Bru at Hawks Cay Resort

Audacy Music

Across 5 iconic Keys' locations, travel with Bru through incredible parks and excursions to give you a sample of what the Florida Keys and Key West is all about before you book your own trip.

Transcript

00:00What's up? It's Brew broadcasting from Hawks Cay Resort and Villas in Marathon and today I'm with

00:05Matt Saxton over at the Lagoon at Grassy Key. The Cable Park is where we were this morning.

00:11We were just talking about all the things you have over there. Explain what this like compound is

00:14like. Well thanks for having me on Brew. It's uh I've been putting this together since 2011. So I

00:20was a professional action sports athlete. I was a pro kite surfer and wakeboarder for many years

00:26and I ended up working for a company out of Germany that built these cable systems. So

00:31going to trade shows and boat shows around the country wasn't exactly the coolest thing to set

00:36these up for a weekend and then break them all down. So at 26 years old we found this abandoned

00:41property that if I could describe what it looked like day one it was something between the Walking

00:45Dead and Breaking Bad. Oh right. So it paints the picture. Yeah we turned that into the only licensed

00:50amusement park in the Florida Keys. We built two cables over an existing seven acre quarry

00:55and uh for the first couple of years just taught people how to wakeboard kite surf foil board and uh

01:01you know have a good time on the water here. Yeah okay so you have the the cable park obviously you

01:07also have what bongos and what else? So the property is 52 acres it's it's extremely rare to have in the

01:14Florida Keys like this is a story that I'm probably one of the last people um you know in our generation

01:19and beyond that could pull this off because there's just you know so many there's only so much land down

01:24here. Right. So 52 acres was abandoned and uh we turned it into the lagoon so you have bongo's

01:30botanical beer garden which my dog bongo was the first you know employee of that place besides for

01:36myself we built everything together. Keys Cable Park is its own attraction with two cables think of it like

01:41a terrain park on water so if you're going down the mountain hitting the different boxes and half pipes

01:47and things like that we've got an advanced side and we've got a beginner side so if you're just a kid

01:52trying to go you know wakeboarding on vacation from Michigan or Ohio this could be your first time

01:57or if you're somebody trying to come down for a specialty lesson like kite surfing or learning to

02:01foil board we do a lot of that as well. Um the saloon is our surf shop because uh as many people

02:08wakeboard in the Florida Keys there's not that many people that do the sports I do but everybody

02:12enjoys a beer so I can get your parents to buy one while they're buying you a t-shirt for doing the

02:17attraction that we did so the saloon is aptly named that for the surf shop and then the rum runner

02:22is our giant aqua park so think of ninja warrior on the water and it's a big inflatable obstacle course

02:29and that was one of our last attractions and probably something we should have done first

02:33because you can do 35 kids in an hour and uh what that does for bongos in terms of bringing in a big

02:39crowd every hour on the hour is pretty awesome. That's amazing yeah it's exactly how it is too it's

02:44american ninja warrior mixed with like wipeout I'm guessing once you get slippery and everything

02:48it feels like one of those you know spoof shows where you're just kind of there to fail

02:53me and rob were joking we're like we gotta race through this uh some of the other broadcasters here

02:58were like we should just rip through that see which see which station wins um but we had so much fun

03:02wakeboarding it was my first time I was really nervous about getting up on it and uh just being a

03:07snowboarder I think that helped but uh yeah I got to do the board and then I got to do the surfboard

03:11of it and that was even more fun just because you feel like I don't know more free and light but

03:15what about the foil board I hear that's the hardest one this is I built this year one thinking okay you

03:22know I'm retiring from doing this professionally I'm going to have this park so I can continue to

03:26live my childhood dream in perpetuity and that was never the case it was you know we're teaching

03:31this for tourists predominantly so um to have these really advanced things like the crazy ramps and rails

03:38and all the technical extreme and high liability things was a little sketchy and the early days of

03:44foil boarding was just like that if there's a hashtag in day one called foil face because about 50 to 60

03:51percent of the people that tried it ended up with this hashtag because it was some sort of a big cut

03:55scrape laceration or something from these really sharp hydrofoil blades but the the system 2.0 and the

04:02cable systems that we use it's the easiest training program possible so we use a short mast and it teaches

04:08you to pop up and if you're an advanced rider a beginner rider anywhere in between um this is

04:14exactly like doing it for the first time anyways so if you're first time out the gate we'll teach

04:20how to ride a wakeboard or a surfboard and then we can put you on the foil board but within an hour

04:24of getting down basic board skills I can teach just about anybody how to do this if you're a

04:30surfer a wakeboard or a kite surfer any of that usually within the first 20 to 30 minutes you're going

04:35to pop up and get that ride and it's like a magic carpet on the water you you raise up you see you

04:40know Laird Hamilton Kai Lenny and the crazy um guys of Hawaii and the west coast have kind of made this

04:46a viral thing but it makes a lot of the traditional sports that we do like wake surfing kite surfing and

04:52even just regular prone surfing way more accessible because you don't need the big winds the big waves

04:56or things like that yeah absolutely well I was a beginner I went into it so I gotta shout out your

05:02instructors they taught me in like 30 seconds and then I did a crazy like 360 flip on the ramp but

05:07nobody got on video so um you just gotta trust me there but um finally when they visit the lagoon

05:13what is something you'd say like they have to do and don't leave without doing this when they come

05:17and visit your spot so the lagoon is kind of the way the keys used to feel for me it's you know I'm

05:23I'm originally from New England but I've been down here for almost 20 years and the original

05:28little mom and pop haunts that you got drawn to here was it felt like you're in a Jimmy Buffett song

05:33so you're you're surrounded by fruit trees all these palm trees bongos is a bunch of rusty shipping

05:39containers and a food truck that's slapped together into a super cool vibey beer garden

05:44and there's we call it downtown grassy key right behind it so you got to show up and you got to do one

05:49of the two attractions whether you're going to wakeboard hit the rum runner just hang out on the

05:53beach and get a beer or margarita but take a walk around because it's been an awesome mix of

05:58different eclectic personalities over the year we got a whole variety of artists from Miami

06:02um New York LA crazy different spots they come to Wynwood and Miami for mural festivals

06:08and they end up coming down and staying with us and uh you know painting and doing all the

06:14activities for a few days so choose one of the activities to experience but sit down have a beer

06:21get something to drink the food is you know unnecessarily good for a little food truck

06:25that it's in and just walk around and kind of soak up the vibes because it's as authentic as it gets

06:30in terms of a true conch republic florida keys little off the beaten path spot yeah that's what it's all

06:37about right you come to the keys you got to relax even wakeboarding i felt relaxed it's it's the

06:41caribbean you can drive to so you know we're the fake caribbean everybody shows up like you know i feel

06:46like i should have some rum right now under this palm tree and turns out we deliver that pretty

06:50good so i lost count of rum runners like a day ago we're just at an all-time high but thank you so

06:55much matt we appreciate you for having us and sharing your story behind the lagoon if you're

06:59planning your next trip to the keys make sure you carve out some time sip relax and soak it in

07:03matt thank you so much appreciate you my pleasure bro

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