Spring has sprung and time is sure flying by at mach speeds!  Our local Pensacola “Beach” Yacht club has since purchased new waterfront property on the gorgeous Quiet Water Beach. However funds have been exhausted by purchasing the land, and we did not renew the existing building lease that has been “home” to our club for many years. With the lack of bar revenues, we are banking on membership renewals, donations and fundraising efforts to begin building our new club building!

This Spring i decided to organize SUP clinics and a race series over a period of 2 months to help with the new building fund. I donated 100% of my clinic lessons and race registrations including raffles of a new board and paddle! A  portion of the proceeds also went to the Jr. Sailing/Sup’ing programs.  We had Saturday and Sunday morning “intro to sup” and mileage building classes. Then on Friday nights we had the SUP sprint series sponsored by Key Sailing which offered an awesome race venue as well as donated a brand new board for the raffle. Maui Jim provided sunglasses for the grand prize age group winners for a total of 12 pair of glasses! Fazolis brought delicious post races dinner and desserts! Kialoa paddles donated a kids paddle. We raised over $5400 and had a ton of fun, while also getting in shape!  Races consisted of costume and board decorating contests, meeting new friends and reconnecting with old friends. Clinics were amazing, getting everyone out on the water together. Super stoked to get some brand new paddlers on board and some have even bought boards and paddles already! We acquired new members and the club is very strong right now. We also have an official PBYC paddle club. I will link the group fb page if you would like to follow our awesome paddlers and posts. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1581125588840309/  Here you will find tons of photos and videos of past and current events.

If you are interested in helping our club this would be the time to do so! Anything helps and if you care to donate please get in touch with Andrea Peterson or myself. (Hbaus@msn.com or Andreazern@gmail.com) Checks can be made out to “Pensacola Beach Yacht Club” (new building fund) I am also continuing to offer all levels of SUP classes for both PBYC member and non members. Classes consist of beginner, mileage building, corporate team building, groups, kids, tandem, downwind, racing technique & other sup outings and adventures on the water, for all levels and ages.  I will continue to donate a portion of the lesson fees to our new building fund. Thank you in advance and Paddles Up~ hb

On a side note, i renewed my Red Cross open water lifeguard/cpr/first aid/ certifications. Savannah took the class along with me and also earned her junior open water lifeguard/cpr/first aid certification. She worked VERY hard to achieve this and we’re very proud of her!