Thanks for Water

This Thanksgiving weekend we’ve been gifted with great weather; warm temperatures, high blue skies and wind. Ingredients for a great weekend of boarding in Florida.

My adventures started following Thanksgiving dinner with an evening kiteboarding session. Kiting at night is something that I really enjoy, while the sense of sight is reduced an exhilarating feeling takes hold.  Relying more heavily on the feeling of pressure in hands and  anticipating puffs and shifts in the wind are part of what makes kiting at night an amazing experience that are sometimes lost when kiting during the day.

Friday morning the easterly flow had lightened up behind the gradient so my folks and I packed up a few Stand-up Paddle Boards and headed to Weedon Island Preserve. This is a place I hope everyone gets the chance to experience from a SUP board. There is a marked paddle trail that meanders through mangroves and sand tidal flats. Numerous types of birds including Rosette Spoon Bills and Osprey, mullet and manatees. It was a nice time paddling with my folks and seeing nature.

Saturday I coached a group of 12 talented youth sailors at the Davis Island Yacht Club Thanksgiving day Regatta. The group did very, very well considering the how extreme the conditions became. The sailors completed three races on saturday and two on sunday in winds that increased to 25mphs on the Tampa Bay. Large tides, combined with almost opposing breeze made the chop in tampa bay look like a washing machine. I see a lot of great success in these sailors futures as they all rose to the challenging conditions.

That evening the breeze backed off some I took a small group for a stand-up paddle boarding tour of the Davis Island Seaplane Basin. As we reached the mouth of the basin the sun was beginning to set so we hung out in the lee of the club to watch the sun drop over Hillsborough Bay and Old Tampa Bay. Sunsets are something that really capture people, including myself, time after time.

I put together a short video of some of the SUP trip to Weedon Island. I hope you like it.

I’m glad to share the happiness I find in the water and look forward to seeing you out there.

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