About Us
WHO WE ARE
Nelo Canada is operated by a father/daughter team, Scott Oldershaw and Tessa Oldershaw.
Scott raced K1 at the 1984 Olympics, and has coached at Olympic 5 Olympic Games with his athletes winning 5 Olympic medals. With a high performance background and over 40 years of coaching experience at national, provincial, and club levels, Scott has committed his life to the sport of Canoe Kayak, and is an expert on all your paddling needs.
Tessa has been an active paddling alumni since hanging up her paddle full time to pursue an education and career in business. She loves getting out in surfskis and sprint boats as much as possible. Tessa has been designing custom boat designs for over a decade, and is the creator behind all Nelo Canada merchandise.
MISSION
With a rich family history and deep connections to the sport, we operate Nelo Canada with the intention of developing the landscape of paddle sports in Canada, supporting the paddling community, and to service all of your paddling needs.
ABOUT NELO
(From www.nelo.eu)
Nelo is the leading company in top performance kayaks and canoes and the major innovator in canoeing, from boat design to services and technology. This know-how poured into new areas and Nelo have now a strong footing in all paddle related sports, from Rowing to Stand Up Paddle, while still developing and producing strong composite shells for other sports and showing great versatility in the production of all kind of composite sport equipment under other brands.
The company was created in 1978 by Manuel Ramos, a former paddler himself, and is now located in Vila do Conde, Portugal. The factory has an area of 20.000m2 where 150 employees work, a big percent of which does, or has done, kayaking.
Innovation is a big part of our DNA, constantly improving and developing new concepts and ideas. All our models are designed and conceived by us, with the help of professional personnel and techniques.
With a network of 40 dealers, Nelo covers the globe and sells to over 100 countries.
Achievements
Nelo is the most recognized, valued and awarded brand in canoeing. More than 75% of the boats raced during major world and continental competitions are Nelo boats, equipping nations worldwide.
Since Athens 2004 Nelo has been the Official Provider in Canoe Sprint for the Olympic Games, and proudly so. Our boats have collected a total of 93 Olympic Medals and just in 2016 in Rio we came out with 27 of the 36 available medals.
Services
Nelo prides itself of being much more of boat company, having 360º view of the sport and design and offering services and products to meet an wider range of needs.
Nelo was the first manufacturer to have a truly professional service at major events, having a large crew at the venues that prepare, tune, repair any boat that comes by.
To enable teams and paddlers to have at their disposal the best equipment possible, Nelo created the Nelo Rental service, that provides hundreds of boats for race events, handling all the logistics.
During the off-season, teams and individual paddlers can train at our training centers, established in perfect spots for water sports and fully serviced by Nelo.
Raising the sport
These sports are our passion and having them grow and reach new destinations and generations. As so, we partnered with ICF in a program to develop the sport in countries in South America, Africa and Asia.
Nelo provided basic materials, tools and know-how, sending a team to work side by side with the locals in order for them to have all the capabilities to manufacture their own boats and thus have the means to introduce canoeing to new paddlers.