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Published on: 7/21/2008
Last Visited: 9/26/2008
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Captain Marian Schneider:
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That's the short story of Captain Marian Schneider, a native Floridian whose company, Grande Tours (www.grandetours.com), a Placida, Fla. based kayak fishing and tour guide business, has been voted "Best Kayaking and Boating Business" by the local newspaper's Readers' Choice every year since 2001.
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The only child of a homemaker and a citrus grower/blacksmith, Marian spent her childhood in Boca Grande and Gasparilla Island, a community of 300 residents with no causeway to the mainland.She took a boat to school - and everywhere else."The waters were ours to fish and swim and look for dolphin," she reminisces."Our shopping sprees were walks on the beach to pick up shells, shark's teeth and lots of fossils - and the best part was no check-out counter."She was 12 years old when, with her father, she reeled in her first Tarpon off a public boat dock back in 1955, fighting the six-foot, eight-inch, 125-pound beast for 30 minutes and winning accolades at the local boat club.A photo remains to prove the tale.
After college, she spent two years as a volunteer in Zambia, Africa, setting up medical labs and clinics and living on $150 a month in a hut with no electricity."It was there that I learned the first part of my motto," she said."'Never Say Never.' You'd be amazed at what can be accomplished against all odds." After 20 years in the boating business, her motto has been refined."The first fourteen words are ‘Never,' and the last one is ‘Quit,'" she smiles.Marian always knew she would come back and make a living sharing the stories of her Old Florida childhood and sharing the priceless appeal of the natural environment of Charlotte Harbor & the Gulf Islands.Her journey to becoming a successful captain and tour guide took a long and circuitous route.After spending 20 years as a medical technologist in Orlando, she was burned out.
She moved to her weekend cottage in Placida in 1989 and started her tour business with one boat, the Recovery Room, working seven days a week from sunup to well into the night.A state tourism meeting focused her business on low-impact wildlife appreciation."In 1992, the new buzzword was Eco-tourism," she explained.
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The company has grown to three tour boats, 130 rental kayaks, and 18 seasonal and full-time employees, enabling Captain Marian to spend summers in the North Georgia mountains.
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While Charlotte Harbor & the Gulf Islands has grown up along with Captain Marian, the area is still remarkably unspoiled by development.
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Captain Marian invites visitors to come explore and play in "her" vast backyard."I promise you that after a stay in the area, a walk on the beach leaving your footprints in the sand, watching the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico, the tide will come and your footprints will disappear - but you will never be the same," she says.
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