The water sports equipment from NOHrD has been on the market for 30 years and is made of wood. A designer home trainer that is available in cherry, ash, oak, walnut or stainless steel. As stylish and classy as it is, it can also be left in the living room.
Jürgen Groh: Mr. Kuprecht, hello there! I can see that the topic of design is now going deep into the area of fitness equipment. The device looks amazing! Dominik Kuprecht: Thank you very much! But it's been around for 30 years. We started in 1989 and were laughed at very slowly at the first trade fair in 1992. Our appliance was called a washing machine. Unfortunately, it's now often copied from the Far East. Nevertheless, we are the original water rowing machine, the WaterRower, and as you can see it's a lot of fun and very effective. Jürgen Groh: How does it work? Could you briefly explain the principle of the WaterRower? Dominik Kuprecht: It works like a rowing boat. In a rowing boat, you also have two paddles with which you pull the boat through the water. The harder you pull, the faster the boat moves and this is exactly the principle behind the WaterRower. It is therefore not a resistance sport but an intensity sport. The harder you row, the more intense and heavier it becomes. Jürgen Groh: Does the energy dissipate or does it somehow go into the power supply? Dominik Kuprecht: It doesn't go up in smoke, it's used to get the water moving and the energy you put in naturally makes you fit. Jürgen Groh: But you don't go into the power supply - like all the modern appliances - don't you? Dominik Kuprecht: No, that would be too complex to add.
Jürgen Groh: What else can you say about the home trainer? Dominik Kuprecht: We specialize in wood, so we are a large joinery. We build it in different variants: Ash variant, oak variant, then we have an ash stained variant. We also produce the fitness equipment in cherry wood and then very elegantly in walnut wood and at the very back you can see the stainless steel version. Jürgen Groh: I don't want to shout about it now, but didn't I see one of the machines in Playboy recently? Dominik Kuprecht: Yes, you're exactly right. We were in Playboy. Of course, we think it was the most beautiful model in the magazine. You may also recognize the device from the series House of Cards with Kevin Spacey. Our walnut appliance is shown there, which was a very, very big success for us.
Jürgen Groh: How do you manage to get into a series like House of Cards? Dominik Kuprecht: We don't know ourselves. It was actually Kevin Spacey's personal trainer, who had a WaterRower at home and it was his suggestion to include it in the series. So it was a big coincidence. Jürgen Groh: And above all, free advertising! Dominik Kuprecht: Yes, exactly, great free advertising. Jürgen Groh: You have other products here, do we want to take a look at them? Dominik Kuprecht: This is our WaterGrinder. Grinding comes from sailing, where the aim is to hoist the sails of an Americas Cup boat, for example, as quickly as possible. It's a very intensive workout, mainly for the upper body. I would say that you should give it a try. Jürgen Groh: Crank it backwards. Dominik Kuprecht: Yes, exactly. Backwards. Jürgen Groh: Is it designed for strength or endurance?
Dominik Kuprecht: It's both. Endurance and strength. If you do it slowly, you can do it for a very long time. If you were cranking forwards, you would take the seat and hang it on the other side. Jürgen Groh: You can definitely work up a sweat. Dominik Kuprecht: For example, you can easily adjust the lever once you stop. (Move the crank more towards the center of the circle to reduce the crank radius) Jürgen Groh: Then it becomes even more intense (groans). Dominik Kuprecht: If you do it very intensively, you very quickly get into the over-acidic range. But that's exactly what the sailors have to do. They have to hoist these sails in a very short space of time, they are incredible feats of strength and you can train for that here. Jürgen Groh: I can absolutely understand that. Dominik Kuprecht: Strengthens the whole shoulder area, arms and especially the back.
Jürgen Groh: What kind of bag is this? Dominik Kuprecht: Yes, these are fitness bags, we call them swing dumbbells. They're made from real cowhide, joined together with a hand-stitched seam and filled with iron granulate. Jürgen Groh: How many kilos does a swing dumbbell weigh? Dominik Kuprecht: You can see it on the side, it weighs 4 kilos. It has 6 kilos. We do a maximum of 8 kilos. Swinging movements are performed with this dumbbell. The vibration and acceleration, gravity, multiplies the weight of this dumbbell and is an excellent workout for the fascia, i.e. the connective tissue. Here again - as is our way - we try to make the design very attractive so that you can put it in your living room without feeling ashamed of it. Jürgen Groh: What target group are you addressing? Dominik Kuprecht: Our target group is anyone who wants to do sports. From experience, we buy from people who are a bit more affluent, who place a lot of value on beautiful things. People who don't want to mess up their living room with ugly sports equipment. Of course, we also appeal to people who like wood. Jürgen Groh: I wish you every success at the trade fair!