Skinny Water Paddling Company

10/02/2023

What a great article written by paddling’s best advocate!!!

A day after Hurricane Ian ripped through Southwest Florida and the water receded, I was able to step out of the building where my family and I were sheltered. Communication had been limited; we were unaware of what was happening beyond the view of our hurricane-safe windows. The multitude of milit....

09/05/2023

Incredible!!

Zoom in… They are flamingos! “8:30am today, September 3rd Estero bay preserve between hell peckney bay and hendry creek 16 adults flying east In the Estero bay!” AMAZING! Photo by John Robberson

08/11/2023

This would a really cool area to watch the sky at night!!!

The peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower is here!

August 11 through 12, the cosmic event will reach its most spectacular. As Earth passes through the debris field of the comet Swift-Tuttle, it will be possible to see up to 50 to 100 meteors per hour.

If you plan to come to Big Cypress National Preserve, smart choice! As an International Dark Sky Park, your views will be unparalleled. Pack a lawn chair, bug spray, water, and a snack. Areas such as the grassy field along Seagrape Drive, the boardwalks, preserve-wide gravel roads, even parking areas make excellent staging points to watch the shower. Allow your eyes to fully adapt to the darkness for about 30 minutes for the best viewing experience!



Image Description: The hazy arm of the Milky Way going through a starry sky with a meteor shooting across.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

08/07/2023

Great morning tour on Saturday with a great family from Germany and some friends from Mel’s Diner.
We paddled close to 5 miles today searching for wildlife and this crew was awesome. We saw a ton of birds. Low tide brought out the wading birds on the flats. We saw manatee at two different locations and dolphin in a couple of spots as well. The heat is real folks!! the manatee and dolphin were spending very little time on the surface and it seemed like everything was searching for cooler water down deep. We had a great morning, thanks for coming out folks.

07/28/2023

This is an example of what I’m hearing from all up and down the reef system in the keys. Climate change is real folks, and no matter what you believe to be the source, the changes the earth is going through will effect our everyday lives. Changes like this we can do without

07/27/2023

Great morning tour with a wonderful family from Connecticut on Wednesday. Turned into a really good bird day as we saw little green herons, great blue herons, greater egrets, of course a few brown pelicans, osprey, and spoonbills. I personally hadn’t seen the spoonbills since the hurricane so I was pretty excited. Near the end of the tour we also saw a few manatee cruising the middle of the bay. I was really impressed with the three kids on this tour, they paddled hard, joined in the conversations, had really good questions, and one of them shared a boat with me whom they had never met. I had a great time with you guys, thanks for coming out.

07/24/2023

Happy Monday. We have tours leaving daily at 8:00 am this week. This is a great time for a early bird sunrise tour. Since it's hot enough for the world to combust right now I really like to launch at sunrise. It's beautiful weather and the wildlife are more active. So any early birds out there give us a shout, this is your time of year. 🛶🛶

07/23/2023

We’re Back!!!
We had a great first day back on the water with some old friends and we made a couple of new friends along the way. My daughter Maddie even came along to help out with a great tour. We got to observe multiple dolphin feeding and just cruising around. Some great Osprey, Herons, and pelicans. We paddled a couple of miles into the center of the bay and were rewarded with an encounter with a group of about 6 manatee who joined us and then started chasing each other around possibly begging a breeding aggregate. Maddie even spotted a couple of sharks on the way back in. Thank you guys for coming out with us. What a great morning

07/07/2023

🛶Anyone want to go kayaking?🛶
After a longer than expected hiatus courtesy of Hurricane Ian, we are finally open for business again. We are very excited to be back on the water and look forward to sharing our adventures with you. With eco tours running daily at 8:00 a.m. daily we can have a great time and beat the heat. Pictured here is a great scouting trip I took with my daughters last week. The estuary looks fantastic! We had great water quality and a lot of wildlife to see along the trip. Give us a shout in the comments below or book an ecotour directly at www.skinnywaterpaddling.com

05/06/2023

This is very cool. If you aren’t familiar with the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust I suggest you check them out. Definitely one of my favorite conservation groups!!!

The recently discovered bonefish PSA in the Florida Keys. Photo: Ian Wilson-Navarro

03/14/2023

Curious manatee🛶
Going through some highlights from last spring.

03/13/2023

We are thrilled to announce that Skinny Water Paddling Company is ready to re-open after our closure due to hurricane Ian. We've been landlocked for far too long and can't wait to get back on the water with you. First tours back will be in mid April. Stay tuned as an exact date will be announced soon!!!

10/08/2022

We are safe! Our business is down but we are safe. We have been focusing on helping to clean up our neighborhood and our community.
Skinny Water Paddling will be suspending all tours until further notice. If you have a tour booked with us we will be reaching out to you soon to either re-schedule you or refund you.
I've been wanting to post something for days but we have just been shellshocked. I couldn't find words (an unusual problem for me). The devastation of our area is hard to wrap your head around. Right now the priority needs to be helping the people who are suffering loss.
The bridges that lead to Big Hickory Island are all closed and with search and recovery still ongoing it would be inappropriate to be out there getting in the way.
I am over anxious to get my eyes on our habitat, as soon as I can I'll be checking on our our flats, seagrass beds, and mangrove islands that make up our home to over 1,000 species. As soon as I can get out there I will share all of my observations with you over social media.
I look at the satellite imagery of our rivers flushing into the coastal areas of Southwest Florida and it gives me great concern. The plumes of over nutrified water can be seen from space. God knows what else is in it. The good news is the earth heals in amazing ways. Just like I've watched with great pride the people of southwest Florida come together to help each other, we will come together to help our habitats. Right now, people first.
If you follow us, please share our page with all of your friends. I am already trying to find ways to help these habitats heal and what Skinny Waters role can be. When the time comes, we will need your help.
In the meantime, we will keep rebuilding our community on land and look for new ways to keep treading water for ourselves.
We will be back!!!!

