I second that FunJax. Hobie has the BEST service I have ever encountered with ANY product or company.
As with any watercraft, there are naturally going to be some problems from time to time. My wife and I both had early model Adventures. Unfortunately, each developed a problem after the 1 year warranty expired (one of them occurred 3 years after purchase). In both cases, Hobie replaced the hulls, with support and service from our dealer, California Canoe and Kayak (CCK).
Technically, they had no legal obligation to do this. They could have drawn a hard line and said "sorry"... like my Lexus dealer did on a problem that occurred prior to the warranty expiration, but was taken into the dealer 4 DAYS after. Hobie could have even argued that should have been prorated. But they didn't. I doubt there are any other companies today who would stand behind a product like Hobie has. Having previously owned a couple of Hobie Cats (16 and 18sx), I tried another brand of sailboat. I won't name names here, but they are a major manufacturer of large and small sailboats. They have no forum like this. They have no phone number for customer service, parts manuals, or support of any kind. You are on your own. After that experience, I swore I would never own another small sailboat that wasn't a Hobie. My experience with my Hobie kayak is better than I could have ever imagined. They have turned me from a satisfied customer to an advocate, and lifetime customer (I want to add another Hobie CAT or AI to my fleet).
Hats off to the people such as Matt for this forum, and others at Hobie who truly make Hobie the BEST customer service experience possible. While I'm handing out accolades, I would also like thank to the contributors to this forum who go to the trouble to document and photograph tips and techniques (Roadrunner comes to mind). What a great community. And to Jeff and Dave at CCK. Ok, the band's starting to play, so I will step away from the mic now.
