2 hrsWeedon Island Preserve · St. Petersburg, Florida
Mind the roots. Enjoy the tunnel.
We plan around the tide. The tide plans around nothing. A four-mile trail rewards a slow paddle, and every tour starts on the shore with a briefing.
Send a request. A person writes back. The mangroves can wait.
How a request works
Three steps, none of them the tide.
Send a request
Use the chat or the form: the tour, a day and a backup, who is paddling, their experience and single or tandem kayaks.
A guide reads it
It arrives as one email at the office. A person reads every line and checks the tide chart.
They write back
A person confirms the time that suits the water, by email or a call. Nothing is booked or held until they do.
The tours
Pick a length. The tide picks the hour.
Three of the eight, with no prices on the page.
2 hrs
90 min
2.5 hrsWhy the tide matters
The tide has opinions. The guide knows them.
The South Paddling Trail is best paddled at mid to high tide, so a tide chart comes before a time. You tell us a window; a person confirms the time that suits the water.
- Mid to high tide. The trail is best accessed then, which is why tours and rentals are timed around a chart.
- Low tide. The company paddles another day. Nobody argues with the water.
- Your window. Morning, midday, afternoon, late day, or “whatever suits the tide”, which is the answer a guide would give you anyway.
Wildlife you might see
We can’t promise what you’ll see. We can tell you what the water is doing.
Some paddles are quiet and some are busy. These are pictures of what might turn up, always at a respectful distance. Your guide tells you what is around, and why it matters.
A manatee, beside a kayak 
Dolphins, at dawn 
A great blue heron 
A school of fish, below 
An alligator, on the bank
The guides
A guide who explains. An office that writes back.
Lead guide Nora Castellanos gives the briefing on the shore and tells you what the water is doing. Ben and Aiko lead the other paddles. All three are part of a sample we invented.
Reviews
What paddlers wrote afterwards.
Our guide timed the paddle to the tide and explained why. The tunnels were a quiet place to be.
Total beginners, and the First Paddle was well paced. Not once did anyone make us feel behind.
Sent a request late one night and had an email from a real person the next morning. They asked sensible questions about our kids' ages.
The Shell Mounds paddle was part history lesson, part workout. Our guide was patient and good company.
Honest about conditions. We were moved to a different morning for the tide, and it was the right call.
My mother is cautious around water. The guide described every step beforehand and that made all the difference.
Tunnel Vision Kayak Tours is a sample we invented, and these reviews are part of the sample.
The preserve
Three facts about where you would paddle.
3,190
acres of natural area
Weedon Island Preserve is a 3,190-acre natural area on the western shore of Tampa Bay at 1800 Weedon Drive NE in St. Petersburg; about 1,100 acres are upland habitat, and Pinellas County manages it under a 1993 state lease.
4 miles
of paddling trail
The preserve's South Paddling Trail is a self-guided 4-mile loop through mangrove tunnels, and a local TV report says it is best accessed at mid to high tide, so check a tide chart.
1,100
years old, the canoe
The preserve is a designated archaeological area with several shell mounds; a 40-foot dugout canoe found there is believed to be about 1,100 years old, and its Cultural and Natural History Center opened in December 2002.
Send a request. A person writes back.
The mangroves can wait. Nothing is booked or held until a person confirms by email or a call, and no payment is taken here.