REI - When Hang Gliding Was Mainstream

An abridged version of this narrative first appeared in the January 2003 edition of the Oz Report. You probably didn't know that REI was once a Northwest powerhouse in hang gliding sales and instruction.

REI got into the hang gliding business by purchasing Chandelle Northwest from a gentleman named Ken Greenwald ~1974-1975. Ken had returned from a very profitable season of fishing in Alaska and had some money burning a hole in his pocket so he decided that selling hang gliders would be a fun way to get rich. I’ve never been completely clear on whether he came up with the idea himself or if he had help but in the early ‘70’s hang gliding was exploding. It was being touted as the inexpensive sport that any man or woman could safely engage in to experience the freedom of flight.

It sounded foolproof so Ken started the company and opened up an amazing shop in downtown Seattle. He leased a great showroom in the old Commission District near the ferry terminal. The business was located in the northeast corner of the Maritime Building and had plenty of large plate glass windows to display gliders.

Doug Nunn, Gerry Watson, Terry Fitzsimmons and Jonathon Kaufman ran the store and the flight school. All they needed was advertising and I imagine that it was the two ex-REI employees (Doug and Gerry) who approached Jim Whitaker offering him a special REI employee deal on flying lessons. A five-lesson package could be had for only $25.00 which was the cost of 20 schooners at the Sundance Tavern or a bag of decent weed and a six pack or a little more than a day’s wages at REI. Guess it depended on how you looked at it but I viewed it as being totally affordable.

Big Jim, Bob Stadshaug, John Field, Riley Carter and I signed up immediately and had soon “graduated” from flight school. Since we were now officially on our way to being “Advanced Pilots” we had to have our own wings and there were a lot to choose from. The national mouthpiece for the sport, “Ground Skimmer” magazine was advertising 33 different manufacturers and an additional 87 dealers to choose from but Chandelle Northwest was going to make sure that we stayed local by offering us employee pricing.

The four shop boys had to stay ahead of the Joneses so they all upped their game from the “Chandelle Standard” model to their latest and greatest, the “Chandelle Competition”. The Competition was a beautiful glider with innovative hardware and unique geometry but it turned out to be deadly. The design elements that made it so cool also made it prone to locking into an unrecoverable dive that killed and maimed many pilots including Ken’s friend and employee Jonathon Kaufman. Ken wasn’t that into flying and when Jonathon bought the farm he had had enough.

Ken offered the company to REI for what must have been a good price and Jim was in a position to make the call so the Co-op bought all of Ken’s inventory and continued to run the shop and flight school from 1525 11th Ave. Gerry came back to REI as the head of the REI Hang Gliding Department and Flight School. We had a showroom on the second floor that could accommodate several assembled gliders and a 20 foot long workbench for leading edge fabrication. We did all types of frame repairs, sold parts and made wire sets. Bob Stadshaug and Gerry Watson were the masterminds who promoted the sport and expanded the product offering.

I had figured out how to sew by that time by using the grossly overpowered and barely controllable beast of a sewing machine that we had gotten from Trager. I swear to God, it had more horsepower than the Fiat 850 that I was driving. It was a nasty thing to try to manage, caused huge blisters on my hand as I tried to control its speed and wrenched my right wrist every time I ran it but I was performing most all of the sleeping bag, pack, gaiter, tent and clothing repairs that came in. Of the lot of us I was the most skilled seamster, had the highest pain tolerance and though I recognized the sport-death aspect of being in the same room as that damn machine I enjoyed the challenge. Due to all of that it was determined that I was qualified to do sewing repairs on hang glider sails, harness modifications and manufacture custom sail bags. At that time in our lives none of us were 100% in our decision making capabilities so it would be fair to say that we were being pretty irresponsible and exposing REI to significant legal risk.

As the Chandelle Competition had discredited the Chandelle name Bob and Gerry had to work fast to build the assortment by bringing in Jeff Jobe’s kites and becoming dealers for Bennett Delta Wing Kites & Gliders, Sun Sail Corporation, California Gliders, Ultralight Flying Machines and Seagull Aircraft. REI became the place to go whether you had a passing interest in flight or were a hard-core comp pilot. Whether you were shopping for your first glider or the newest and hottest ship out of California. Whether you wanted stickers and buttons or needed to buy some 2024 T-3 and stainless steel bushing material. Maybe you were looking for lessons or maybe just wanted a place to sit and read the latest copy of Glider Rider and Ground Skimmer. Pilots who were new in town or just passing through made a point of stopping by to get the scoop on the local flying sites, which conditions were best and which to avoid.

In 1976 the United States National Championships were held near Morton, WA midway between Mount Rainier and Mount Saint Helens. The contest was sponsored by REI and brought a huge contingent of pilots from around the country plus lots of magazine and TV coverage. The Co-op had become a national player in the hang gliding industry and then walked away.

Note the "Sponsored by" Tagline

As quickly as REI got into the hang gliding business it got out because of the cost of product liability insurance. In a year when the Co-op had sold right around 100 gliders plus accessories and repairs the math told us that if we had been insured, we would have almost broken even. Bob and Gerry bought the inventory for a song and started Seattle Free Soaring which was run out of Bob's garage in Shoreline. Jerry continued to run the school until he felt it was cutting too deeply into his flying time and then it was over.