Paddleboarding Pop Stansell Park

Last weekend we decided to try out a new spot to paddleboard.  You can go to the same place every time and see something new, but it’s still fun to try somewhere different.

Saturday morning was pretty windy, which is not a great thing for SUP. Your body acts a a sail so you can go really fast with the wind which is fun, but you do have to change directions eventually.  It turned out Pop Stansell is perfect for windy days. We set off from the ‘boat dock’ (is it called a dock if it’s just a muddy place to drop off your boat?) Immediately to the right there is a large area to paddle between mangroves and homes.

It looked like if you headed straight out you’d be on the bay but that I’ll have to explore another day.The downside of this area was it was just sort of dirty.  You have to walk through that icky, sticky,slick mud that is in some places in the bay to get to the water. The water was brownish and because it was the way for boats in the neighborhood to get to the bay it just didn’t have the same clean feel as the water further out.  That seems to be typical of neighborhood waterways though.

The water was only about a foot deep all through the area, which is actually pretty cool unless you fall in (I didn’t, yay!). It’s pretty cool because there are huge fish jumping everywhere and a ton of different birds.

I didn’t actually check out the park itself, but this place is going on my short list of places to paddle when the wind is up too much to paddle on the bay.

All in all it’s a great place to go to see all kinds of interesting things, as long as you don’t mind a wee bit of muck on the way in and the occasional boat passing.

If you are in Florida have you been to this park before?  Where are some other little out of the way places I should check out?