09/28/2022

So… No paddling today???
Getting ready for the rough stuff here. Hope everyone is staying safe out there folks!!

09/15/2022

Beautiful morning tour with a great couple. We got lucky enough to see it all. We had a couple of dolphin sightings, Osprey, and even a Bald Eagle.
We found some manatees in the middle of the bay and as it turns out they had the tiniest calf ever!!
Incredible morning. Thank for coming folks.

08/25/2022

We had a great couple visiting from New Jersey on our morning tour on Wednesday. It was a quiet and calm morning on the bay. Very few people on the water and the wildlife was ours to enjoy. We had great sightings of Egrets, Ospreys, and a cormorant diving for fish. We also saw dolphin,manatee, and two sharks throughout the morning. Thanks for coming out with us folks!!

08/17/2022

Fantastic morning tour on Monday with a family visiting from Spain. We saw loads of wading birds (the greater Egrets seem to be taking over), Osprey, Cormorants, and multiple dolphin. Low tide too, so we got to check out all the critters on the flats. Saw some great whelks, and a sponge. The kids paddled hard and did a great job learning to kayak so we could really enjoy this habitat together.
Thank you for joining us folks!!

08/17/2022

We had a great morning tour with a couple from Germany. Nice weather, lots of wading birds, spoonbills, and manatee. The tunnel had really cool lower light that gave it a neat feel that morning. Another great morning in Estero Bay.

08/11/2022

This is why I love tandem sit on top kayaks these days. We like to go on some longer adventures in my family, and that can be challenging for kids. It’s long time to sit still. But with these boats you can can take a couple kids with you, and they can walk all around the deck and stretch out. The beam is wide enough to be forgiving with your balance and with removable seats you can rig them a few different ways to keep it fresh for the kids.
so get out there and get wet!!

08/10/2022

Mangrove tunnels through Big Hickory Island- Bonita Springs Florida

08/09/2022

Anybody want to go kayaking??🛶🛶

08/08/2022

🛶🛶Hey there folks, we have some seats left for our guided kayak wildlife tour in Estero Bay this week. We Launch at 8:00 am and explore until 11:00 am.
Come join us as we paddle Florida's original Aquatic Preserve, learning about this habitat and searching for the amazing wildlife that calls this place home🛶

08/07/2022

“It would be absolutely useless for any of us to work to save wildlife without working to educate the next generation of conservationists.” ~ Jane Goodall

08/06/2022

Sometimes the wildlife is as curious of us as we are of them.
It’s like they’re saying hello!!

08/04/2022

Another beautiful morning paddle in Estero Bay with a great family from Texas. Somehow the heat seems to be backing off a little bit and the wildlife was fantastic. We got to see great birds including little blue herons, redish egrets, spoonbills, and a really cool Osprey encounter. We also saw dolphin working the flats, and a very cool sponge that was holding an ecosystem of microfauna of its own. It had oysters and a ghost shrimp living on it!! A pretty cool find.

07/31/2022

We had another great tour with another wonderful family on Saturday, with some the most adventurous kids I’ve had on the tour in a while.
Thank you for spending part of your vacation with us on the water folks!!

07/29/2022

Another great morning tour with a fantastic family. This summer has really been fantastic for wildlife viewing. The weather has been so hot during the day, but these morning tours have been getting off the water before it gets bad. We had great birds and dolphin on this tour!!

07/27/2022

This is amazing!!

Have you heard? We had quite the 𝕕𝕚𝕤𝕔𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕪 about a 𝕤𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕜 this 𝕨𝕖𝕖𝕜 🤔 🦈

While on a shark tagging trip in Belize, something unexpected happened. The team reeled in a Greenland shark. And yes, that's the species that's typically only been found in the Arctic, eating polar bear carcasses and living into their hundreds. Given how little we know about this species, what was it doing in Belize?

Read more about this exciting discovery at http://ow.ly/MRYL50K4Hcv

Florida International University FIU College of Arts, Sciences & Education The Ellen Fund Daily Smile

07/26/2022

Another great tour with some new friends from Canada. We had a beautiful morning with a nice high tide to paddle all over the preserve. Tunnel was really nice in the morning, and the spoonbills are still around. Osprey decided to pop up at about every corner too. It was a great day with people ready for an adventure!! I love those days.

07/24/2022

Thursday’s morning tour was a very special morning for us. We were honored to host old friends from our Margaritaville days in key west over 20 years ago. My Daughter Maddie came out to help guide us and we all had an amazing day.
Not only did we get to catch up with friends but the wildlife of Estero Bay was on display. We had great birds, dolphin, fish, blue crab, and more.
Thank you so much for coming out with guys, it was so good to see you all!!