the company making the cadillac of rafts

There is an unspoken transition that takes place somewhere in the middle of North Dakota where the canoes of Minnesota and the history of wood-canvas craftsmanship give way to the mad science of urethane and air. This is the subtle move from the canoes of the Northwoods to the rafts found drifting any river in the Mountain West. While one may consider rafts garish upstarts compared to the slender frames of the canoe, there is one company deep in raft country that is applying the workmanship of a cedar strip canoe to raft production. 

In part, the volume and continuous nature of much of the West's rivers make the region ideal for rafting. It is for this reason that many of the largest producers of rafts can be found in either Idaho or Colorado. One such company is Boise, Idaho-based Maravia, which has been responsible for multiple innovations in rafting technology. Born in 1972, the same year as NRS, Maravia is a member of the vanguard of raft producers and is credited with the first commercially produced drop stitch, self-bailing floor. 

Producing hard bottoms in their rafts, using drop stitching for rigidity, while leveraging air pressure for customization,  practically gave Maravia a standing residency on Idaho’s iconic rivers from the Salmon to the Lochsa.  These floors allowed for a whole new realm of rafting where holes and waves were simply challenges to take on rather than obstacles waiting to flood your boat. 

Maravia has taken that headway and run with it, continuing to innovate for the past fifty years at their Boise, Idaho production facility.  While the drop stitch design was Maravia’s first major innovation, the company is also responsible for the creation of thermo-fused seamless rafts. These rafts have seams integrated into the urethane tubing, making them far less susceptible to delamination and faults, much like the fully integrated body design found in many Ford F-150 trucks. 

Now, over 50 years after Maravia’s first innovation, it is carrying on the tradition, acting as one of the only manufacturing operations offering customizable color and wrapping on rafts. It is these years of development that have made Maravia the highest-end raft producer in the nation.