Dan Rice- Outdoor Sports Writer

Alan Kinkead is a life-long resident of Missouri. Alan was born in Mexico, Missouri and lived in Centralia. Alan still considers earning his Eagle Scout Award one of his proudest accomplishments. He graduated from the University of Missouri in Columbia and since has resided in Columbia with his wife of 47 years, Sandy. After 25 years in pharmaceutical sales, love of the outdoors, golf, and then boating pulled him in a different direction. Alan’s interest in boating at the Lake of the Ozarks and his desire to keep his boat in pristine condition led to his designing a boat fender that would protect his boat, and, so… AKUA Marine Products was started in 1995 with a fender for bass boats. One fender led to another and several products were developed for specific types of boats- always with Made in the USA components. That was 20 years ago. Alan still oversees the daily production of every boat fender and personally inspects each fender that leaves the manufacturing facility and plans to do so for quite some time.