Paddling in style on the San Marcos river with Holly Orr

For months I had observed trailer loads of canoes and kayaks traveling S.E. River Road near my home in Martindale. Where were they coming from? One afternoon I walked toward the direction that the boats always came from and discovered an old two-story house with a backyard full of canoes and kayaks. When I knocked on the door a young woman answered. Her name was Holly Orr. She is the owner of Paddle With Style – a full-service canoe and kayak rental, paddling instruction, summer lids paddling day camps, and Texas Water Safari preparation. I was impressed with her immediately. She is a hard-working single mom with 3 kids and her relatively new business is thriving.

And if you think she is a novice, think again. She grew up in the Houston area and discovered the beautiful San Marcos River when she ran the Junior Texas Water Safari at age 17 in 2000. She fell in love with our river. Since that first safari race she has run the adult Water Safari almost every year.

In 2006, she moved to San Marcos and worked for river guru Tom Goynes at his campground. She and his daughter, Sandy, have raced the Safari as a team several times.

In 2009, she started teaching lessons on how to successfully run the grueling Texas Water Safari, giving after-school paddling lessons for kids and directing kids' day camps.

You don’t have to be around Holly very long before her love for teaching canoe and kayak skills beans forth. She is a teacher at heart, being a certified instructor with the American Canoe Association (ACA).

By 2013, she was guiding parties down the river and teaching river skills constantly. In 2016, now with the real need to support her three kids, she started Paddling With Style. When Dwayne TeGrotenhuis retired from T.G. Canoes, she bought lots of his boats and equipment.

Holly had a VIP sample trip scheduled last week with six employees of the San Marcos Convention and Visitors Bureau. She invited me to come along. The six VIPs, Holly, her Texas State student intern, Andy Armentariz, and myself launched her Jackson kayaks at Sewell Park. It was to be a short trip to I-35. I had forgotten how beautiful the upper San Marcos River is. Most of my kayaking and fishing on the river is downstream around Martindale. But the upper river is fascinating. It’s the only place in Texas where wild rice thrives. Attempts to start colonies of wild rice farther downstream have been unsuccessful.

“It’s the constant temperature, clear water and sunshine penetration that make growth in the upper river successful,” said Holly.

Near Rio Vista Park, Holly and Andy gave us some paddling instruction. She’s a good teacher.

“I rent boats to people who just want to paddle on their own,” she said.  “But I would rather teach them to paddle in style.”

I wanted to shoot the rapids at Rio Vista but we portaged around the white water. I’ve done the rapids in tubes, rafts, and kayaks but we had some novices on our short trip.

“On my rentals it’s no alcohol and I don’t allow groups to shoot the white water”, she said. “If I am guiding a party and feel that their skills are sufficient we will do the rapids. Otherwise, I will end up with lots of broken boats.”

I guessed that most of Holly’s business would be with kayaks, but she estimated about 50-50 kayaks and canoes.

“I do a lot of work with the Boy Scouts and Scouts love canoes,” she said.

During the off season Holly spends much time in training Safari contestants. In recent years, her students have done very well in the race, winning first place in the Novice division. Her intern, Andy, will graduate in May and plans to run the Safari for the first time this June. Holly holds several records in the Women’s Division but one of her students has eclipsed several of her records. Holly plans to run the Safari this year. Maybe with her new boat, her team will win.

She also rents fully-outfitted boats to Safari contestants for three months. The boat is theirs for the duration to practice and run the race.

Holly prefers to rent her boats for the Martindale to Staples section of the river. That keeps people away from Cottonseed Rapid above Martindale and they don’t have to portage Cumming and Martindale Dams. Renters can keep the boats for the duration of the trip, or if they want to slow down and fish they can keep the boat until 4 p.m. She requires advance reservations for all rentals and guided trips.

As we neared the end of our VIP tour, I saw Holly reach down into the aquatic grass and pick something off of the river bottom. It was a rusty can. Keeping our river beautiful is priority with Holly.

With the main water season approaching, Holly is a very busy woman.

“It’s a fun job,” she said. “But it’s lots of work.”

For more information on kayak and canoe rentals, paddling lessons and kids' summer day camps, call Holly at 512-749-2350 or email: paddlewithstyle@yahoo.com