While most people living in Austin have to listen to the sounds of car horns and radios during their long commute in traffic, one Austin man has discovered a commute that is practically therapeutic.
Several months ago, Jason Dzubinski discovered inflatable kayaks that can easily be set up and put away in a matter of minutes.
Dzubinski works as the chief operating officer of Westlake Dermatology in West Lake Hills. He lives only four miles from the office, but Lake Austin is in the way, so he’s forced to take the long way around.
"Both of those roads are pretty much a nightmare during rush hour,” Dzubinski said, referring to RM 2222 and Highway 360.
So he bought the inflatable kayak and started going across the river several times a week.
After he kayaks over Lake Austin, Dzubinski begins the nearly 4-mile hike to his office.
"It's a part of Austin I would not experience if I was driving,” Dzubinski explains as KVUE walked with him through different neighborhoods.
"In the morning, when I'm kayaking in, on the dock that I pull in there's almost always this 60- or 70-year-old gentleman out there fishing," Dzubinski said. "Never seen him catch a fish but it's just nice."
To kayak and hike, he wears compression socks, a bathing suit, hiking sandals and “the Tilley hat that my momma gave me,” Dzubinski said.
Once he reaches Westlake Dermatology, Dzubinski changes in the men’s restroom area and washes up in the sink. He keeps an extra suit in a locker to change into.
While his new, “weird” commute takes longer than the hour he used to sit through in traffic, Dzubinski said it’s better for his health and mental well-being. He also figures it saves him time in the gym and the doctor’s office for blood pressure medicine when he gets older.