Monthly Paddle Social June - Sunset Paddle at Kahuna Kai Paddle & Beach Shop

Our June Monthly Paddle Social was a sunset paddle. It took place this past Sunday the 27th at our shop, Kahuna Kai Paddle & Beach Shop. Renters receive a discounted rental rate and those with their own boards come out for free.

It is so amazing to see how our SUP community is growing. There are always new paddlers and so many different kind of boards. Mostly YOLO of course! We had over 20 people out on a Sunday evening. The conditions were near perfect with mostly flat perfect for beginners, but a little bump for more experienced riders to try to surf on. The unpredictable summer storms inevitably rolled in, but managed to hold off and produce a spectacular light show with rainbows and pinks and purples in the sunset. A great time was had by all. We are considering an expedition to Crystal River for our next Paddle Social as an all day excursion. Enjoy the slide show. Email me if you would like any copies. Garrett@kahunakai.com

Crystal Beach to Honeymoon Island

Now that I am officially a Bay Area resident. I want to rededicate myself to showing you the unbelievable waterways of greater Tampa Bay. Sorry it's been awhile, but I am finally settled into my new life here in Clearwater.

Last Friday I went up to Crystal Beach, which is just north of Palm Harbor. What an amazing area. It's Old Florida at it's finest and development hasn't ruined it quite yet. There are actual dirt streets just off the inter coastal with bayou's and lagoons intertwined. I guess there is actually an underwater cave that connects back to lake Tarpon. It never ceases to amaze me about how much water there really is to explore here.

My goal was to paddle all the way across to the point at Honeymoon Island with a pit stop at the spoil islands. I was guessing around 7 miles round trip.

Here is the launching point



Extremely Flat Conditions with shallow waters. Crystal Clear views to the sea grass and fish below. The Island in the distance is about 1.5 out and my 1st rest stop.



Closer View of the Island


Want to come back out here with friends, fishing pole, and a cooler. There is a fire pit and a grill left on the island. Plenty of shade and lots of fish. The fisherman where all around me.



Honeymoon Island on the east side about .25 miles from the point. It was 3.35 miles from my launch spot and a brutally hot day. I couldn't wait to get to the pristine beach at the point and soak in the shallow waters of a sand bar.



One of the best beaches in FL. It is about 2.5 miles from the nearest parking spot. So most people don't make it out there. Usually just a few runners or fisherman. I had the place pretty much to myself. Paradise!



The way back was brutal. As it got close to 11am It was becoming unbearable. I drank 120 ounces of water before I even made it back to the Island!

Overall it was an awesome paddle. Just under 7 miles and 3 hours including my exploration time. I look forward to offering this paddle as a 3 hour Eco tour. Just need to make it an earlier start time!

Winter Park Chain of Lakes

Ok so maybe I am not the brightest crayon in the box. After about 30 paddles on Lake Maitland I finally found out why they call it the Winter Park Chain of Lakes. There is a canal near the Rollins Boat house that connects Lake Maitland to neighboring lakes that extend all the way to Lake Virginia on the other Side of Fairbanks! Holy Smoke that would take about 15-20 mins by car. Last Tuesday was a beautiful day and I some how managed not to be busy. I ran 5.5 miles earlier in the day so I was a little tired when I decided it was too beautiful to sit inside and decided to go on a leisurly paddle. Leisurly it was not. I found the canal and went into exploration mode. I went from Maitland across Osceola, into Virginia, and the around Mizell. Wow my near by paddle world just tripled. I paddled 4 miles before i decided to make the against the wind paddle home. Overall i covered 7.5 miles and was on the water a little over 2 hours. Was I ever hungry that night. Heres some highlights of the canals that proove why Orlando or even any land locked area can be SUP heavon!


Rollins Boat house- I usually avoid this area due to the crews teams launching, guess thats why I never found the canal.


Venitian Canal- This canal is beautiful! about .3 miles it is landscaped, tranquil, and a beautiful spot to live. Only down side is getting trapped when the tour boats come through.


More canal- I felt like i was somewhere else. Amazing how the waterways can give you a new outlook on an area you have lived in for 10 years.


Opening to lake Osceola- a little over a mile to the canal to Lake Viginia. This lake has some big time homes and less traffic than Maitland or Virginia. This will probably be part of my new expanded training route.


Crossing under Fairbanks. Holy crap that seems far away! Really only 3 miles via water. 15-20 mins by car about 45 minutes of paddle power. I can't believe I can go this far now!


opening to lake virginia- This is Kim from paddleboard Orlando's home lake. So cool that I can paddle up to meet her. How come no one told me about this?


Rollins college- The beautiful school in the heart of Winter Park is slowly turning into a SUP hot bed thanks to Kim.


Lake Mizell- This lake is really awesome. Someone's peacock came to the waters edge to check me out. Who owns a peacock? Man these people are loaded.


House that is on both Mizell and Virginia, guess these people are paying for Obama's healthcare reform.


