Weeki Wachee Springs

New Name II

~ tomadaonline ~ 1 Comment

Last night I told my wife, Donna, about the name change and she reminded me that I would lose a fairly wide spectrum of readers if I limit WHAT SUP to Surf.  While I love to surf, I’ve also loved paddling through the South Florida mangroves; around the harbor by Jeff Clark’s Paddle Surf,  through the Marina at 101 Surf Sports, along the kelp beds off New Brighton Beach, and down a river in search of Manatees.

From a relationship point of view, paddling promotes connection.  We strap the boards on the roof and hit the road.  We plan a day around getting in the water, exploring new locations, getting great gobs of time out in nature, and after exercising all those muscles we get a nice meal out.  It’s been pretty romantic at times.

Plus there’s such a huge variety of topics to discuss like board selection, sites to SUP, fitness, diet, technique and SUP shops.  I did a whole post on SOPOSUP, a cool little shop in Portland, Maine.  We never got in the water, but being with the owner, reviewing his blog, and checking out the local surf, which was flat, was just fabulous.

I remember the first blog post like it was yesterday.  It was from this past mother’s day when I sat on the sidelines with a bit of a cold.  It was Donna who wanted to paddleboard.  It was Donna to get in the water first.  It was Donna who inspired me to give it a try.

She’s even asked about paddling at night.  Here’s what it might look like from a pin I found.

Stand Up Paddleboarding for Life will still include SUP Surfing, where my little wave passion ignites in cool water.

The Manatees of Weeki Wachee!!!

~ tomadaonline ~ 2 Comments

We’d heard about paddle boarding in waters where Manatees live and took a tour with Anik Clemens from Anik’s Perspectives.  She’s lived in St. Petersburg, Florida the past 9 years and knows the SUP shops and venues for paddling.  She took us to the Weeki Wachee Springs State Park where we put in for the 6 mile down-river paddle.  She’d set us up with boards from the Kayak Shack that sat right on the water at end of the trip. We parked at the shack and got ferried, with our boards, to the put-in point at Weeki Wachee Springs.

The water was cool and clear.  The surrounding jungle close.  The river was teaming with small schools of Mullet and a smattering of Sheepshead thrown in for fun.  Needlefish slipped in and out of sight while Anhinga and Kingfishers punctuated the trees.

We shared the river with a few tour boats, and some fun-loving folks who climbed a tree to a diving platform.  As it turned out, Anik and our very own Donna were not afraid to take the plunge.  Check out the video for a two minute look at our trip.

We’d found six Manatees by the end of the trip.  The first one glided under my board like a ghost.  Down river a pup scratched its back under a submerged log.  My GoPro Hero 4 Silver captured most of the footage.  Super Slow Mo thanks to iPhone 6S Plus.

The little one is Kyra, Anik’s lovely 4 year old daughter.  Donna, Kyra, and Anik took a stab at singing Nimo’s song “Planting Seeds and Nothing More,” in front of one of the Weeki Wachee Springs mermaids.

If you like this post you’re sure to like our tour through the mangroves.