We paddled around Lake Tahoe. Then we built a home for everyone who loves it.
What if the adventure didn't have to end when you got off the water? What if the lake could be a place you came back to — every morning, every season, with your people and your kids and a hot cup of something good?
That question is what started all of this.
We're Jay and Anik Wild. We live and paddle on Lake Tahoe. And we want to tell you how Tahoe Waterman was born — not in a meeting room, but on the water, somewhere along the shoreline of a 22-hour paddle that changed everything.
We were hooked on this lake.
Jay grew up near the Pacific in Southern California. Anik grew up paddling summers in Quebec before becoming a member of the Canadian National Ski Team. We found each other in the Sierra on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe — she had a climbing rope, he had climbing gear — and Tahoe's outdoors became the place we spent every spare hour.
Tahoe does something to you. It's not just beautiful. It's massive. It plunges over 1,600 feet deep. The water is 99.7% pure. On a big wind day, whitecaps roll across twelve open miles of fetch. It became the place we spent every spare hour paddling. It's a lake that earns your respect and then earns your love.
We couldn't get enough of it.
One big, slightly crazy idea.
In 2010, we'd been paddling for years. We'd done long days. We'd done race days. But at some point, a few hours just isn't enough. You look at the shoreline, and you think: what if we just went all the way around?
So we did.
Non-stop. No shortcuts. 72.6 miles of shoreline, staying within 50 feet of shore the entire way, confirmed on GPS. It took us 22 hours. In the middle of the night, with the full moon glare, we were picking through boulders along the East Shore in complete darkness. No crowd. No fanfare. A fun team project with the support of loved ones on the oldest lake on the continent.
We believe it was the first non-stop, no-shortcut stand-up paddle circumnavigation of Lake Tahoe ever completed.
"We wanted to create a public beach club for the community."
Long paddles have a way of clearing everything out. When you're that tired and that focused, only the real stuff stays.
What stayed with us was a vision. A place on the shore of this lake. Somewhere, you could smell coffee and connect with nature, friends, and family. Somewhere you could rent a board or buy one, take a lesson, train with a team, watch your kid paddle and swim. A beach where people gather, get outside, and experience how good it feels to be on the water of Lake Tahoe.
We created the Tahoe Waterman brand that same year. Ten months later — and we still can't believe the timing — a concession opportunity, a lakefront property owned by the California Tahoe Conservancy, opened up in Carnelian Bay. We jumped. We opened Waterman's Landing: a café, a paddle shop, a rental and training center, and a home base for everything we love about this lake.
It grew into something bigger than us.
We started a Tahoe Watergrom kids' camp. Tahoe local kids — mountain kids — discovering paddling and watersafety, some going on to compete and take names on the California and international waterman scene. Watching that happen? Nothing compares.
We created Team Tahoe Waterman. Kids, adults, competitors, and elite paddlers — all of them showing up season after season, pushing each other on the water, getting fitter, getting stronger, getting better together. That's a community that showed up.
We took over the Tahoe Cup — now the Tahoe Waterman Paddle Racing Series — honoring the legends who built Paddleboard racing at Tahoe, Phil Segal and Ernie Brassard, before almost anyone else. We added Outrigger Canoe and Surfski to the Prone and Stand-up Paddling divisions, growing the family of paddle sports on this lake.
We became stewards of Patton Landing Public Beach — maintaining the land, protecting the shoreline, and educating our community on Tahoe environmental care, water safety, health, and fitness. Because caring for this lake is caring for ourselves. What we protect in nature, we protect in each other.
This story does not live without a spark. Justin Broglio provided it — making the connection that brought the California Tahoe Conservancy project opportunity and our vision of a Tahoe Waterman's basecamp together. Justin now serves as President of the Waterman Foundation Tahoe.
The Foundation exists to bring the healing power of water to people of all ages — including those facing life-changing challenges and injuries. In collaboration with Waterman's Landing in Carnelian Bay, it provides resources and educational programs built around creating real, positive change. Since 2014, the Foundation has evolved to connect kids, injured athletes, first responders, and veterans to paddle sports. One stroke at a time.
Good people leave their mark. Ronnie Ayers — co-founder, dear friend, true Waterman — moved on to lifeguard the shores of Wildwood, New Jersey. Anik's sister, Kina, stepped in, brought her French-Canadian warmth, and made Waterman's café a place where strangers become friends, mornings become stories, and the spirit of what we started continues to grow — one cup, one conversation, one connection at a time.
And it all traces back to one long paddle, two paddleboards, a husband and wife, and a son conceived upon signing the Waterman's business deal — a lake that continues to dare us to go further…
See you on the water. — Jay & Anik