Susan Chaplin moved from San Diego, California, to the British Virgin Islands in 1994. She now lives full time on the island of Tortola, which is twelve miles long, two miles wide and sixty miles east of Puerto Rico. Chaplin is a committed islander and a dedicated athlete: cyclist, swimmer, surfer and paddler She shares her writing and photography in sports publications such as The Surfer’s Journal and The Surfer’s Path. She lives in a small apartment with three paddleboards, two surfboards, a computer and a camera. “That’s all I need,” she says.

Chaplin enjoys paddling between islands in the Caribbean on her fourteen-foot-long paddleboard. In 1998, she paddled 200 miles through the British Virgin Islands, touching all above water points; 1999, she paddled 100 miles through the Grenadines from St. Vincent to Grenada; 2000, she paddled 150 miles to connect all major islands in the Turks and Caicos; 2000, she paddled 100 miles from Great Exuma to Nassau, in the Bahamas; 2001, she toured 93 miles from Ragged Island to Neuvitas Lighthouse in the Jumentos Islands, the Bahamas’ south most island group; 2002, she traversed the 25-mile channel between Martinique and Dominica and the 26-mile channel between Dominica and Guadeloupe; 2003, she paddled the 22-mile St Lucia channel between St. Lucia and Martinique; 2004, she crossed the 26 open ocean miles between St. Lucia and St. Vincent; 2006, she toured 60 miles from Tortola to Puerto Rico; 2007. she paddled the 30-mile Guadeloupe channel between Guadeloupe and Montserrat. She hopes, in 2008, to connect from Montserrat to Saba thus completing her traverse of the Windward and Leeward Caribbean islands. In training and accomplishing her long-distance paddling goals, Chaplin paddles hundreds of miles a year.

Passion in life, Chaplin says, is essential. “For people to do their best, they must love what they do. Many people think that because they aren’t a recognized celebrity or a sports icon that they shouldn’t bother to do their best. Or they think that they are too old to get up off the couch. They don’t push their limits; they don’t explore their capabilities.”

Chaplin hopes that paddlers will repeat her Caribbean paddling routes. She invites paddlers to plot their own routes and to concoct personal adventures “There’s a lot of new stuff left out there to do on a paddleboard,” she says, “if you just paddle the first stroke.”