In the Wake of Supertankers

The average supertanker displaces roughly 500,000 tonnes of water when fully loaded. When moving at speed, this creates a V-shaped wake of seemingly calm water behind the ship that is almost tranquil. But what's hard to know, especially when sitting in the middle of said wake in a kayak powered only by your muscles and determination, is that the wake is pulling you. Not just a little bit. But miles off course. I know this because I've been in the shipping lanes in the middle of Long Island Sound, being sucked out to sea in a tiny kayak filled with Powerbars, Gatorade, and suntan lotion. How I got there is another story.

Row for a Reason/Paddle with Purpose/Kayak for a Cause

"Scott and I kayaked across Long Island Sound yesterday," Miles said to me with a grin etched into a sunburnt face. Immediately, I thought he was full of it. There was no way he and Scott kayaked the 12+ miles from Darien, CT to Oyster Bay, NY, and then kayaked back with little to no experience, all the while paddling in sit-on-top kayaks, which are notoriously tippy and slow.

He could see from my expression that I thought he was lying, so he said, "We should do it again. Get a few people together. Make an event of it."

Not one to back down from a challenge and eager to call his bluff, I told him I was game. A few weeks later, we'd assembled some of our closest and arguably dumbest friends to take the journey from Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk to Bayville on Long Island. We didn't have much of a plan other than "just sort of aim that way." Our "safety" boat was helmed by a guy much more interested in drinking beers and partaking in other mildly-illegal substances than rescuing us should we turn turtle in the middle of the ocean. The only form of training any of us had done was to try to get a decent amount of sleep the night before.

A local paper had gotten word of our trek and sent a photographer to see us off, knowing he'd get a significant payday when he sold the last known photo of 8 idiots who were lost at sea. But somehow, we made it, supertankers be damned. Actually, most of us made it. We lost one guy who'd just sort of shown up that morning and was last seen heading toward Lloyd's Neck. It's been 23 years, so if you run into a man with a presumably very long beard and a salt-stained kayak somewhere on the north shore of Long Island, tell him we owe him a beer.

A few days later, we realized we had something here. We even kicked around a few names for it, like "Row for a Reason," which was quickly discarded because we weren't actually rowing, but paddling. Then came "Paddle with Purpose," which was fine, but didn't hint at the charity component we wanted to include. Finally, we settled on "Kayak for a Cause" (KFAC).

But after that second expedition, people got interested. As our numbers grew, we attracted sponsorships from GQ and Nautica. We had several key charities to which we wrote large checks. We had celebrities joining us on the voyage, and the 300+ kayakers were welcomed back to Calf Pasture with the biggest beach party in Connecticut, featuring concerts from the likes of The Wailers, Dicky Betts, and Donovan Frankenreiter. Helicopters were deployed to take photos of the long line of kayakers making the trek, and jet skis were used to keep motorboats and the occasional supertanker from running into us.

The Next Endeavor

It turns out, the lessons we learned out there on the water were the exact ones we needed to build Reflekta.

The crew that launched Kayak for a Cause is now back together again in a new boat. Co-founders Miles Spencer, Adam Drake, and Greg Matusky, along with KFAC co-founder Scott Carlin and Wells Jones, each of whom played a critical role in making KFAC the force it became, are now applying that same energy, vision, and community-first mindset to Reflekta.

This time, the mission is different. We're not just paddling for charity. We're building a platform that could change the way people connect across time: a space where voices, stories, and legacies live on, continuing to speak. A way to hear from your grandfather again. A way to meet your great-great-grandmother. A way to create digital reflections of the people you love.

But while the mission has evolved, the team dynamic has not.

One of the most significant advantages we’ve had at Reflekta is this: trust. Not just the kind you talk about in management books, but the kind that comes from long days and late nights, shared effort and shared risk. We know each other’s strengths. We know when to push and when to step back. And most importantly, we trust each other to own our roles—then get out of the way.

That’s the magic of a good team. You don’t have to second-guess. You set things in motion, then you move aside and let talented people do what they’re built to do.

Scott sees ten moves ahead and builds relationships that change the game.
Greg understands how to tell a story in a way that resonates and spreads.
Miles drives vision and momentum like no one else.
Wells brings heart, precision, and a sense of purpose that elevates our product.
And me, I know how to translate all of it into something people can feel and use.

The truth is, we couldn’t build something like Reflekta from scratch without that deep well of shared history. That shorthand. That unshakable belief that if you hand someone the paddle, they’ll get you to shore.

Kayak for a Cause taught us that. It taught us how to build trust, move fast, let go, and create something meaningful that lasts.

Reflekta is a very different vessel. But the current feels familiar. And the people steering it? Well, we’ve done this before.