‘Summer island surfer vibe’ in the air at Skaha’s Sudbury Beach

PENTICTON – The early summer heat being experienced in Penticton has at least one local entrepreneur smiling these days.

Darcy Godfrey is the owner of Glow SUP Adventures, located at Sudbury Beach on Penticton’s Skaha Lake side. She operates the only two concessions on both Hulley and Sudbury  beaches, and lately she’s beaming like the hot sun that has been sizzling beachgoers since the weekend.

“Last weekend was amazing. We rented all our boards, people were reserving, and those that had to wait had no problem with that, because they were at the beach,” Godfrey says, calling it 'the first real weekend of summer island surfer vibe' of the season.

That’s a rarity for early June, she says, noting her concession just opened for the season on the May long weekend. Back then, the water temperature was 14 Celsius. By Tuesday, June 9, it was 24.3 C.

In front of Godfrey’s concession, which has a tropical, Caribbean-like feel to it, a number of beachgoers could be seen standup paddleboarding or otherwise enjoying the water earlier this week.

"I’ve been open every day unless it’s raining. Some of those days I’ve been the only one here, then last weekend it was like, today, summer’s here,” Godfrey says.

She’s stoked about the upcoming season, her second year of operating the premises leased from the city. This year Godfrey was also able to acquire the concession stand behind Glow SUP Adventures, something she says she is 'excited to acquire.'

“I feel these facilities have been under-utilized in the past. This past year a number of concessions in the city came up for tender. I only wanted one," she says, adding, "Having the concession is a perfect fit for what we do,” she says. 

Aside from rentals Glow SUP Adventures offers paddleboard lessons and hosts group events including yoga on the water. Godfrey says her most popular tours are the Glowing Night Tours, where paddlers rent out glowstick encircled paddle boards for a night time foray on Skaha Lake.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.