Destin Paddleboarding with a Sea Turtle

Mother’s Day 2020 was pretty special! Destin beaches reopened May 1st after being closed for several weeks due to COVID-19. Our family was very thankful for that, since we all love the beach. Luckily the Gulf was flat, so we were able to bring the paddleboard Andy designed.

Andy designed this 10’6 paddleboard last fall and YOLO released it earlier this year. It’s available to purchase on their web site.

We took our board to the beach on Mother’s Day and had a special visitor: a huge sea turtle! Look how big he (she?) is compared to the board Andy is standing on! (Our friend and her daughter are on the inflatable YOLO board.)

It was such a beautiful day! Perfect temperature, low humidity, and clear water. Although there were a lot of people, everyone we saw was respectful of social distancing guidelines.

If you follow Andy on Instagram, you know that surfing is his favorite pastime. But when waves cannot be found, paddleboarding is a great way to enjoy the water and see wildlife up close.

All drone photography in this post by Nathan Saczynski.