Page 72 - 2017 LAKE ST CLAIR GUIDE

Boater’s
Using Their
“Noodle”

Several years ago one of my friends sewed a nice big fabric pocket
and stuffed a noodle in it and used it as a boat fender at her dock. I
was inspired and did a 3-pocket system with detachable straps that in November to be ready for orders in early spring for the Southern
US. and typically finish production each
now I take with us for dock poles when we travel. year in July.
The orig-
inal Noo- Noodle • This past year they produced between 700

dle is History and 800 truckloads of pool noodles which
equal 6-8 million individual pool noodles!
actually
a foam
backer
rod for Mr. Hartman said
construc- they’ve been able
tion. If to beat out the
Stop your dock line you have Chinese for be-
ing #1 since the
from sinking a big cost to package
crack in a and ship the noo-
wall to fill dles far outweighs
with caulk, you would insert this first to help make the crack small- their actual cost.
er, then you would caulk over it. Continued top of
next
The family of the company making these foam rods enjoyed using page...
these in the pool, so the creator made these gray tubes into a variety
of colors and started marketing them in the 1980’s, and sales finally
took off in the early 90’s.

And Happy Birthday Canada...the original noodle is
from Canada and is North America’s top selling water
toy. Their factory is in Brampton, Ontario, Industrial
Thermal Polymers. Today, the company produces an
estimated 70% of all pool noodles in North America.

I spoke with the owner / founder of the “noodle”,
Steve Hartman, and he said they start making them

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