Still Paddling Strong

49 Years with the Appomattox River Company

Step into Appomattox River Company (ARC) today and you'll see Owner Bob Taylor's old fiberglass Perception kayak — a Chauga — up in the rafters. The vintage model, visible to everyone who walks through the door, harkens back to the days before there was an Appomattox River Company and before kayaking had taken off as a sport.

“He was doing all of this long before it was even a business,” says former manager Tom Detrick.

ARC sits on North Main Street in Farmville, Va., yards from the river itself but removed from the main thoroughfare. The unassuming, low-slung buildings sprawling across the parking lot once housed lumber for Taylor Manufacturing Company, a business run by Taylor’s father. Now, instead of hardwood, the warehouses are stocked with thousands of boats.

As one of the largest specialty canoe and kayak shops in the country, ARC has a unique hold on the paddlesports market. But this business didn’t happen overnight. It started as a hobby — a love for canoeing and a desire to share the sport with others in Virginia. Over the past 49 years, it has expanded and adapted, filling industry niches boat by boat and cultivating a following customer by customer.

Once you buy something from ARC, you’re part of the family.

Boats in the Basement: 1970s

In 1975, while working for his father’s construction business, Taylor bought a used canoe from the rental operation at Holliday Lake and started floating the local rivers. His love for whitewater led to more river trips, more canoe purchases, and his first venture into canoe sales to friends and fellow local paddlers. It also led him to Bill Masters.

As the founder of Perception Kayaks and a man often called “the Steve Jobs of the modern whitewater kayak industry,” Masters was, in Taylor’s words, “a master engineer.” One of the first to manufacture rotationally molded kayaks, he sat on the cusp of a major industry shift — replacing fiberglass kayaks with plastic ones.

Taylor was already familiar with Masters’ designs, having purchased one of his boats. After a phone call, the two connected for a paddling trip where Taylor tested several designs, and a fast friendship was born. Taylor purchased some Royalex canoes that day — one for himself, one for a friend, and four he knew he could sell. He stored them in his basement in Farmville, but not for long. They sold so quickly that he ordered more, and his hobby began to grow.

In 1977, Taylor’s father gave him an ultimatum: go sell canoes or stay and work for Taylor Manufacturing. Taylor jumped full force into the canoe business.

Business Booms: 1980s

ARC started with two employees, serving walk-in customers from a 150-mile radius across Central Virginia. The company advertised only in the yellow pages and with business cards tacked to local bulletin boards. Because Taylor was an active paddler, he began cultivating a small community of boaters in the area who would make the drive to buy boats after work. He even designated a phone line at his house for business.

“We would sit there and have supper, and I’d get that phone call saying, ‘I’m over here waiting,’ and I’d have to jump up and run over to the warehouse and get that job loaded up,” says Taylor. “It was long hours, but it was something that I was really enjoying, so I didn’t mind it.”

As business expanded into warehouse spaces rented from Taylor Manufacturing, ARC could store 50 to 60 canoes at a time, picking up brands like Mad River. That storage capacity — still unusual in the paddlesports industry — has been one of ARC’s biggest differentiators, allowing them to keep a wide range of brands and models in stock at all times. The company also offered boat repairs.

“The business grew, and it was fun,” Taylor remembers. “After about five or six years, my daddy was amazed at how I’d been able to grow the business, and he said, ‘You’re one of the luckiest people I know. You’ve figured out a way to play at work and work at play.’”

The Heyday of Whitewater Kayaking: 1990s

As ARC built its reputation, Taylor continued his signature grassroots approach to customer service — spending three days a week paddling Class IV and V rapids in West Virginia’s New River Gorge and Gauley River, hauling boats up and delivering them to customers at the put-in before heading out on the water himself.

During the ’90s, Taylor connected with a new Farmvillian: Tom Detrick.

“I owned a bar, and Bob liked to drink beer. He owned a canoe shop, and I liked to canoe,” Detrick recalls.

Detrick, an avid paddler, started working weekends at ARC in exchange for a discount on paddling gear. As ARC’s reach expanded, he would pick up boats from manufacturers and deliver them to customers’ doorsteps — sometimes as far as Florida. In 1995, he sold his bar and joined ARC full time, building canoes.

