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 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.

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.

Indian River Lagoon New Smyrna 2/20

A buddy from the gym loaned me his Al Merrick shaped SUP so Erica and I headed over to NSB to check out the mosquito lagoon paddle trail. We had to get inventive because someone stole my buddies paddle off his dock, so i borrowed a kayak paddle from a co-worker. This place was sweet! A perfect combination of well marked trail and mangrove tunnels to explore. We even saw a pack of dolphins. We got as close as 20 feet from them and watched them play for about 10 minutes before the boats on the open part of the Indian river ruined our alone time with flipper and his mates.

A little bit of a workout carrying the boards from the parking lot off of Saxon road in New Smyrna.


Launching Spot. In retrospect I guess we could have gone off the dock I stepped on some oyster shells down below.


The beautiful Erica and the well marked trail signs. I had my GPS watch on, but we started and stopped so often and i forgot to restart I have no idea of our total distance. I am guessing the trail was about 3 miles.


Went off trail and headed down a Mangrove tunnel got a little tight, but it's such a unique experience going down these. You feel like you are the only human that has ever been there.


Took me awhile to get used to SUP with the Kayak paddle, but I had a little fun playing around with different seated and kneeling strokes. Perfect cross train. I rocked out 5 miles the day before in PR 1:11:34 Averaging about 14 minute 5miles on a lake. I'm getting faster!


Cool Garica shot! A total accident


Another sweet shot. Erica's paddle stroke is getting impressive!


We finished the trail and started back into some tunnels. I will go back to this spot as soon as I get my fishing gear. I have never seen more fish than in this shoot.


Open water of the lagoon


Definitely recommend this place. It took us less than an hour to get there. We were on the water for 3:30 minutes. Guessing we did well over 6 lazy touring miles. We definitely earned some fine red wine for a lazy Saturday night.