The company now known as Kokatat was started in 1971, by a college student named Steve O’Meara, with an eye towards making innovative outdoor gear. With Steve still at the helm, the company continues to dedicate itself to his original intent, offering the industry’s most extensive line of watersports wear and enjoying a deserved reputation for product quality and commitment to watersports.

Kokatat is located in the small northern California coastal town of Arcata. The name, Kokatat, means “into the water” in one of the languages of the Native American people living along the local Klamath River. They are a company dedicated to paddlesports clothing and gear par excellence. They make the best dry suits, paddle jackets, and other sorts of paddlesports clothing in existence, period. They are paddlers who design stuff, not designers who occasionally paddle, and it shows in small but important ways.

We are proud to have Kokatat co-sponsor Canoecopia 2009.