History

Paddle Florida History

The idea for Paddle Florida first gelled in 2006 when Bill Richards and Jan Corcoran took a long-distance paddling trip down the Suwannee River with two other friends. “About halfway through we determined that people would love to do this if they didn’t have to carry their gear and cook their food,” said Richards, who has a background in sports management and tourist development.

The template for Paddle Florida’s logistics was modeled after the annual Paddle Georgia and Bike Florida trips. Besides carrying paddlers’ gear and catering meals, making long-distance trips more accessible to a wide variety of paddlers, participants are treated to either an educational talk or musical entertainment each evening.

“We had 160 people on our first event down the Suwannee [in March of 2008] and I knew we were onto something,” Richards continued. “When you think about it, it doesn’t get any better than this for nature-based tourism.”

Corcoran added, in a 2011 interview, “I do this because I love paddling, love people, and I get out of the house. I enjoy getting to know a variety of people from all over.” Corcoran stayed involved in Paddle Florida for several years and Richards served as its executive director until his retirement in July of 2022.

The goals of Paddle Florida have been consistent since its founding:

  • Become a forum for environmental education, especially regarding water conservation,

  • wildlife preservation springs protection and restoration of waterways.

  • Seek to do trips in all five of Florida’s water management districts each year

  • Build community in an outdoor setting

  • Help to instill a love and respect for Florida’s outdoors

  • Strive to be a positive example of ecotourism

  • End each paddling season with a two-day festival on the Suwannee River in early April.

Besides the Suwannee, early Paddle Florida trips took place in the Keys, the Withlacoochee River South, Rock Spring Run/Wekiva River, Ochlockonee River, and Peace River. Other options were added over the years, including the Choctawhatchee, Perdido, Silver River/Ocklawaha, St. Johns, Calusa Blueway, Ten Thousand Islands, Withlacoochee River North, Chipola, Black Creek/Peters Creek, and the Santa Fe/Ichetucknee Rivers. More possibilities are explored each year, but the Suwannee has remained a constant.