Nature on Lake Mizell- 1/2 the lake is natural, some visible from fairbanks, some mansions. My style with the no wake zone and nature. Great spot to aim for on my 7 mile+ paddles.


Finally the canal back to Lake Maitland into the wind the entire way. Yeah the exploring was fun, but the 20 mph wind in my facemade 3+ miles take over an hour on the way home. Oh well makes me stronger for next time.


Orlando/ Winter Park is a perfect place to paddle! Who's coming to Kim and I's paddlefit/ YOW class on the 16th!

Caladesi Monthly Paddle Social 3-26

Stand Up Fitness/ Kahuna Kai's monthly paddle social was a huge success. We met at the Dunedin Causeway and made the .75 mile or so paddle across to Caladesi Island State Park. I described this paddle a couple of weeks ago in a previous post with some awesome shelling pictures. This paddle didn't involve quite as many shells, but made up for it with many new friends. There were more than 20 paddlers on the water enjoying a beautiful day in the upper 70's. Everyone from first time SUP'ers to racers enjoyed this perfect spot. Brody and Jesse even brought the next great paddler, their new son Jonah aka "JAWs". The tide was out and made for quite a different paddle than last time. A sand bar that was covered on our previous paddle proved to be a great landing spot. Sponges, full shells, and star fish were to be found. Small bonnet head sharks, rays, and dolphins made this a truly pristine eco tour. It was really fun to see small groups of paddlers form and explore different areas. Some headed for the mangrove mazes, some explored the pine island to the east, some went shelling, some hung on the beach, and some even went tandem paddling on the Yak. This place has so many diverse areas to explore and is truly one of the bay areas gems. If you missed out on this paddle The Kahuna Kai Adventure Center will run weekly 3 hour Sunday tours! Call 727-742-8870 or check out Standupfitnessinc.com for more details. After the paddle many of the crew dined together in our ever growing SUP community. However, Erica and I decided to hold off on the food and wait around for the sunset. Our patience was rewarded with a spectacular light show courtesy of mother nature. It doesn't get much better than this. Slideshow time!

YOW with Paddle Board Orlando

Friday was an amazing day! I teamed up with Kim from paddleboard Orlando paddleboardorlando.com, and got a few of my coworkers and clients out for their first paddle. Being that we were all fitness buffs Kim and i didn't exactly take it easy on them. We taught paddle basics and went the .75 miles out to dog island in the middle of lake maitland. We were on our way to muddlake for a fitness class, when my buddy Bruce got caught watching the fisherman who hooked a bass and whoops he went in. The cold water didn't ruin Bruce's spirits as he didn't even want to towel off. He wanted to just keep going fully addicted. After that I went into paddlefit mode as I took the group through pushups, squats, sprint paddles, and core work. If that wasn't enough Kim took us through some YOW. What awesome stuff. If you are ever in Orlando you must seek Kim out for this unique paddle experience. Kim and I are getting together again this Thursday to brainstorm and there will be many more groups in O-town. Thanks again Kim. You only live once! YOLO! Enjoy the slide show at the bottom.

Intro to Paddlefit at Vinoy Park St. Pete

Spring is finally here! What a beautiful day this Saturday was! It around 80 with a light breeze. We were in Clearwater again for the weekend so I decided to go help Brody Welte of standupfitnessinc.com out with the intro to paddle fit. We had a strong turnout with about 10 people out. The only problem was that 7 of them have never paddled before. No worries, it became a lesson. The experienced SUP'ers took turns shreddin on the race boards while the newbies got an hour lesson of paddling basics. If you are ever in the bay area you need to go to one of Brody's paddle fit classes. North Beach at Vinoy park is beautiful and in an ideal location. You can see the pier, downtown, and explore the channels back to some nice houses. The water has tons of rays and other sea life, not what I was expecting in an urban backdrop. Erica and I hung on the beach while class was going on and handed out tons of business cards. It's so fun and rewarding to be part of introducing people to SUP. What an addiction! Enjoy the slide show.

Caladesi Island

It was a beautiful Blustery Sunday and Erica and I decided to paddle from the Dunedin causeway to Caladesi Island State Park. This Paddie is amazing! National Geographic Traveler even highlighted it as one of the best adventures in Florida! The causeway connects the mainland to two State Park's. The populated yet beautiful honeymoon Island to the north and Caladesi to the south. A pass separates the two parks and leads out to the gulf. It was a terribly windy weekend, so it wasn't exactly ideal paddle conditions, but we made the most out of the approximately one mile crossing. We landed on the beach with a dozen or so kayaker's and began exploring. I was taken aback by the amount of shells on the island. Of all the places I have been in Florida including Sanibel I have never seen more shells. I am talking about thousands of the small conchs, mostly with the animal in them so no taking those, but there were star fish, sand dollars, and lightning welks everywhere. I am not sure if these where normal conditions or due to the rough gulf, but regardless it was beautiful! After exploring the shells for half an hour we got back on the boards and headed north on the inter coastal side of the island. There are more small beach's and Mangrove mazes to explore. This trip is a must do for any paddler! Erica really kicked some serious butt today staying on her feet in rough conditions! Enjoy the flickr slide show!




