My Joy in Discovering Kayaking

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Added: Fri. Nov 18, 2011 11:28am
Posted in: Water Sports

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I grew up in the midwest. Summers were usually spent in Indiana, visiting my mother's relatives. A good portion of our time we stayed in a cottage on Jimmerson Lake, outside of Angola. I never got very good at water skiing (“lousy” would be a good adjective for my ability), but I did learn to love the water.

Fast forward to my early-thirties.

I've lived in Florida-a state where you are never more than 75 miles from a beach-for over a decade. I almost never get to the water. Heck, there's a beautiful lake 50 feet from my edit bay, what's my excuse? We'll, I'd love to have a speedboat or a jet ski, but can't remotely afford either. I finally decided it was time to change that, and noticed that kayaking looked like a lot of fun. A quick web search led me to Wekiva Adventures and Martha Carswell.

She gave me some lessons and took me out on the beautiful Wekiva River, with her sweet husky Khaya sitting on the front of her boat. I was instantly hooked on kayaking. It's fun, the natural surroundings are inspiring, and it's a damn good workout. In fact, it's almost too good to be true. Kayaking is a water sport I can afford, and it's an exercise I can enjoy. That's a minor miracle. Here's a video I shot, where Martha explains why just about everyone should give kayaking a try.

I can't believe it took me so long to try kayaking. I should have started years ago!

Martha is a fun, sweet lady from Georgia, and she's a serious athlete. While giving me kayaking lessons, she told me her life story. She was a pioneering professional women's basketball player, and she ran in triathlons with Lance Armstrong when he was just 16 years old. A horrible cycling accident incurred while she was training ruined her triathlon career, and she started kayaking for her rehabilitation. I quickly realized that I'd stumbled onto a great Growing Bolder story, and enlisted Bill Shafer to interview her. You can see that inspiring story here.
See you on the water!