Kayak Expo

The first weekend in March was the Adventure Times Kayak Expo at Okeeheelee Park near Pine Jog. It is 3 days of paddling, trying out different kayaks, and mini skills classes. Jonathan works as safety patrol on the water and Emily teaches basic paddling classes all day.

On the right is all the gear that we have to load up from the Riveria Beach Marina outpost and haul to the park. The guys always joke that it looks like we are supplying a third world navy.

Kayak companies send reps with a demo of each kayak they sell for people to try in hopes that they will like it so much they'll want to buy it. At past expos Adventure Times has sold over 70 kayaks in one weekend. It is a pretty lucrative weekend for the business.

Jonathan took the following series of pictures of Emily and Chris Hill (another kayak instructor) teaching a basic paddling course. Below we demonstrate how to perform a T-rescue when you flip over in a cockpitted kayak:

That was some pretty quick photography work by Jonathan....well done!

Emily was soaking wet, but happy to be back in her kayak after a day of teaching and demonstrating various kayak skills.

Adventure Times also does trade-in on used kayaks. Someone traded in this Tarpon 160 earlier in the season. Jonathan bought it used at the expo. It is the perfect sit-on-top for him, complete with rudder system and built-in fishing rod holder. As you can see in the picture on the right he brought his rod along on Sunday....not sure anything was bitting that day.....too many kayaks (and paddlers) in the lake.

Hanza, Jonathan's housemate, was also working safety patrol that weekend. It was fun to kayak with so many familiar faces.

Speaking of fun, we all got a little silly one morning after set-up. We decided to take some of the rental bikes for a spin.

This is Chris (the biggest guy on staff) pulling Paul (the littlest guy on staff) around the parking lot.

Paul thought this purple bike was pretty neat. Those training wheels were smoking by the time he parked it.

Jonathan and Emily took the bicycle built for two for a spin.

Then Jonathan and Chris decided to give it a try.......another fun weekend in the sun!