For those of you in the bay area, Kahuna Kai and Stand Up Fitness will be running their monthly paddle Sunday the 21st from 3-5 for $25. Act now as there is a limited amount of boards. Call 727-742-8870 for more information. If you can't make it this weekend Kahuna Kai will be running a weekly Sunday tour as well as running lessons from the causeway.

Sweetwater Kayak Symposium so easy, anyone can do it

As my friend the distressed mullet(distressedmullett.com) says, be a man, learn to stand. That was Brody and I's goal this weekend, to show kayakers that they need to stop being lazy and stand up. We went to the Sweetwater Kayak Symposium based out Sweet Water Kayaks, not far from Derby lane on Gandy in St. Pete. The symposium brought kayak advocates from around the world. I met some amazing people who have paddled the Arctic circle for 7 weeks or this guy Jake who went down the Mississippi along the gulf coast and somehow went through the Great Lakes in a big round trip showing that we truly are all connected by water. Anyways, Brody spoke at the event and we were to hold demos to show these influential kayakers what SUP was all about. Saturday was a bust with rain, wind, and cold, but Sunday proved to be a nice day. Some of the Kayakers were skeptical of us standing folks and thought we were punks by perception, but i actually heard multiple guys say they knew what their next toy would be. Get up stand up!

Kayak group This symposium was cool with multiple classes around the bay area to choose from taught by legendary paddlers.


Raceboard All work and no play makes Garrett a dull boy so while Brody was talking to everyone i tried out all the different YOLO boards. This thing is sweet. I understand why guys can rock out 10 minute miles, they ride this thing. Crazy fast made out of carbon fiber.


explorer This 14 foot board is made for touring and is what the YOLO guys took through the everglades. If you are going touring or want a stable board this thing is a Cadillac in the water.


So easy a gimp can do it Not my words, his. He claimed to be SUP's new great ad "So easy a gimp can do it" What an amazing guy, was a competitive surfer for a # of years all with a titanium leg.


Winning them over One by one the kayakers slowly came over to hear Brody's pitch.


YAK Yolo's very stable explorer/ rental/ fishing board. Super durable and stable. This is great for beginners or those that want go on an adventure with lots of bungees and room to move around on.


Tahoe Rubicon One of the kayakers actually was a Tahoe SUP rep. They make great flat water boards, I was impressed with the glide, but it was pretty tippy. it has a dry storage compartment, but apparently they are liars as water easily crept in.


timid yaker This guy was a great example of a timid person who didn't want to get wet that was up and loving it in about 5 minutes.


courage to stand


Dominating 5 minutes later and he was up and loving it.


Really cool experience to watch people who were not interested in what we were selling slowly fall in love with SUP. Thanks for letting me tag along Brody!

Merrit Island Wildlife Refuge Sunday 2/21

After such a wonderful time and perfect weather we were stoked to get back on the water Sunday. We headed a little further south from yesterday, with a few different launch locations in mind, but basically we were headed towards the Space Coast and looking for flat water. The Titusville bridge was out so Canaveral Sea Shore south entrance was out. So we went north on US-1. Thank god for GPS on the phone as we found the Merrit Island Wildlife Refuge a few miles north. What did I ever do before the iphone?

Garica before the adventure


We found an amazing spot, by total accident. We drove past a boat launch and were going to turn around when we saw this random little road without a soul in sight, islands in the distance, and perfectly flat water.


E and the open water. A cool coast line to check out.


Approaching "Bird Island" I have never seen mores species of water birds in one place or smeeled so much bird poo.


Check it out, Roseatte spoon bills, herons, storks, pelicans, pretty much every water bird of FL.


Us on bird island. The noises out there were crazy. It's like all the birds were talking to each other. Erica and I got a little scared that the smoke monster from lost was coming after us. Talk about weird noises.


2nd island about another .75 miles out


Is this a dead dried up ray or some kind of crab? Never known. We didn't see a lot of fish, but did see plenty of Ray's.


A Roseatte Spoon Bill flying away. So pretty.


Gladly escaping bird island. Looking for less noise and smell.


G open water




This Island was much more our style. Sand and no birds. We did have to share with the wussy kayakers who are too lazy to stand.


My "corona comercial spot" minus carona doh!


Our launch spot from a distance. Erica thought the palm trees were a mirage. It seemed to take forever to get back from the Corona Island. Good Lesson to remember while touring, it may be great to take touring breaks and cruise islands, but don't forget how far you went out!


Awesome adventure. We couldn't decide which we liked better, but the Carona island was pretty sweet. We were out for another 3 hours and easily paddled another 6 miles. Erica rocked 12 + in two days and I have done about 20+ adding up the last 4 days. Yikes! but that's the best part it dosen't feel like exercise until you are done.