It is truly difficult to describe the vast array of sporting and recreational opportunities available to us in Georgina, Keswick and Sutton. You’ll find information on fishing elsewhere on my website, so let’s just hit some of the other highlights...

There are dozens of golf courses within an hour's drive of Georgina. Let's look at just a handful no more than minutes away, beginning with the venerable Briars Resort and Spa. The Briars boasts a Stanley Thompson-designed layout guaranteed to test every golfer’s ball-striking and course management.

When talking about classic Canadian golf courses, you'll hear Stanley Thompson's name brought up repeatedly - we have another of his designs at Orchard Beach Golf and Country Club. The view from the ninth tee will stay with you long after you’ve forgotten that four-putt on the 5th. 

The Eastbourne Golf Club is members-only, but anything but stuffy. Golfers looking for a relaxed, “I remember when” family-oriented experience need look no further.

What makes a truly great golf course? A track that demands you use all the clubs in your bag? a course that like a good horror movie thrills and reassures? a well-conditioned layout that is a pleasure to walk? super-friendly atmosphere and service? You may have described Pines of Georgina, described by Ontario Golf in 2002 as one of Ontario’s finest hidden gems.

Despite Lake Simcoe’s reputation as an ice fishing mecca, the lake is more often liquid than solid. In the warmer months boaters flock to the area to enjoy the challenges of the big lake. Finding a marina on Lake Simcoe is a little like finding hay in a haystack. Let's just mention a couple: Crates Marine Sales in Keswick is a full service marina, offering expert sales, service, and year-round storage, and Bonnie Boats will be the marina of choice for boaters living in the Jacksons Point area. For sailors living in the Georgina area, Sail Georgina is truly The Friendliest Little Club on Lake Simcoe. With a range of memberships, club boats, and slips, Sail Georgina will be your home away from home!

Ontario is an awfully big, beautiful place, and the Ontario Trails Council encourages everyone to lace up the boots and put some ground underfoot. Georgina, Sutton and Keswick are located in the middle of the province, which places us in the Central Region. Whether your form of locomotion is hiking, cross-country ski, snowshoe, bicycle, ATV, motorcycle – we have your trail. It is almost no exaggeration to say there are too many to count. 

You can walk on Lake Simcoe, fish in it, swim in it, sail on it – perhaps not surprisingly, it also boasts some tremendous scuba diving. Diving in Ontario will help you make the dive to an historic marine railway that is considered a must-see for divers.

And then there are those days you wish to leave it all behind and just jump…from a plane, that is. The Parachute School of Toronto operates just south of Georgina outside of Baldwin on Highway 48. Please don’t tell them I sent you…

Of course, not everyone’s idea of sport runs to the humdrum of skydiving. For those people, the Georgina Civic Centre Multi-Season Recreation Campus began its development in 2003 on 150 acres and will eventually include multiple soccer pitches and baseball diamonds, an outdoor ice rink/roller hockey, tennis and basketball court, BMX course, North Shore bicycle challenge/skills park, beach volleyball court, water playground, rock climbing wall, ropes course, snowboard tube and terrain park with artificial snow capability, multiple adventure playgrounds, walking/hiking and interpretative trails, and a series of fountains, ponds and gardens. Georgina knows that recreation is more than hockey/curling in the winter and golf/sailing in the summer.

We are justifiably proud of the opportunities we offer our children. We have terrific schools, a clean, healthy environment, and well-run minor sports organisations staffed by volunteers like you - people who know the lessons taught by participation in minor sports last a lifetime. The Georgina Girls Hockey Association is a vital, active organisation dedicated to offering girls of all ages an opportunity to play hockey with other girls. The Association supports a house league and fields rep teams from peewee to bantam. The Lake Simcoe Minor Softball Association operates co-ed house league softball leagues and plays at the Georgina Civic Centre on weeknights, where the only real priority is to have fun. The Lake Simcoe Soccer Club supports a house league for boys and girls, and operates age group rep teams for both genders. For budding Blue Jays, the Georgina Minor Baseball Association offers players from age 5 to 25 the chance to play the grand old game. Goaltending great and future Hall of Famer Curtis Joseph grew up in Keswick, and made his home here when playing with the Maple Leafs. His example has inspired many local younsters, and the Georgina Minor Hockey Association provides them a place to practice the moves of their heroes, the space to strive and dream, an arena to win their own Stanley Cups. The GMHA schedules a full house league competition for all age groups, and sends the Georgina Blaze to carry the flag to neighbouring communities, icing rep teams in all minor age categories. And this being smalltown Canada, we stand tall behind the Georgina Ice, our entry in the OHA's Juniour C competition. Perennial favourites to win it all, the Ice play most of their games in Keswick at the Georgina Ice Palace, and a few at the Georgina-Sutton Arena.

No town is complete without a decent skatepark – check out the Keswick-Georgina Park. This is a website with great pics and video. If this doesn’t make you want to grab your deck and work some ollies nothing will!

Finally, lakes and their watersheds exist in delicate balance. As humans, we have an impact on these systems through agriculture, industry and our recreational habits. Indeed, much of what we deem desirable in lakeshore living would be destroyed without sensible, far-reaching planning. We are lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world - the Lake Simcoe Environmental Strategy is recommended reading for all those concerned about Lake Simcoe and the sustainability of current practice.