As manufacturers pushed for a bigger footprint and playboating took off, ARC opened a short-lived store in Roanoke — a learning experience, Detrick says, in what not to do — and then, in spring 1997, a Midlothian location managed by Detrick. Launched in the heart of Richmond’s vibrant kayaking scene, that strip-mall storefront took off immediately.

“We were just slinging out kayaks,” says Detrick. “It was amazing. Just as fast as we could bring them in, they were going out. We had a good team of hardcore boaters who loved the sport. We had all that knowledge back in Farmville of how to do custom work, and we were just killing it.”

When Midlothian’s sales eclipsed Farmville’s, Taylor asked Detrick to take on management of all ARC locations, including a new York County store focused on sea kayaking.

Bringing Boats to the Masses: 2000s

With three locations running strong, ARC dipped a toe into digital sales — and boats began flying out the doors even faster.

“We really worked hard at what we did best, which was different from the big box stores,” says Detrick. “We looked for niches — freestyle kayaking, whitewater canoes, stand-up paddleboarding, sea kayaking. We would find these small, underserved niches and really take full advantage of them.”

Another key to ARC’s success: that team of hardcore boaters. In a technical sport, Detrick explains, you have to know you’re putting people in the right boat.

“Bob was great at assembling a team and being able to say, ‘I’m not good at this, and I need someone else to do this,’” says Detrick.

Since the company’s inception, Taylor has recruited exclusively within paddlesports, building a staff of varied specialists — whitewater kayaking, recreational kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding, canoeing — to cover every niche. General Manager Brian Vincent is known to joke that “if you’re buying your toilet paper and your kayak from the same shop, you’re probably not getting expert paddling advice.”

At ARC, expert advice is a cornerstone of the business — and the reason this family-owned shop continues to rise above the competition.

Reading the Digital Waters: 2010s to Today

As online sales grew, Taylor recognized that digital marketing was a new and unfamiliar frontier. Enter son-in-law Brian Vincent, who joined the company in 2012. Starting in the warehouse wrapping boats and helping customers, Vincent — known as “Vince” at ARC — soon stepped into digital marketing and branding, integrating social media, online advertising, and the website. His philosophy: take Bob’s guerrilla marketing approach and put it online.

The results were dramatic. ARC went from selling one or two boats a day to 60. Google Ads and Google Shopping boosted sales further, and the business revamped its website and leaned into a white-glove delivery service that reflected the company’s care for paddling equipment and respect for the sport.

After steering ARC through challenges like the direct-to-consumer movement and the COVID-19 pandemic — during which both satellite stores were closed — Vincent has turned his focus to continuing the legacy Bob established: building a strong staff of paddlers who can offer genuine expert advice.

That commitment to customer service — and the joy ARC employees feel when introducing new paddlers to the water — has never wavered. Vincent still receives live chats from the website directly to his cell at all hours.

“We want to be a resource for information about paddling, whether that’s through educational content on our website or our YouTube channel. I would love it if we had a component of this business that ran classes, offered kayak fishing guides, and covered whitewater, paddling, and canoeing,” says Vincent. “I care about keeping people safe. I want people to love this activity, and part of that is knowledge.”

49 Years of Making a Difference

After nearly five decades in the industry, ARC has made a tangible impact on paddling in Virginia and beyond.

“There are an above-average number of phenomenal paddlers,” says Detrick, “and they wouldn’t have been there had Bob not had that store. We wouldn’t have had this meeting place of canoers and kayakers.”

“People used to just say, ‘Farmville? That’s where that big furniture place is, isn’t it?’” says Taylor. “But now it doesn’t surprise me to hear them say, ‘We bought a canoe from Farmville — isn’t there a place there that specializes in canoes and kayaks?’ After all these years, we’re getting to be known as one of Farmville’s draws. That makes me happy and proud.”

And perhaps most importantly, adds Vincent: “There’s a through-line through all of us — Bob, Tom, and myself — who will give the max to make sure people are taken care of. Bob set that tone. He still sets that tone. That’s the driving force: to make sure you’re trying to help people.”

Written by Jessica Broaddus