Paddle for hope

Executive: Gene Evans, senior vice president, USAmeriBank, Clearwater, overseeing 11 retail branches in Florida, the marketing department and treasury management group.

Diversion: Paddleboarding. Evans owns a 14-foot paddleboard for paddling distances; a 9-foot, 8-inch paddleboard for surfing; an inflatable paddleboard for paddling while traveling; and six more boards for enjoying the sport with friends and family.

Discovering Paddle: Six years ago Evans was in the outer banks of North Carolina when he saw some people paddleboarding and decided to rent a board and give it a try. He loved it so much that he bought a board and shipped it to his Treasure Island home. A surfer since age 15, Evans was surprised to realize that the board could also double as a surfboard. “The first wave I caught, I got hooked,” he says.