell. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Shane Camden's custom paddleboard is made of burled redwood, photographed outside his Timber Longboard Co. in New Haven on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Shane and Stacy Camden of Timber Longboard Co. in New Haven are photographed beside one of Shane's custom-built recreation paddleboards, made of burled redwood, on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
A custom paddleboard built by Timber Longboard Co. owner Shane Camden is made of Western red cedar, with basswood and Purpleheart accents, photographed in downtown New Haven on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
The nose of a custom paddleboard built by Timber Longboard Co. owner Shane Camden is made of Western red cedar, with basswood and Purpleheart accents, photographed at his New Haven office on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
A custom paddleboard built by Timber Longboard Co. owner Shane Camden is made of Western red cedar, with basswood and Purpleheart accents, photographed in downtown New Haven on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Shane Camden of Timber Longboard Co. in New Haven is photographed on one of his custom paddleboards floating on the Missouri River on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2021. The board is made of Western red cedar over a foam shell. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Shane and Stacy Camden are photographed beside one of his custom-built recreation paddleboards, made of burled redwood, on Aug. 3. Camden, who started his company in his Webster Groves basement, now works in New Haven. (Photo by Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch)
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