Originally Wilderness Systems founded by Andy Zimmerman and his partner, John Sheppard. Both had orignally been with the furniture industry and started building whitewater kayaks.

They found a niche in building touring kayaks, an item which other companies were not very interested in at the time.

After discovering that their hand-made boats were too expensive to produce they began, in 1991, the rotational molding process, and applied it to their most popular touring kayak, the Sealution. The result was a high-level performance kayak at almost half the price of the composite version!

The real explosion in sales came when the company, using its own in-house research and development team, created a new line of kayaks for the masses which were stable, inexpensive and easy to paddle. In 1993 the Rascal was born and became an instant hit.

Through the years the company offered several versions of sailing kayaks. When Andy and John teamed up with Jim Brown, creator of the SeaRunner 31 and 37, the WindRider trimaran was created as a new product and WindRider Sailing Trimarans became a new division within the company.

In 1996 the first roto-molded, wave-piercing trimaran left the factory, followed by hundreds more.

WindRider merged with Nickels Boatworks in 2015.

Windrider was purchased by Dean Sandberg in 2017 and is now a retail store selling clothing and gear, geared towards fishing.

Phone 612-338-2170
Toll Free 1-888-609-2827
Fax 612-333-3760

Manufacturing:
2457 E. Judd Rd.
Burton, MI 48529

Mailing Address:
6136 Sherman Circle
Minneapolis, MN 55436

Years in Business: 1985 - present