2.125x4.75PaddlerMagSUTAdV2 2/9/10 Man and Manta, long-ranger Whitley
with his rare fishing ride. PHOTO: KEVIN WHITLEY
[PROFI LE ]
KAYAK KEVIN WHITLEY—KAYAK IS HIS FIRST NAME AS TOLD TO RIC BURNLEY
IRON ‘YAKER
In the past eight years, Kayak Kevin Whitley has completed six long distance kayak tours covering 3,480 miles and seven states. He spent a combined nine months sleeping in a tent, paddling a sit-on-top kayak, and fishing all the way.
I
started kayaking when my music ca- reer ended. Kind of a midlife crisis.
I had poured myself into music and it was going nowhere. I was looking for a way to escape. Maps always fascinated me. My dad had always talked about cruising the Intercoastal Waterway, but it didn’t come together until I saw an Ocean Kayak Manta for sale on the side of the road. I didn’t care that it was slower than a sit-inside—I wasn’t in a hurry. I had never been in a kayak. My
600 MILES IN SIX WEEKS
KAYAK KEVIN’S CHESAPEAKE BAY TOUR DVD
In 2010, award-winning filmmaker Kayak Kevin Whitely hopped on his well-travelled Manta for a counter-clockwise journey around Chesapeake Bay, America’s estuary.
Camp with Kevin on remote beaches, wait out the winds and marvel at the bay’s natural beauty on this tour of discovery—and see how he does it, navigating, resupplying, surviving, thriving.
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first tour, from Georgia to Norfolk, was like boot camp. Since then, I’ve paddled from Pensacola to Norfolk, Oregon Inlet to Ocean City, Norfolk to Cape Henlopen, the Virginia portion of Chesa- peake Bay and the whole bay last summer. I’ve learned patience. That’s the hardest part, slowing down. Each day I spend eight to 10
$20 •
www.kayakkevin.com
hours paddling. The rest of the time, I get ready for the next day, listen to the radio, watch the animals, kill flies. I don’t stay in hotels or even houses. Totally commando all the way. I do a lot of fishing. From Florida to Delaware I’ve caught everything from snook and
tarpon to striper and sunfish. One thing catches ‘em all—a leadhead jig and soft plastic tail. I don’t keep any fish and I don’t cook any food. I eat canned tuna, Smarties, Pop-Tarts. Canned tuna is a great source of protein and
Pop-Tarts provide carbohydrates. Smarties? Well, that’s for my sweet tooth. After about two weeks on the water I get salty. Sleeping on the beach is normal; walking
on concrete becomes alien. I can’t even smell my own B.O. I’m more animal out there. I’m always testing my endurance, seeing how far I can go, how much I can take. My whole goal is to see places on the map, for cheap. The craziest place: the Everglades. That place is burly. Terrible mosquitoes, covering
my body, in my eyes, my nose. Inhaling them every breath. After a week in the Ev- erglades, everything else is sauce. I’ve had some scary situations—attacked by sharks, charged by gators, sucked into the ocean, a near sinking—but the scariest was getting caught in a crazy lightning storm. I just knew I was going to get hit—I really felt like it was all over. I’ve been through so many situations, I wonder when my luck will run out.
DIGITAL EXTRA: Click here to watch the Chesapeake Bay Tour DVD trailer.
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