How The Buoy Guy Started
Buoy Sports was founded in 2010 by my wife and I with supporting enthusiasm from our three children Katherine, Sydney, and Harrison. The company was created as a vehicle to manufacture and distribute our first product, The Original Buoy Bat. We knew it was big-time fun and we wanted to share it. At the time, no one had ever seen a Buoy Bat because no one had ever made one and taken it to market. Fisherman and their families had been using old lobster buoys to hit balls for decades…but no one ever thought to integrate a real bat handle, include a face-friendly ball, and put a price tag on it. We knew it was fun because we played it ourselves.
In the past, we've sold wholesale to other retailers, on our own website, and at fairs and festivals where we set up a booth and introduce our products to people. We no longer sell wholesale or do the fairs and festivals circuit but we did open a retail store in Ogunquit Maine in June of 2024. We sell our own products as well as other fun, high quality goods in the store located at 13 Beach Street in Ogunquit's Upper Village.
In 2013 we were featured in Yankee Magazine, The Boston Globe, and Downeast magazine as one of New England’s “best gifts” of the year. In 2014 - we came super close to getting on the hit TV show - Shark Tank but in the end, just missed the boat.
Our buoy based products are made from real foam fishing buoys right here at our home in South Berwick. We’re capable of applying custom painted designs on the buoys and love to share our fun products with people.
Listen to Buoy Bill tell the story by clicking here.
We sold the first Buoy Bat in November 2010 but the story of how I came up with the idea for the invention goes back to July, 2008. My father and mother lived in East Boothbay Maine at the time on Meadow Cove. On a trip to visit them, a lobster buoy washed up on shore and my children and I found it. As we were walking back to the house with our cool find, we came across the dog playing with a tennis ball. In that instant, I had an idea. I took the ball from the dog and handed the buoy to Katherine my oldest child and showed her how to hold it like a ball bat. I stepped back and pitched her the slimy, dog drool covered tennis ball. On that first pitch, she hit the ball right over my head. Katherine had not at that point in her young life played any sort of organized bat/ball sport but was able to hit the ball easily because of the large buoy on the end of the stick. Watching her hitting the ball easily and having fun doing it would be my motivation for inventing the Buoy Bat…but I wouldn’t realize it for quite some time. We played a few times on that trip then brought the buoy home to South Berwick where it wound up in our barn. Fast forward two years.
In July 2010 our family made plans to take a vacation to Sturdivant Island off Falmouth Maine with two other families. While packing for the trip I went to the barn to look for a tent and came out with that buoy from 2008. It was leaning in a corner and I immediately forgot about the tent when I saw it. I said to myself, “I’ve got to make a bat out of a buoy to take it on vacation with us…the kids will love it!” I set out looking for a good buoy and rugged stick to use for a handle. (That vintage buoy was too nice to sacrifice for a bat) I found the appropriate buoy and drove an old lacrosse stick handle into it with a hammer. I used hockey tape to create a knob at the end of the handle like a real bat and then decorated it with a sharpie. “Maine Buoy Ball”, “Buoyville Slugger”, and “Patent Pending 2010” were some of the markings….I was just having fun.
We took the "buoy" bat on vacation and played with our friends. The little ones could hit the ball easily and the adults could hit it a mile…we all loved it and it was very fun. For the entire week, I dreamed and schemed to myself and out loud about how I was going to sell millions of these buoy bats…my friends may have been thinking I was nuts…but I was serious. The moment we got home, I went to the internet and started looking to see if anyone had done it and also buying up appropriate website addresses. I was on a mission to create The Original Buoy Bat. I borrowed a wood lathe and began turning prototype handles. After much trial and error, and testing of the bat with different balls, we sold our first batch of Buoy Bats just before Christmas in 2010. (Sounds like it was easy but boy, it was not) So that’s the short version of the story.
The bats are made with hardwood handles and branded with a Buoy Bat logo. A real lobster buoy made of very rugged and firm foam is used on the bat. These bats are indestructible when used as designed because buoys are made to take a beating. The balls are soft and face friendly so they don’t hurt when they hit you. They also don’t break windows and are wicked fun to hit. They travel far and make a cool “thuuuuump” noise when you hit them. There are no formal rules for playing, but we’re certain many people have created their own.
After a couple years we started offering cool designs on the buoys including lobsters, stars & stripes, shamrocks, our slugger logo, crabs, starfish etc etc. The possibilities were endless and we had fun with it.
What make's Buoy Bat special, is that a simple lobster buoy made into a bat brings happiness, joy, excitement, fun, exercise, family time, and laughter to so many people. It’s clear to us that the Buoy Bat is perceived by all ages to be cool, fun, clever, and healthy. We’ve created a need…where there was no need. Bats and balls are everywhere, but there’s only one made from a lobster buoy and people seem to love it.
We are the epitome of a family start-up business in America. Things come together in the entire house…the basement, the garage, and the living room. Everyone helps at times. Mom and Dad a lot, and the children as they can and are able.
We offer other products also…one provides more laughs and giggles than the buoy bat. It’s a freestanding toilet paper holder made from a real lobster buoy...we call it the Poo-E-Buoy. (The Poo-E-Buoy has been temporarily discontinued while we gear up for our store in Ogunquit but we plan to bring it back.)
We also offer decorative buoys we call Welcome Buoys because they’re usually hung near a door as a greeting to visitors. We also offer a bat to hit tennis balls to dogs with called Buoy Bat Go Fetch! (also temporarily discontinued.) It picks the balls up off the ground so the human doesn’t need to bend over to get them.
Please stop and say hello if you're in Ogunquit. Our The Buoy Guy store is located at 13 Beach Street in the upper village!
Hope to see you soon!
Buoy Bill, Susan, Katherine, Sydney, and Harrison