Explore the Island with Martha’s Vineyard Ocean Sports’ Latest Tour
by Johanna Bernhard
The water was calm and untouched, disturbed only by the repetition of the red plastic paddle breaking the surface to push the 10-foot paddleboard through the waves. Manmade staircases guided the way from private beaches to million dollar homes atop the cliffs. Apart from the seagulls, we were alone.
The morning was packed with activity. Bounding through the water on an inflatable orange dingy was simply the gateway to time spent paddle boarding and snorkeling in the clear blue-green ocean.
The sea grass tickled our ankles as we plunged into the water for the final part of the tour. As we glided through the water, the flippers attached to our feet aided the streamline motion. The seabed glistened with antique shells, undiscovered, until now. Crustaceans and sea life appeared and disappeared with every movement made above them. Crabs, large and small, scuttled out from under rocks and nestled their way into abandoned shells in a bid to take shelter from the unfamiliar shadows lingering over them.
Martha’s Vineyard Ocean Sports has a new tour – Stand Up Paddle Boarding. While the company has a plethora of activities available, such as parasailing, jet skiing, flyboarding and waterskiing, MV Ocean Sports thinks that this particular tour will be a great new addition.
Owner, Mark Clarke, started paddleboarding a couple of years ago and enjoyed it so much that he wanted to share his experience with others.
“I love the zen and the relaxation. It’s a really good core workout,” Clarke said.
A lot of water sports companies on the island are offering multiple activity excursions, and that was the reason behind Clarke’s decision to introduce the SUP tours. There are a variety of fun things to do in one project, he said.
He designed a rack to carry numerous paddle boards and attached it to the company boats. The boats can go anywhere around the island meaning that tours aren’t limited to a single destination. The majority of locations where the tours take place are only accessible by boat, making the SUP tour the perfect combination of exercise and sightseeing.
The four-hour long tours will consist of tubing from the harbor in Oak Bluffs through the waves of State Beach, followed by standup paddleboarding and snorkeling in the waters surrounding Cape Poge in Chappaquiddick. As the built in sound system blasts the customers’ choice of music from the boat, the afternoon or evening will wind down with a barbeque and some drinks on the sandy shore of the cape.
Clarke loves Cape Poge and takes his family there often.
“Pulling up on the beach is like a Caribbean destination on Martha’s Vineyard,” Clarke said.
The daily tours are open to all ages, costing $125 per person. They will run twice a day from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Hunter Decker, one of the captains for MV Ocean Sports, says the SUP tour is a new experience that will entice both tourists and locals.
“It is a chance to get out to Cape Poge, where many locals have never been,” he said. Decker has lived on the island for three years and has never been there.
As the summer heats up, spend the afternoon on the water with Martha’s Vineyard Ocean Sports for a memorable, family friendly, action packed tour of the island.
