Ecotours

Sunrise Tour Pictures

A chance encounter with a local photographer just before a sunrise tour produced some really great pictures!

sunrise tour with kayaks — As the sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean, the waters of Gould’s Inet reflect myriad colors.

A few weeks ago, I led a group of people on a sunrise tour at Gould’s Inlet. Coincidentally, photographer Tim Rude of Brand Fiercely was there too. His gear was set up for taking pictures of the sunrise and whatever wildlife there was to photograph. On a whim, I asked him if he’d mind taking a few pictures of me and my group, and Tim graciously agreed. We exchanged contact information, and then we both continued with our morning plans. A few days later, he sent me some of the photos he took.

The group prepares for their paddle
A moment of introspection
One of the boys making sure he’s all set
Kayaks lined up and ready to go
I often use a paddleboard, even when my clients are in kayaks
The whole group just before we launched
Paddleboarding in the pre-dawn twilight
A shrimp boat in the distance, me in the foreground
The group’s fearless leader
The water at dawn is often smooth as glass
Paddling into the marsh, ready to explore and discover

Of all the excursion options Kingfisher Paddleventures offers, our sunrise tour options are arguably my favorite! Although it can be tough for me to wake up so early, the reward is immeasurable. No other time of day is quite as peaceful with quite the same feel. I honestly think a dawn kayaking trip is the perfect to start to the day!

Sunrise Tour Information

If you choose to join us for a kayak or paddleboard sunrise tour, then you have a good chance of seeing some of the area’s abundant wildlife before the day’s heat gets too intense. Many of the birds, fish, and even dolphins are actively feeding in the early morning, which means they’re moving about in plain sight. Some of the animals we see include roseate spoonbills, osprey, mink, horseshoe crabs, blue crabs, dolphins, manatee, terrapin, ghost crabs, egrets, herons, tarpon, and black skimmers.

All of our sunrise tours launch during the pre-dawn twilight, approximately half an hour before the sun comes up. Consequently, the start time for our tours moves throughout the year. Please feel free to call us if you have any questions.

About Photographer Tim Rude

If you like Tim’s pictures of our sunrise tour, you can see more of his photography at brandfiercely.com. Tim is very knowledgeable about the Golden Isles and has taken many beautiful pictures of the area, its wildlife, and its people. Consequently, we feel sure you’ll like his work as much as we do!

Game Changers Article in Golden Isles Magazine

The Game Changers article in the July/August 2018 edition of Golden Isles Magazine features Kingfisher Paddleventures owner Norm Leonard, who shared some of his thoughts about kayaking with Golden Isles Magazine editor Bethany Leggett. We’re very excited to share this news with you and couldn’t be more proud of the ecotours we provide to visitors year-round.

Game Changers article in Golden Isles Magazine about kayaking with Kingfisher owner Norm Leonard

You can find the entire magazine online here. It’s well worth your time because each edition is filled with information about activities, restaurants, shops, beaches, and other attractions throughout the Golden Isles. There’s much more to the magazine than the Game Changers column, and we encourage you to check it out!

Kingfisher Paddleventures offers paddleboarding and kayaking adventures in the Golden Isles as the area’s only ecotourism firm owned and operated by a PhD Conservation Biologist and Ecologist. Every outing is different, and our programming is dynamic as we respond to the wants and needs of our customers, the water conditions, the weather, and even the seasons. We take you on the tour YOU want, to the fullest extent possible. So some tours are “eco-light” while others are a full-on crash course in coastal ecology. Every group is different, and we understand that. We also get that you’re on vacation and might not want something that’s “too heavy” while others really enjoy the opportunity to “geek out” about the birds, plants, and ecosystems they see.

Our idea is that people only save what they love, so helping you fall in love with the area is our top priority. If this means that we drift in a tidal creek while your children swim, play, and laugh, then so be it! We promise you’ll have a blast. And we might even join your children (and you?) in the mud or for a quick swim. But we’re prepared to get serious, too, and we’re ready to lead you in a ranging conversation about coastal ecology the likes of which you won’t find anywhere else!

