The Outdoor Life Behind FloridaOATS
Jeffrey John Fabiszewski | Outdoor writer, paddler, educator, husband, and father
I grew up in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Mountains, where rivers, forests, and Scout camps taught me that the outdoors was never merely somewhere to go. It was a place to learn how to live. Years later, that path led me to Florida’s mangroves, coastal waters, rivers, and the people who call those places home.
Why I Write
A skill is never just a trick. Someone developed it for a reason. A paddle stroke, a camp stove, a chart, or a meal cooked over the coals contains the accumulated judgment of people who went before us. I want to understand those stories before they disappear.
That is what FloridaOATS is for: to explore where outdoor skills came from, why they matter, what they reveal about Florida, and how we might pass them on. This is my library, historical society, backcountry kitchen, and evening conversation around the fire.
Florida, Family, and the Water
The Gulf Coast and its intricate waterways have been part of my outdoor life for decades. I have paddled the Pinellas County Blueways, Great Calusa Blueway, Suwannee River, Florida Keys, and many other waters. Expeditions have taught me to watch the weather and the tide, read a shoreline, depend on my companions, and recognize when turning back is the wisest choice.
Some of the memories that matter most are not the longest journeys. They are the smaller days spent outdoors with my family, particularly with my son, when familiar skills become something worth sharing.
A Life of Learning and Teaching
I am an Eckerd College graduate, and I completed a certificate of study in existential philosophy at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge. My studies have included history, American studies, and cultural anthropology. They shape the questions I bring to places, objects, and traditions, but the lessons themselves have often come from people met on the trail or at the water’s edge.
My professional outdoor work includes coastal kayaking instruction, expedition leadership, wilderness education, and first aid training. Sean Fitzgibbon and I began working together in April 2001 at Osprey Bay Outdoors in Clearwater, Florida, instructing and leading monthly guided kayak day trips. We continued guiding for the owners, Kim and Tom, through 2014, and later remained involved as guest lecturers while promoting the outfitter during our expeditions. In 2007, I created the Liquid Rhythm Kayaking website, and Sean and I began using that name for our shared work. My background includes American Canoe Association coastal instruction, Greenland qajaq paddling, adaptive paddling, and Wilderness First Responder training through NOLS Wilderness Medicine.
Scouting has been a thread through much of my life. I am an Eagle Scout and a Vigil Honor member of the Order of the Arrow. I have served in youth outdoor leadership and Sea Scouting, and received the Scouting Medal of Merit for a rescue on the Suwannee River. These experiences matter most to me for the responsibility they carry: teach what you know, keep learning, and look after the people beside you.
The Stories I Hope to Keep
My writing has appeared in Canoe News, Paddling.net, Florida Outdoor Adventures Magazine, and Onshore Offshore Magazine. On FloridaOATS, I have room to write about more than technique: an old stove handed to my son, food cooked in cast iron, a mariner’s cap with a history, and the way Florida’s waters connect us to earlier generations.
My Catholic faith informs how I think about gratitude, stewardship, service, and the obligation to leave something worthwhile for those who follow. Those values belong in my writing as part of my life, not as a demand that every reader share them.
The old ways still work. But they will not survive on their own. We have to learn them, preserve them, and share them.
From My Journal
The Breton Cap: Maritime History, Scouting, and Abbey Road
Explore the Backcountry Kitchen
Instruction, Expeditions, and Contact
FloridaOATS is where I tell the stories behind outdoor knowledge. For current kayaking classes and private instruction, see my professional instructor biography and Liquid Rhythm Kayaking. Have a tradition or firsthand outdoor story worth preserving? Contribute a Story.
