Born out of necessity
We’re a family born and raised on the water in St. Augustine, Florida. Since the 1990s, fishing the intracoastal and offshore has been our passion — from chasing the bite to cooking up the day’s catch with family and friends. That love for the angler lifestyle and the outdoors runs through everything we do.
In 2015, a bumper crop of vegetables, herbs, and St. Augustine’s iconic datil peppers led us to create our first hot sauce. What started as a backyard experiment quickly caught on — by 2017, our first production run of 1,000 bottles sold out in just a few months. By 2021, Dat’l Hook Ya products could be found in over 400 stores nationwide.
From there, our passion for food and fishing inspired us to expand. We introduced our signature Datil Pepper Blackened Seasoning, now used by restaurants and home cooks alike. And as lifelong anglers with a strong science background, we turned our focus to solving real problems on the water. After hundreds of tests in Florida’s toughest offshore conditions, we launched our mineral-based sunscreen and Angler Hand Scrub — products built to perform when anglers need them most.
Today, Hook Ya is more than a brand. We’re a family-run business dedicated to innovation, quality, and community. We create products we believe in — from sauces to seasonings to performance gear — all designed to make time outdoors even better. And we’re just getting started
Meet the Founder: Why Hook Ya Sunscreen Had to Be Built—Not Just Sold
Hook Ya wasn’t created in a boardroom. It was created out on the water, in the Florida sun, by someone who needed a sunscreen that simply could not fail.
Our founder is an avid outdoorsman with a biology degree, chemistry background, and a doctorate. He grew up fishing offshore, diving reefs, and hunting in the Florida heat—long before “reef-safe” or “sport sunscreen” became trendy marketing buzzwords.
Then life changed.
He became a three-time head and neck cancer survivor, enduring intense radiation that left his skin extremely sensitive to UV damage. For him, even a mild sunburn could lead to serious consequences. And yet, the outdoors remained his passion, his escape, and his lifestyle.
He tried every sunscreen on the market—chemical, mineral, premium, bargain—and none could hold up to sweat, saltwater, and full-day exposure on the ocean. They washed off, burned his eyes, stained his boat, or harmed bait.
So he did what any determined fisherman-scientist would do:
he built a better one.
For 18 months, he tested formula after formula in the toughest conditions Florida could offer—offshore fishing, surfing, swimming, and full-sun yard work. Only when a formula protected his own post-radiation skin without washing off, burning his eyes, or harming the ocean did Hook Ya Sport Mineral Sunscreen come to life.
Today, Hook Ya exists for people who live outdoors—
the anglers, captains, divers, surfers, firefighters, athletes, parents, and weekend warriors who demand real protection, not marketing hype.
If it’s strong enough for him, it’s strong enough for anyone.
From our Datil pepper farm to your table
This pepper was the start of our brand. The Saint Augustine Datil pepper is very unique in its history and flavors. It requires a lot of patience, care and dedication, but the reward is an absolute flavor and heat that makes it so craveable and enjoyable. We grow a large portion of the peppers in our products and source the rest from local farmers like Mayhem brothers.