Mother’s Day 2018 Promotion: Moms Paddle Free!

Check out our Mother’s Day 2018 promotion!

Moms paddle free Mother’s Day 2018!

mother's day 2018 promotion - moms paddle free

Looking for the perfect gift for your mom? Then take advantage of this Mother’s Day 2018 promotion and give her an experience that will create memories you both cherish for years to come! Our paddleboard and kayak tours are unique experiences that any nature lover or outdoor enthusiast will enjoy. Check out our complete product line and choose the excursion that most interests you or your mom. Then book online and use the promo code “MOM” without the quotes to get your mom’s tour for FREE. Each mother must be accompanied by at least one paying customer, and your tour must take place May 11-13, 2018.

You can apply this promotion to any tour on St. Simons Island, Jekyll Island, Sea Island, Brunswick, or the Satilla River. However, this promotion cannot be applied to rentals.

mother's day 2018 promotion - give mom a great memory

Also, in an effort to encourage people to book online, we are offering another promotion for every customer that makes their own reservation. When you book online, you can enter a second promo code – “online” – and your entire reservation will be discounted an additional 2%. This blog post is the only place we are currently advertising our online booking promotion for the moment. We will roll out a larger campaign later in the month.

As always, you are welcome to call or text me at 912-230-4323 or email me at norm@kfpaddle.com for clarification of any product description, promotion, etc.

One final note: Kingfisher will be closed May 6-9. We’ll re-open on May 10, and then we’ll remain open for the rest of the season.

Wishing you all the a great start to May!

-nl

mother's day 2018 promotion - your mom can kayak free

Kingfisher Paddleventures Is Listed in 365 Atlanta Family!

Kingfisher Paddleventures is proud to be one the businesses listed in the most recent update of “St Simons Island: An Insider’s Guide To Stay, Eat And Play,” a travel advice article on 365 Atlanta Family! The post, by Sue Rodman, includes information about St. Simons Island and its weather, a listing of hotels and resorts, a list of things to do during your stay, and some information about the island’s famed “tree spirits.”

We’re very pleased to be included in the list of family activities on St. Simons Island and hope that you’ll come paddleboard or kayak with us soon. We strive to provide an experience that is both fun and educational that your entire family can enjoy. Please give us a call at 912-230-4323 or read more about our services on this web site.

Record Numbers Of Peregrine Falcons!

peregrine falcons in the Golden Isles - Photo by Pat Leary. — A peregrine falcon in flight. Photo by Pat Leary via The Brunswick News article on 16 October 2017.

Record numbers of peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) are being observed in the Golden Isles, according to an article that appeared in The Brunswick News on Monday, 16 October 2017.

The falcons are known for their high-speed dives and taking prey mid-air. The picture shown here, which I copied from the article in The Brunswick News, shows a falcon in flight as caught on camera by Pat Leary. It’s a good depiction of how the birds often appear when viewed through binoculars.

Although the Cornell Lab of Ornithology profile page for peregrine falcons says that the IUCN lists the birds as a species of least concern, they are very rare in Georgia despite having been common in the past. The cause of their decline along the east coast is attributed to the widespread use of DDT, a pesticide that was once used to control mosquitos but has since been outlawed.

Each year during October, peregrine falcons and other birds of prey, collectively referred to as “raptors,” migrate from their northern summertime habitats to winter habitats. You can come on one of our birding tours to try and see these majestic animals for yourself. Give us a call at 912-230-4323 for tour availability. You can read more about peregrine falcons on our sister site, Southeast Ecology, where we are building a repository of natural history information specific to the southeastern United States.

New Name “Kingfisher Paddleventures” Is Now Live!

