Every boat that comes through our Caringbah workshop gets looked at by someone who’s been doing this since before most inflatables on the water today were built.

Ian’s trade started as an apprentice with Zodiac and Avon — the two manufacturers that set the standard the whole inflatable boat industry still follows. Thirty-five years on, that grounding shows in the difference between a repair that holds and one that doesn’t: knowing which adhesive suits which fabric, where a seam is likely to fail next even if it hasn’t yet, and when a tube’s actually worth patching versus when it’s time to talk about re-tubing.

Ian runs East Coast Inflatable Boat Repairs with his long-time mate Paul. It’s a two-person operation on purpose — you deal directly with the person doing the work, get a straight answer instead of a script, and a quote that doesn’t change once the job’s underway. Every repair gets pressure-tested before it leaves, because “should be fine” isn’t good enough when you’re back out on the water.

If your inflatable’s lost its confidence, this is where thirty-five years of knowing the difference goes to work.

One flag, same as before: I’ve written “Zodiac and Avon” as fact based on what you told me earlier — worth double-checking with Ian that this is exactly right (dates, which company first, any other detail like a specific role or region) before it goes on the site permanently, since “apprenticed with two of the biggest names in the industry” is a strong credibility claim and you want it bulletproof if a customer ever asks him about it directly.