< Previous40 COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2017FeaturesFULL-TIME PART-TIME JOBWhen Wagner, who at the time owned a fence company, approached Vaughn in 2006 with his SaltWater Soul concept, the latter owned a T-shirt company specializing in silk-screen designs for companies, schools, sports teams and the like.Wagner proposed that he and Vaughn team up to create a sideline, designing and manufacturing apparel bearing the SaltWater Soul logo: T-shirts, hoodies and ball caps.Meanwhile, both men continued oper-ating their existing enterprises; Vaughn has maintained his ownership in Outback T-shirt Co. — “it got the name because I was running it out of my garage and when my friends would call, my wife would say, ‘He’s out back’ — and Wagner continues operating his namesake Wagner Fence and Design.The partners didn’t anticipate that SaltWa-ter Soul — the brand is sold in select Gulf Coast stores as well as at Buc-ee’s conve-nience megamarts and, since last spring, at Cabela’s — would be as time-consuming as it has proved to be.“We’ve done this on a part-time basis for 10 years,” Wagner said. “Part time, if you can call it that, with eight- to 10-hour days. It started as an idea that grew legs and started running.”“Billy asks me all the time, ‘If you knew how much work this was going to be, would you do it again?’” Vaughn said.His partner supplied the answered.“I always say there’s no way I’d do it again, no way, no way in the world,” Wagner said. “We started out with black-and-white T-shirts, peddling them at piers and at fishing tournaments, that sort of thing. Trade shows, boat shows. We sold wherever we could, and we’ve grown this thing organi-cally.”EXPANDING THE BRANDThe business partners don’t divulge Wag Vaughn Sports and Adventures’ revenue, other than to say it continues to grow.“We’ve had healthy, consistent, steady COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2017 41really energetic, infectious personality,” said Adam Walterscheid, president and CEO of T-shirt Tycoon Solutions. “You take the company’s brand — good vibes and good times — and add Billy Ray to that, you’ve got yourself a really contagious product.”One over which Wagner and Vaughn retain artistic control.“We still maintain the design of the brand,” Vaughn said of SaltWater Soul-branded merchandise, while TTY Branded oversees production and marketing.The arrangement has eased the partners’ workload.“I told Tom, ‘I feel like this is the first time I’ve been able to breathe in 10 years,’” Wagner said.Now, the privately held company is pursu-ing licensing agreements to extend the brand beyond apparel.“We’re looking at other ways to market the SaltWater Soul logo, from sandals to sun block,” Wagner said. “Anything that speaks to the culture.”That culture, as it turns out, goes beyond the soul, Vaughn said: “You’d be literally amazed how many people have SaltWater Soul tattoos.” revenue growth,” Vaughn said. “Hurricane Ike knocked us back, but four years ago, we said, ‘let’s really push this thing forward.’”To that end, in addition to selling appar-el wholesale to vendors such as Murdochs Pier, Buc-ee’s and Cabela’s, Wag Vaughn in January 2016 entered into a licensing agreement with TTY Branded, a division of Garland-based T-shirt Tycoon Solutions.“Billy Ray has this thing about him, a Billy Ray Wagner, left, and Tom Vaughn watch the waves from Murdochs, where their SaltWater Soul brand apparel and merchandise is sold.Take the guesswork out of financing with a mortgage loan from Texas First Bank.Text "Apply" to 21777 or call 281-338-9300 texasfirstmortgage.net44 COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2017Stem to SternGastownayAdirondack guide boat keeps rower connected to natureStory by David Canright Photos by Stuart VillanuevaChris Allen rows boats. He has for nearly 30 years, beginning with a beamy 10-foot aluminum boat from Sears. In the years since, his tastes have become more refined, and his appreciation for rowing has deepened.“I row most of the places I want to go,” Allen said. “I walk or row everywhere.”Allen is an electrical engineer, now retired after 39 years with Continental Airlines in Houston. His enthusiasm for rowing has tak-en him onto the water from the Colorado Riv-er to Cape Ann on the North Atlantic coast.He has several times rowed on the Erie Canal.