British windsurfing champion John Hibbard on making waves in the paddleboard industry

The Red Paddle Co CEO speaks to Andy Martin about swapping wind for paddles

Hibbard’s company is now 11 years old (Red Paddle Co)

It was one of those perfect days. John Hibbard, then in his late twenties, had sailed out to Rottnest Island, off Perth, Western Australia, and was windsurfing the best waves of his life in Stark Bay. The sun smiled down on him out of a clear blue sky and a 20-knot wind and 10ft swell propelled him across wave after immaculate wave. Finally satisfied and exhausted, knocking back an ice-cold Corona, he realised it could never get better than this. But the thought occurred to him: what am I going to do with the rest of my life? The answer to that question was Red Paddle Co, of which he is co-founder and CEO.

We had a plan, John Hibbard and I, to take out a couple of his stand-up paddleboards (or SUPs) and ride them along the River Dart in Devon, stop somewhere for lunch and paddle back. It would have been idyllic. The only problem was that it was pelting with rain all day, which put a bit of a dampener on the idea. But at least he had more time to show me around his dedicated new headquarters near Totnes on the south coast with a view out over Dartmoor.

Hibbard was British windsurfing champion in 2008. He was born in Basingstoke but brought up in Devon. He windsurfed around the world, from Maui to Tahiti, from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, sponsored by Nissan and Fat Face, and getting photographed while doing it. He loved the technical challenge, mastering the equipment, no matter how gnarly the conditions. It sounds like the dream life. And it was, but there were a couple of downsides. One was that it was lonely: his only friends were also his rivals so he couldn’t hang out with them. The other was the sheer amount of kit. Hibbard recalls once checking in 50 bags at an airport (admittedly he was carrying stuff for a friend too).