Bruce Partridge, the founder and chairman of Shearwater Research, took a break from a very busy day on the floor at DEMA Show to chat with DeeperBlue.com about the roots of the company and their new product this year.
Partridge started making dive computers because there was a need. He wasn’t happy with what was available for the fast-growing tech dive scene in the 90’s, so he got to work and made what he and his other dive buddies needed.
In the beginning, he did everything to bring it to market. Research and development, hardware, software and prototyping led to assembling and packaging the units in a spare bedroom. This little company then spilled out into the living room.
Fast forward 15 years, and they have in-house manufacturing in their own facility and 72 employees. They also made the “Growth 500” list for Canada’s fastest-growing companies in 2018.
Partridge says Shearwater is growing at three times the rate of the rest of the industry average, and continues to innovate with products like the Teric Dive Watch (US$1095/~958 Euros). It has all the capabilities of their very popular Perdix, but in the size of a sport watch, which has led to it being adopted by freedivers as well. After launching the Teric in May of this year, they reached their three-month projection for the product in only three days.
The trajectory of Shearwater will be exciting to follow.
For more info about the company, go to https://www.shearwater.com.
— Craig Harris