Name: David Knight

Position: designer

I first met David Knight in Washington, DC when I was a slalom racer there. He was designing a new C1 with Davey Hearn and I was immediately enthralled with their project. David asked me, to my surprise, if I would work with him on a slalom kayak. That was a dream come true for me. What I didn’t know was just how incredible of an opportunity it would be. I discovered David’s talents early on, mostly just how endless they are. He is a C1’er at heart and actually quite good. He writes his own boat design program, he calls it “paramax” because there isn’t anything on the market powerful enough to do the job for him. He can prototype by making fiberglass boats, plugs, molds, etc.. and makes incredibly efficient tools for keeping things straight and true. In short, there isn’t anything he can’t do, and do well when it comes to making a great boat.

Over the years David has become quite self-sufficient in taking a design from concept to finished computer model with everything in perfect order. Ergonomics, performance, etc. are all spot on. I love working with him on new boats because he doesn’t screw around. He can hone in on the design goals and fill in the blanks I leave, and usually it is just how I imagined it would be. His latest challenge is to design rec and touring boats with a different set of inputs. Processes and deciphering beta from a variety of sources is always an engineering challenge. The end results are yet to be proven in the market-place, but time will solve that.