Although Jay grew up in San Clemente, California it wasn’t until he moved permanently to Lake Tahoe in 2005 that he fully realized his passion for paddling. Jay has quickly become a top competitor and a true “waterman” excelling in multiple ocean style paddle sports, and currently dominating in the Lake Tahoe SUP racing circuit. Merging his passion with his work, Jay and his wife Anik have founded a number of business ventures at Lake Tahoe providing paddling support and coaching including Waterman’s Landing Paddle Cafe, Paddle Elite Fitness, Lake Tahoe Waterman Association, and Jay’s most rewarding business, the Junior Tahoe Waterman Camp.
“I love watching kids progress from day one to day four. Kids adapt fast and if you make it fun but also show them some basic water safety and paddling skills it allows them to fully enjoy the water. And every once in awhile you get one that just falls in love with paddling whether it be SUP, outrigger, prone, kayaking or surfski and you can see them change and see them find themselves and that is so rewarding to me.” Although relatively new to paddling rivers, Jay will be attempting to navigate the entire Truckee River on a SUP, during the Truckee River StS Adventure. Jay and Anik currently live in Truckee, CA, with their 6 year old son Jaxi.
Over the past 3 months, three of our core team members (Judy Jensen, AD Fogg, and Morgan Hoestrey) had to drop out because of serious personal or family illness. Our thoughts are with them all for speedy and complete recovery. So Jay and Sue will be joined by a larger team of support paddlers that will join them on different legs of the journey to help provide safety and support to our student team and guest paddlers. This includes several skilled paddler parents of the student ambassador team, Swiftwater Rescue Units from the Truckee Fire District and the Reno Fire Department, and other skilled paddlers from the Truckee/Reno boating community. We are extremely grateful for this broad support from the Truckee watershed boating community!