paddleboards

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!

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

Thanksgiving With Kingfisher

tl;dr – Thanksgiving is a great time to go paddling and bond with friends or family. Call 912-230-4323 to book.

Thanksgiving is one our favorite times of year, and it’s really encouraging to see the Golden Isles bustling with so much activity as families and friends begin to gather for the holiday.

Gatherings and holiday celebrations often mean that people will be searching for activities to fill their days, so we want to remind you that Kingfisher Paddleventures is open. All of our normal tours on St. Simons and Jekyll are available, but we recommend the kayaking tours over the paddleboard tours this time of year. With that said, we’re happy to take you out on paddleboards if that’s what you really want. We enjoy both. And, as always, we welcome all ages and skill levels. Our tours a really great way for your Thanksgiving guests to reconnect and bond.

In addition to the tours, we also have rentals available. All rentals include free delivery and pick-up so you can arrange to meet us anywhere in the Golden Isles. We’ll bring the gear to you, you can go paddle, and then we’ll pick up the gear when you’re done. All you have to do is show up and have some Thanksgiving fun! We do all the work.

Whether you want a guided tour or want to explore on your own, we truly have something for every paddler. So we hope you’ll give us a call and add some adventure to your Thanksgiving break.

See you on the water!

Paddleboards Don’t Belong In Trees

Yes, that’s a paddleboard in a tree. No, paddleboards don’t belong in trees. paddleboards don't belong in trees 1

paddleboards don't belong in trees 2 All’s well that ends well… a (possibly too honest) look behind the scenes of a small business and the sometimes nerve wracking adventure of entrepreneurship.

paddleboards don't belong in trees 3 Last night, a series of very strong storms with crazy torrential rains and high winds ripped their way across the marshes between Brunswick and the islands. I happened to be pulling my paddleboard trailer across the Sidney Lanier Bridge in the middle of it all. Why? No particular reason other than needing to get home from Jekyll Island after sharing dinner with my mother at The Wharf.

As I was crossing the bridge in the middle of very heavy rain and strong winds, a strap broke and a paddleboard was torn from the trailer. It flew into the night, right over the side of the bridge and into the dark abyss below.

paddleboards don't belong in trees 4 My mom, who was following in her car behind me, described what she saw as “a really big frisbee flying off the trailer and into the night.” Thankfully no one was hurt. I was just missing a board, and I was really wet from having got out of my truck to investigate.

I was pretty sure the board was lost forever, a sacrifice stolen by the gods of the marsh for the living I make plying their waters.

paddleboards don't belong in trees 5 Well, this morning I decided to go search for my board. And I found it, too! It was in a tree near the edge of the marsh some 60+ feet below the bridge and – this is the truly incredible part – undamaged! Not a scratch, despite being blown over the side of a bridge and landing in (on?) a tree!

paddleboards don't belong in trees 6 First pic shows the board as I initially saw it from the bridge this morning. Each picture after that shows the board from a closer view, and the last two show it was undamaged (I’m still shocked at that part). Crazy, huh?

(The preceding text is re-posted from the @kfpaddle Instagram account; read on to find out what we learned.)

OK, we admit it, the story is bazaar and funny/weird. And people are as likely to laugh at us as they are to laugh at the story.

We’re OK with all that. The Tale Of The Flying Paddleboard holds some important reminders and lessons for us. Here’s what we gleaned from our misadventure:

First, not every “disaster” is as bad as it seems. When my paddleboard was ripped from the trailer and blown over the side of the bridge by gale force winds, I was pretty certain that I had just seen the last of that board. Furthermore, my mind more or less went straight to the “oh no!” stage and the “ouch! that’s gonna hurt the budget” stage. Fortunately, we were very lucky this time around. No one was hurt, the paddleboard was not damaged, and the budget is no worse than it was before we tried playing the SUP version of Mary Poppins.

Second, things could always be worse. In this case, the board could have blown backward off the trailer, straight into my mom’s windshield. It didn’t, but it could have. So, what I thought was a bad situation wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. It’s good to remember that, even when you’re pretty sure you just witnessed the birth of a fiasco, there’s always a worse scenario. Helps put thing in perspective.

Third, paddleboards are odd things. We’ve had boards get dinged and scratched and nearly destroyed by small falls/drops/bumps, so the fact that a board can survive falling more than 60 feet, pushed by gale force winds, and not have a single new scratch on it is …. well, it’s simply amazing and very weird.

Fourth, plan for the unexpected. Paddleboards don’t belong in trees, and they’re also supposed to stay on the trailer when you strap them in place. So, no, we never saw this problem coming. But, thanks to a general preparedness ethic, we were able to deal with situation smoothly and effectively. Remember, when things go sideways (literally, in this case), you have choices. You can choose to react, you can choose to freeze, and you can choose to respond. We responded, rather than reacting, and we were able to 1) recover our board and 2) limit the damage to our budget/business.

So, to sum things up, we have this list:

Some of the weird things that happen in life are beyond credulity.
The lens of time often shows us that what looked disastrous in the moment really isn’t so bad. This perspective can help keep us calm.
On the flip side of the perspective coin is the idea that things could, in fact, be worse. Be grateful that they aren’t.
Whatever you think was destroyed in a particular situation might be just fine. Although we would have expected the paddleboard to be smashed in this example, it was actually OK.
It pays to be prepared.

Most entrepreneurs have equally bazaar stories if they’ve been in business for any length of time. Striking out on your own isn’t for the faint of heart, as seen herein, but it can be richly rewarding. So take these episodes for the learning opportunities that they are, make sure you’re paying attention to the lessons hiding beneath your frustration and angst, and then move forward!