Meet the team

Charlotte Dolheguy

As a director of the company, Charlotte says a happy satisfied customer is the most rewarding part of her job.  She loves creating one of a kind waders that people enjoy when out doing their favourite pastimes, or giving that extra bit of comfort to commercial users that wear waders all day every day.
 
In the past Charlotte has worked in the electronics industry, and in the hospitality industry as front of house and also as chef and baker. She has always been attracted to working for companies that provide excellent customer service and go that extra mile to please.
 
After working in an administration role for a large electronics company for some years, she missed the contact with customers and being able to satisfy their needs and wanted to get back into a customer service role.
 
In 2004 Charlotte and husband Matthew, decided to buy their own business where they could be in control of giving the best service possible and sell something that would enrich and make a difference to people’s lives. A real hands on business.
 
After looking at many businesses in different industries, Matt found DryLINE Waders. Now, waders weren’t something that Charlotte had had any association with previously but it looked fascinating and was definitely “hands on”! So in they jumped.
 
Well 6 years later they have added their own touches to the business and made many improvements for their customers. Charlotte takes pride in being responsible for the designing of the made2measure waders and a large portion of the manufacturing of them. She loves making the product from scratch and the wonderful compliments she receives for happy customers. Of course designing and testing new products has become somewhat of an extended family hobby with everyone pitching in with their own great ideas.
 
Now, as passionate and excited as Charlotte is about waders, she doesn’t live for work alone! She enjoys getting out four-wheel-driving with family and friends, camping and going for bush walks with Matt and their 2 dogs, and of course fishing (though still waiting to catch that big trophy fish worthy of a photo on thewaderstore.com!). 
 
Last but not least, she loves playing with and riding her horse, and is an avid student of Parelli Natural Horsemanship.
 

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Matthew Dolheguy

Matt Dolheguy is an extremely enthusiastic hunter and fisherman spending as many weekends outdoors as time and his wife will allow!

Having a father who has a love of the outdoors it wasn’t long before Matt was being dragged along on family tramps around the south island. Doing such walks as the Heaphy, Milford and Able Tasman tracks, Matt started to join his father’s love of the great outdoors. Being an active member of his local scout group he began to learn skills that serve him very well in later years.

After leaving school Matt went to work for his father in the family’s builders supply business. It was during this period Matt also became involved with another local company – Scuba, Ski and Sailing. Progressing from a PADI open water diver right through to Dive Master Level, Matt also worked in the shop doing such tasks as dive tank testing and filling, to waxing snow ski’s the old fashioned way (by hand), to serving in the retail side of the shop. “It was here where I learnt the basic’s of selling and how important customer service is” says Matt when he reflects on his time spent in the retail side of the business. It was also here where he had his first introduction to neoprene.

After working for 14 years for his father, Matt and Charlotte decided that they would like to try owning and running their own business. With his love of the outdoors and keen interest in Fishing and Hunting, finding a business that dealt in both those areas was fairly high up on Matt priorities.

It was late in 2004 when Matt and Charlotte purchased the company “Streamside Sports”. The company had originally been part of Canterbury Wetsuit Company, but not long after the introduction of the DryLINE wader, around 1991, the wader side was split of and sold off.

After 18 years of manufacturer of the very successful DryLINE neoprene wader, Matt and Charlotte developed a new wader made from breathable fabric, made only in custom made sizing, to complement the DryLINE neoprene waders.

“I’m very proud of each and every wader that comes out of our factory, and I pride myself in the fact that in the almost six years we’ve owned the company, I can say I’ve never had a neoprene wader come back with a leak from poor workmanship” Matt explains when asked what satisfies him the most with owing his own business.

As well as fishing Matt enjoys getting outdoors hunting as often as possible. This gives him the perfect opportunity to test and trial current and new designs, as well as meeting with the end users of the products and getting very valuable feed back.

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