In Dec. 2012 Joe and Jordan Lapekas traveled to Las Vegas for a trade show. On their way home from the trade show they spent the night in Tuba City and while there they saw a picture of Antelope Canyon. The next morning they took a little detour to Page to visit the world’s most famous slot canyon.

That spontaneous detour would change the trajectory of their lives.

While visiting Page they got their first glimpse of Lake Powell.  Joe and Jordan were both stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) enthusiasts and when they saw the lake they wanted to get some boards and spend a day or two paddling on it, but they didn’t have their boards with them. They searched Page for a place to rent some boards and were quite surprised to learn there was no place in Page to rent them.

They returned to Page a month later and this time they brought their own boards with them and spent a day paddleboarding on Lake Powell. They let from Antelope Point and spent the day exploring Navajo and Antelope Canyons.

Joe remembers being amazed by his experience on the water. He recalls it as a spiritual experience.

“The canyons, the scenery. There’s no place like it on earth,” he said. “Especially in the morning when you’re on mirror-water. It’s as close to religion as it gets.”

It’s a feeling that hasn’t diminished for either of them.

Joe and Jordan were early converts to the sport of stand-up paddleboarding, called SUP for short. They fell in love with paddleboarding in 2009 when the sport was still in its infancy. They arrived at the sport through other active-lifestyle pursuits that included surfing, skating, snowboarding and sailboat racing.

In 2012 they embarked on a personal quest to paddleboard all 50 states. In early 2012 they had branded themselves “SUP the USA” and hit the road. Their quest encompassed two years and surpassed more than 120,000 miles of travel.

During their “SUP the USA” journey they paddled with manatees in Florida, alligators in Louisiana. They’ve paddled many of America’s major rivers including the Mississippi, the Potomac, the Charles, the Columbia, the Arkansas and the Colorado.

At the time when they visited Page they had paddled 40 of the 50 states – and many other places outside the U.S. – and had witnessed some amazing, beautiful places but none of them compared to Lake Powell, said Joe.

“We said to ourselves, `This is going to be a paddleboarding destination for people around the world,’” said Joe.

“There needs to be a paddleboard shop here,” said Jordan. “That got us thinking that maybe we should be the ones to do that.”

At the time they were living in Michigan where they owned and operated Truckskin, a business that wraps vehicles in a thin sheet of graphics-covered vinyl, usually used to promote a business’s product or logo.

In April 2013 they moved from Michigan to Page and opened Lake Powell Paddleboards.

“It was a bust,” said Jordan. “Back then, people didn’t know what paddleboarding was.”

At the end of an unsuccessful season they put their boards and other gear into storage and returned to Michigan, not planning to return.

But throughout the winter people from around the world discovered their website, which the Lapekases had left active, and they began receiving calls and emails from people who wanted to paddleboard on Powell and rent boards from them.

“So we decided to try it again,” said Jordan.

Their second summer, 2014, was busy and productive. They rented boards and guided clients on tours of their favorite Lake Powell slot canyons. They’re traffic has increased steadily since then. They attribute most of that to word of mouth.  

This year they’ve had visitors from all across the U.S. and from 65 countries. On one of the walls of their shop they have a map of the U.S. and the world and one of the things they enjoy doing is placing a pin into the map for every state and every country from where someone has visited them that year. They start the map over each year.

“When our clients return home they tell their friends and family about their amazing time on Lake Powell, they share photos on Facebook, and sometime in the next year or two their friends show up at our shop,” said Jordan.

At the end of the 2014 tourist season they finally finished their 50 state paddleboarding journey with a trip to Alaska, where they paddled on the ocean around Maui and Kauai, as well as the Hanalei River.

The two and a half years they spent on their quest to paddleboard all 50 states did nothing to alleviate their wanderlust.

“It made our wanderlust worse,” said Joe.

The only downside to owning and operating Lake Powell paddleboards is that is leaves them less time to travel, and it’s something they greatly miss.

“We love our shop but to be honest it’s putting a crimp in our style. We used to travel the world, now the world comes to us,” said Joe.

Their paddleboard shop, Lake Powell Paddleboards, is constructed from three shipping containers set side by side and welded together. Joe transported them one at a time from California on a 40 foot flat bed. Once in Page, he removed the long walls of the center container and one wall from the other two containers so that together they form an open room, large enough to contain the boards, apparel and other gear they sell.  Joe also cut out a large section from the container facing the street and placed a window in it to make the shop airy and bright. Building the shop took them 14 months. They trimmed it with recycled cottonwood, added a porch and have made several personal touches to give it a happy, colorful charm of its own.

“By building it ourselves were able to put our vision and creativity into it,” said Jordan.

As much as the Lapekases enjoy paddleboarding they also get a lot of joy from introducing their clients to beautiful Lake Powell.

“Every day we hear from our clients that the lake is the most incredible place they’ve ever been,” said Jordan.

Last week Lake Powell Paddleboards were given two awards at the Best of Page Awards: Small business of the year, and Best Rentals.

And after five years of paddleboarding on the lake the magic had yet to wear off for them as well.

“The canyon’s different every time,” said Joe. “The light’s different, the water levels change.”

Jordan’s favorite place on the lake is any secluded, uncrowded side canyon.  She particularly enjoys just sitting on her board and letting her feet dangle in the cool water.

“I still really enjoy the serenity of it,” she said. “It’s a great escape. It’s how I unwind.”