Three years ago, Key West resident Michael Westenberger was in his early 30s and had never really given paddleboarding much of a thought. A friend of his basically dared him to try out the Key West Paddleboard Classic that year, and Westenberger -- known to friends as "Westy" -- became hooked.

In the three years since that first race, Westy has come a long way.

He is now the organizer of the Key West Paddleboard Classic -- an annual paddle around the island -- has helped organize a summer series here in Key West and now has major sponsorships that allow him to not only race locally, but all around the world. Later this month, he will head to the west coast to participate in three national races -- two in California and one in Arizona -- and has several other events on his calender.

"One of my friends was like, 'Why don't you do this race around the island?'" he said of that first journey. "I thought, 'Well, it can't be that bad.' Then after that, it just took off. Once I did one race, I just started looking for more and more races. Since the start of this season, it's taken off for me huge."

Westenberger, who is a boat captain for Fury Water Adventures, participated in several events in the Florida circuit this year, placing in the top-three in each atop his 14-foot board. That led to him becoming noticed by national sponsors, and he landed his first major sponsorship with Starboard Paddleboards, the team he will be riding for out west.

"It's mostly through word-of-mouth," he said of how he initially drew interest from sponsors. "It's a little bit harder to get noticed on the east coast, but I met a bunch of California guys at the Key West race last year and I went out there with a friend. It's kind of like with anything, they noticed the results that I was getting here on the east coast, and after that it was just a matter of talking with them and it just took off from there."

That led to deals with H2O Overdrive, Kaenon Polarized, Watermans Applied Science, Quickblade Paddles and 2XU performance wear.

"It also helps being a race promoter, because they know you have a passion for it," he said.

Westenberger, 35, is originally from Wisconsin. He was raised near a lake, but said he mostly played team sports growing up. That continued through his adult life, during which he also picked up rugby while living in England and Australia. He said he never really became interested in water sports until moving to Key West six years ago.

"This is just a totally different sport for me, because it's only you out there doing it," he said. "It's a lot of fun, though."

The next paddle around the island will be in May, an event that Westenberger will be promoting out west, where he will be competing in the Hennessey International in San Diego (Sept. 26), the Battle of the Paddle in Dana Point, Calif. (Oct. 2-3) and the Jam to the Dam in Lake Havasu, Ariz. (Oct. 9). The Battle of the Paddle will have a $10,000 first-place prize.

This year Westenberger got together with Lazy Dog Charters here in town and started organizing paddles to start at Smathers Beach on the last Sunday of each month of the summer.

"We've gotten really good turnout of locals, and people who just want to try out the sport," he said. "We just want to introduce more people into it."

The original plan was for the Lazy Dog/Key West Paddleboard Classic Summer Series to end this month, but because it has drawn so much interest -- anywhere from 25-40 paddlers each month -- Westenberger said they are now looking at resuming the series in November after taking a month off so as not to conflict with Fantasy Fest in October.

Westenberger said he's received nothing but support from his employers at Fury since his paddleboard career took off. More than anything else, he said, he loves to turn people on to the growing sport.

"I'm in pretty good shape, but at 35 years old, you start to think about normal sports," he said. "That's when people say you're over the hill and start signing your certificate to be done. This sport, though, once you start doing it, you realize that anybody at any age can do it. Depending on where you want to take it, it can take you as far as you want. If you want to race against the best people and try to win money, you can do that. Or if you want to get in the back bay and look at manatees all day, you can do that, too. That's the beauty of the sport."

Assistant Sports Editor Willis Jacobson's Gettin' the 'W' column appears exclusively each Friday in The Citizen. He can be reached at 305-292-7777, Ext. 223, or at wjacobson@keysnews.com.