Our new name, Kingfisher Paddleventures, is now 100% live! Sure, we’ve been here for a bit, kinda simmering on the back burner, but now we’ve turned the heat on high! Our official transition to Kingfisher Paddleventures from SSI SUP/Saint Simons Paddleboard & Kayak has begun. Over the next year, we’ll phase out all things SSI SUP and move entirely to Kingfisher.

From now on, all of our business will be conducted using this web site and new name, Kingfisher Paddleventures. Our social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Yelp, etc.) are all kfpaddle. Things are sleek, streamlined, and ready to go! No more trying to remember long names, weird abbreviations, or whether there’s an underscore in our name.

Anything and everything SSI SUP or Saint Simons Paddleboard & Kayak is now in one place with a new name that makes more sense in relation to what we do, where we work, and who we are. We are Kingfisher Paddleventures, and this change is very exciting for us. We’re proud to be making this transition to Kingfisher Paddleventures, and we hope that you’ll join us for the journey – both figuratively and literally.

Why the change to a new name?

We outgrew the old name.
“SSI SUP” didn’t fit us anymore, and Kingfisher Paddleventures is “more us.”We serve more than St. Simons.
We’re no longer “just” on St. Simons Island. We serve all of the Golden Isles, meaning that we serve people on Jekyll Island, St. Simons Island, Little St. Simons Island, Sea Island, and Brunswick. Heck, we even venture as far as Darien and Sapelo to the north and down to Amelia Island and the Okefenokee Swamp to our south (but only rarely).
We do more than paddleboards.
We’re not “only” a paddleboard company anymore, either. In addition to paddleboards, we also have kayaks. Within the next year or so, we’ll probably also add some other types of watercraft to product line, too. More on that later.
Kingfishers are cool and invoke the ecological aspects of what we do.
We are really, really proud of our ecotours, and we want people to associate with us nature/ecotourism. So, we picked a bird, the kingfisher, for our mascot and our namesake. Kingfishers are found throughout the world near water and are a common sight for many paddlers. They hunt for fish and put on impressive aerial displays, and they’re just pretty to look at. Given their many fine qualities and the being relevant to water-based ecotourism, they were a natural choice (pun intended!).
“Paddleventures” captures what we do, too.
All of our watercraft – paddleboards and kayaks, for the time being – require you to paddle. And, for many, our excursions are an “adventure.” So, paddle+adventure=paddleventure.
It turns out we’re not the only company out there to land on the same made-up word, and a small handful of other really cool ecotourism businesses also use paddleventure in their name. We like to think that we came up with the idea first, but that’s probably not true.
“SSI” was confusing to many people.
Not familiar with the Golden Isles and the local nicknames for places around here? Don’t worry, it took us a while to get used to local names, too. One local name you hear a lot – and might already know if you watch bumper stickers – is “SSI.” SSI is short for Saint Simons Island, but if you’re not a regular /resident around these parts, you wouldn’t know that. As a business that caters to tourists, many who are visiting here for the first time, it’s not the best idea to have an abbreviation like that in your name.
“SUP” confused people too.
Remember what I just said about tourists visiting here for their first time? Well, many of them are new to the sport of paddleboarding too. Consequently, jargon like “SUP” leaves them out in the cold, sorta like when we were all in high school and the cool kids had their own lingo that reinforced the “them” v. “us” cliquishness of our teenage years. As a company that wants to include everyone and invite new people to the sport, we decided to do away with the abbreviation. Now, with “paddleventures,” what we do is a little more evident.
We feel like changing to the new name somehow makes the company more “ours.”
This one might be a little silly, but so be it. Our emotional sense of ownership means a lot to us because we pour our heart and soul into what we do. We want the new name of our company to reflect who we are and what we do, not someone else’s vision or idea.
Don’t get me wrong: the people we bought the company from are really nice folks who we like a lot. And they built a company that we were happy to buy. It’s just time for us to emerge from their shadow and grow tall on our own.

We hope that you’re as excited about the future as we are! We can’t wait to see where our path leads as we move forward, and we would love to have you all join us on our journey.