“What I liked about the canal was that it had these interesting little towns spaced about 15 miles apart,” he said. “I’m not a camper, so I would just row from one town to the next to get a meal and spend the night at a hotel. They would open the canal locks just for me.”As a solo rower, he has been a part of the Christmas Boat Lane Parade on Clear Lake for 28 years, sporting a Santa Claus hat as he rowed, except for only a few years when high winds or fog conditions forced the parade’s cancellation.Allen used to run, “but it was getting to my knees,” he said, after many marathons and the famous “Bay to Breakers” event across San Francisco.He has also been a sailor, most recently owning a Pearson Ariel, but arranging for friends to crew it with him became too much of a production, he said. With his rowboats, he can simply launch from the floating dock at his canal-side home in the Glen Cove section of League City and pull out onto Clear Lake. COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2017 45Chris Allen has been rowing boats for nearly 30 years. From the floating dock at his canal-side home in the Glen Cove section of League City, he can pull out onto Clear Lake.46 COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2017Stem to SternNowadays, Allen’s usual boat is a 15-foot Adirondack guide boat, built of molded Kevlar/fiberglass composite and weighing only about 70 pounds. The hull is from an original design first produced in the 1860s for use by guides to take fishermen and hunters into remote areas of the Adirondack forest in upstate New York.The guide boat is double-ended like a canoe, with a canoe’s backward-curving bow and stern, but far more stable and capacious to carry hunting and camping gear. It has two seat backs of wood and cane, as if to emphasize the relaxed, gentlemanly nature of its mission.And unlike a canoe, the boat is powered with oars rather than paddles.Allen’s oars are built by Shaw & Tenney of Orono, Maine, which has been in the business since 1858. Guide boat oars are 8 feet long, counterweighted to balance comfortably at the rail. They use a pin-type rowlock. This means that they cannot be rotated, or “feathered,” to reduce wind re-sistance on the return stroke, but that they are secure in place, and in no danger of coming adrift.“I never learned to feather,” Allen said. He never felt the need.Adirondack guide boats are made today in both the Kevlar/fiberglass version and the cedar strip-planked construction. Allen For Allen, walking, bicycling and rowing aren’t just about exercise. They are a way to stay connected with the natural world around him — an antidote to the modern world. He quotes from his favorite poem by William Wordsworth: “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers/ little we see in Nature that is ours.”“I remember rowing home from a party one night, and I watched the moon rise over the water — an orange crescent, like a tilted bowl, rising out of the water,” Allen said. “If I had just driven home, I never would have seen that.” owns one of each, in addition to a fiberglass wherry built in Maine.“The name of this boat is Gastownay,” Allen said. “It’s not a French word; I made it up. It’s three words: gas, tow and nay. The boat doesn’t use any gas, and when people see me on the water rowing, they think that something is wrong with my motor. They ask me if I want a tow. ‘Nay,’ I tell them. I don’t.”Chris Allen rows to most places he wants to go. He owns two Adirondack guide boats — one built of molded Kevlar/fiberglass composite and one of cedar strip-planked construction — and a fiberglass wherry built in Maine. KING GAMBRINUS LIGHTS UP THE NIGHT! The Krewe of Gambrinus presents Music Legends on Parade while throwing its 28th “King Gambrinus Lights Up the Night” street party and parade on February 18, 2017! The Krewe proudly announces that local music legend Pee Wee Bowen will be their Honorary Grand Marshall leading the parade beginning at 6:00 p.m. down Seawall Blvd from 57th Street to 25th Street, then on to the Strand Entertainment District. From Galveston Island to outer space, Pee Wee Bowen is truly a local music legend. He is a BOI and has lived his en�re life in Galveston County. Pee Wee grew up around music, his mother was a performer at Galveston’s famous Balinese Room, and he has been performing for more than 50 years. Pee Wee has been on stage with Jimmy Reed, Chuck Berry and Roy Orbison. By request, he and his daughter recorded a CD for NASA Astronauts that circled the earth 108 �mes. Pee Wee has even played for President Richard Nixon when he was in Texas. What most folks don’t know is that Pee Wee is more than a music Legend. He has raised eight world champion paint horses, has been the Grand Champion at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and has served on their Board. Pee Wee turned his love of racing Hot Rod’s to restoring them. This year he and his wife, Jerry‐Ann, won best in show at Wheels and Keels. Pee Wee Bowen is a man of many talents and we are so proud to have him serving as our Honorary Grand Marshal for 2017! For more informa�on go to www.kreweofgambrinus.org FEBRUARY 18, 2017 AT 6:00 P.M. 2017 Grand Marshall & Music Legend Pee Wee Bowen LET US HELP YOU FIND YOUR ISLAND RETREAT. 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