Pole spears

Since the reformation of Rock West Composites Marine Division in August of 2021, we have received orders from two proven, trustworthy brands within diving’s Spearfishing market sector. Rock West is now a proud supplier of pole spear and dive fin components to these high profile, reputable OEMs.

Late last year, Rock West Marine was approached by one of the largest high-end pole spear brands to develop precision tubes to their brand requirements. We received a paid development order to make specific, same diameter roll wrapped and filament wound composite tubes to perform a head-to-head comparison study. As part of their qualification process, our customer ordered enough sample tubes to perform field testing with their professional staff and athletes. Both field tests and static lab tests were run in parallel. Our customer diligently evaluated performance before choosing the optimal solution and then placed a second small production order with RW early this year 2022. Our customer is happy with Rock West’s performance and is placing additional orders for tubes of this qualified design in the future. New designs for pole spear tubing and other related products are being quoted. Eric Thorstensen, the GM of the Marine division, sends a big thank you to Brian Shelby and Anthony Fairhurst for technically heading up development and delivering our first pole spear production order to our customer.

In August of 2021 Rock West Marine put together a small R&D tiger team lead by Ethan Gormican to develop two different (medium and soft) flex carbon composite fin blades to offer future OEM customers. Rock West Marine attended DEMA (Diving Equipment & Marketing Association) Show in Las Vegas last year and showed our newly designed fin blades, along with other products. We received excellent feedback from interested OEM’s, dive shops and individuals confirming our entry into this market space. Eric thanks Julia Willis, Ethan Gormican, Brian Shelby, and Rylan Hayes for their help working the DEMA Show. Early this year, 2022, Rock West received a production order from one of the dive industries top spearfishing brands to manufacture 500 pairs of carbon composite dive fin blades. This customer’s goal is to grow RWC supplied fin sales into 2000+ pairs of fin blades annually.

Eric said, “These are exciting times and opportunities for us in this market. We know that we can provide excellent quality and consistent delivery for OEMs who are challenged by vendor reliability. These orders are a great start to a healthy market presence.”