The Paddlesport Show, Strasbourg, September 2025
- rescue-winch
- Jan 15
- 3 min read
In September 2025 Lodestone Leashes exhibited at our first international trade show, The Paddlesport Show. This is the premier paddlesport industry show in Europe and a great opportunity for us to exhibit our patent pending automatic release leashes, less than a month after we had made our first mass market product available for purchase.
The show was fantastic, with many key companies within the industry also exhibiting or walking the floor. We have made a good number of links to carry forwards and grow our business over the coming year from this.
A particular highlight for us was the Product of the Year awards dinner. We won the Accessories Category, putting us on the stage alongside many large names in the industry, and showing that the industry judges saw real value in our innovation.
We had our automated test rig on the stand, running continuously, allowing us to show to visitors the consistency of the release – it is 200 N and has a standard deviation of 1%, which is consistent over more than 20 devices we have measured and several thousand test releases.
A direct result of exhibiting at The Paddlesport Show has been the start of our collaboration with The Paddle People, who own HF. Our first step on this journey has been combining HF Synergy manual quick release belts with our Lodestone Leashes automatic release leashes to give what we think is the most feature rich complete leash system available in the paddleboard world today.
It was great spending time with other UK brands who are on the same growth journey as us, including Biomate, who make SUP cleaning systems to make keeping your kit clean a breeze, while also reducing the risk of cross contamination between river catchments, which is the key principle of Check, Clean, Dry approaches. We also love the SplashRobe dry robes, which look great and have some fantastic functions, including removable inners and magnetic zip covers, making them an unique offering for post paddling changing and warmth year round.
Of course, exhibiting at a large show for the first time is not without it’s challenges. The first was getting there and back with our setup, samples and goodies. Being based in the north of Scotland, we decided to take the ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam, then drive most of the way through Germany. It was a great trip on the way out, though on our return we were perfectly in one of the large autumn storms, so had significant swell and the ferry took around 3h extra to make the crossing. It was exciting seeing spray come straight over deck 7 as soon was we left the harbour breakwater.
We are looking forward to being at many more exhibitions and demo days over the coming year. Our next big event is the RYA Dinghy and Watersports Show, alongside two other great British innovators. The first is Oscar Propulsion, who have developed high performance paddles which reduce strain by having slits in the blades to reduce pressure differences and vortex production. The second is SUPSAIL, who have developed a folding wing sail. This concept works perfectly for SUP paddlers wanting to capture the wind, and gives a hybrid approach that sits between windsurfing and wing foiling, while being simple to pack and set up in seconds on the water, allowing you to switch between sail power and paddle power instantly.
As we move into 2026, it is great to sometimes stop and reflect on the journey Lodestone Leashes has been on. The Paddlesport Show marks a milestone in our journey, bringing our reliable, repeatable, automatic release SUP leashes to you, helping to make your SUP trips safer and easier by giving you a really quick and easy way to disconnect yourself from your board, and an automatic release system which will separate you if your board or leash is caught on a tree, moored boat, rock or similar in flowing water.
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