The History Of Echo Open Water Rowing
Ted Perry, Co-Founder Echo Rowing LLC
Manufacturing
Growing up on Lake Sunapee in NH, surrounded by sailboats and winning in the Star Class through young adulthood, Ted Perry had built his first boat by the age of 10, thereby starting a long love of fine boatbuilding.
Doug Martin grew up sailing and rowing on the ocean in Cohasset, MA. Under the tutelage of his father, Arthur Martin, Doug, at a very young age, started designing and building kayaks and shells. After studying and working in sculpture and painting, Doug designed and built the first of his well over 50 boats.
Maryellen Auger joined Echo Rowing as a career-long marketing and sales specialist, with a strong personal commitment to growing the emerging recreational sport of open water rowing. The creation of Rowing for All in 2009 brings her full circle, integrating her deep knowledge of effective, targeted sales and marketing campaigns with her love of open water rowing.
Echo Rowing was founded in 2004 by: Douglas Martin, Lorna Martin-Perry, and Ted Perry. Douglas and Lorna's father, Arthur Martin, gave birth to recreational open water rowing when he founded Alden Rowing Shells back in the 70's. Doug designed the still popular Alden Star. Ted Perry's boat building company, East West Boat Builders, built 10,000 Alden Rowing Shells for Martin Marine over a 30 year period until Arthur's passing.
Well aware of the limitations and safety concerns for a growing body of rowers wanting to row on oceans and conditions unsuited to recreational and flat-water performance shells, Doug began designing the cutting-edge Echo rowing shell for stability and safety in chop, wake, and swells. Echo models offer the performance, speed, and safety that recreational and competitive open water rowers require for the changing conditions on oceans, bays, great lakes, or wide rivers. You can row an Echo anywhere! And there is no other shell on the market with the stability and performance of the Echo line of boats.
(Top) Lorna Martin-Perry, Co-Founder; (Bottom) Doug Martin, Designer, Co-Founder, Echo Rowing LLC
"Echo is opening up a whole new world for both traditional rowers and newcomers to the sport. Novices benefit from the stability and ease of the design, which allow them to get out on the water quickly and with confidence. Experienced rowers can enhance their rowing experience in several ways: 1) extend their single sculling season into colder months with added safety; 2) humor their adventurous side with easy transport and rigging features and by allowing them to go out on days and into waters that would be unrowable or pose difficult launching conditions in a flat water shell; and 3) fine tune their technique with the tracking feedback provided by the Echo's responsive hull design. Overall, the Echo Shells are both a terrific introduction to open water rowing and an excellent complement to traditional sculling."
-- Ashlee Branan, Silver Medalist, US Rowing National Champions in the Elite and Senior Quads, former Greenwich Crew Director.