“I’ve always been a water kid!”

“I’ve always been a water kid,” says Luna Moon’s Owner and CEO, Misty Marcum. “If there was a pool or lake or ocean, you couldn’t get me out of it. So when I went to Hawaii sometime around 2004 and saw people paddle boarding, I thought – Wow! That looks really cool.”

That initial paddle board sighting stuck with Marcum as she worked her job as a User Experience Designer at the Chrysler Headquarters in Auburn Hills. Around that same time, she took up yoga, where she set a goal to become a certified yoga instructor, clocking in more than 200 hours as an instructor. But there was just one problem about teaching yoga – like her job, it required her to be indoors.

Fast forward some eleven years, Marcum had settled into a home with her husband, Jeremy, on Sylvan Lake, Michigan and noticed that paddle boards were showing up in outdoorsy shops next to the kayaks and boat supplies. Intrigued, she started researching paddle boards, watching YouTube videos, and envisioning herself on the board. “Suddenly, this [ad for a] kit popped up and I hate to even say it, but it was at Costco. It was a hardboard and a pretty decent brand and I thought – you know what, I'm gonna get it! It was a 10-[foot], I think, and it came with a cheap paddle and leash and that’s where it all started!”

“I would come home from work and get on the board and be out there the rest of the afternoon.”

Those afternoons on Sylvan Lake would soon morph into the launch of Luna Moon SUP Yoga (named after her huskie who learned to paddle board as a puppy) featuring 8 boards and a community of eager students. Marcum went after her additional teaching certifications and launched her new business, teaching paddle boarding and paddle board yoga.

Along the way, she teamed up with another water lover from California, Cynthia, who she met while working at the Chrysler Building. The two hit it off immediately, cheering each other on, practicing and honing their craft, trying out new yoga positions and even developing a lip balm. They discovered early on that falling in the water was part of the process and was just another opportunity to learn and have some fun. Now those falls are referred to as “Flip it” where the board is used to flip the person back on to their board and back into the game. Some might say that’s a great metaphor for life, just one of the many lessons and community moments shared out on the lake, and in the off-season, nearby pools.

Merging her love of the outdoors, the lake, yoga, and community, Marcum is content out on the water, but it wasn’t always a straight line. Even while she attended College for Creative Studies, Marcum realized that although she loved making art, something was missing. “When you're in an art school and you're making things and you're using the computer…or you sit down and draw or do something else – you’re still stuck at a computer…indoors.” Now, when Marcum finds herself at her desk in her office running her business, she knows it’s necessary, but her sights are always set outdoors and on the water.

“Every time we get on the board, we get to start over.”

When asked what inspires her most at this 5-year milestone, Marcum shares, “I just wanted to introduce this [paddle boarding yoga] as a gateway or an outlet for people who might be afraid to try yoga…People might not want to do yoga in a studio because of the four walls…Or maybe they fear that there's a little bit more judgement. But I feel like the board and the water – it just brings everybody down to ground zero, where every time we get on the board, we get to start over.

“I think if I went back and looked at old journals [of mine], I’m pretty sure I wrote about how I should be leading something that other people would be able to enjoy. There’s just too much seriousness in the world, you know?”

We do know. But perhaps not on Sylvan Lake, where laughter skips across the water, oblivious, searching for connection, a board, and a paddle.