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A little over three months ago, I purchased a stand up paddle board (SUP). Since my new job, I've only been riding it on weekends. So I think that I can easily give the sport a 90-day.
This has been the most addictive sport that I've tried. I'm not sure if it's the challenge or the new perspective of surfing. The first day that I had my board, I took it out in some pretty nasty chop. It took me a while before I could stand up and paddle into a wave, but I was able to catch a crappy wave and ride it for a few seconds. I thought to myself that I should get comfortable on the board first.
So, the next day I took it out on the Banana River. I paddled around for an hour looking at fish, birds and sting rays while slaloming the small islands south of the Pineda Causeway. It was relaxing, interesting and a good way to get familiarized with the board and paddle. Later that day I went back out and decided to paddle down some canals in the same area. I first came across some manatees that were frightened and took off scaring the bajesus out of me. First lesson learned: stay away from the cattle. Then I encountered a dolphin heading my way I felt more comfortable than I ever would around the manatees. He swam right by me and I swear it nodded at me.
I saw a few more dolphins, manatees and ducks. I always figured that if I never get to surf, I'll always have nature to admire.
Fast forward to today. I've been SUPing every chance that I get and I've only ridden a prone paddle surfboard once. I've even done that unthinkable. I entered two SUP contests. You'd only understand the significance of this if you've known my surfing past. I've been surfing for over 23 years and have always despised competitive surfing. Yeah I like to watch a nice longboard event and keep up with the ASP tour, but have never wanted to compete.
Competing at the Waterman's Challenge was my way of SUP public relations. I've been wanting to try SUP for over three years. I've read about it and watched videos about it for a long time. In doing so, I've also read and heard all of the negative point of view that other surfers have against paddle surfing. I figured that if more people entered the event, the masses would see first hand how impressive, beautiful and positive the sport is.
I knew that I wasn't going to do well in the events, but I knew that it would be fun. And fun it was. I raced the 3 mile paddle. Even though I made some very stupid mistakes in the race, I still didn't come dead last. I actually beat one prone paddler. The next day I competed in the SUP surf contest. I did okay for a newbie and was happy to hear that even though I finished last in my heat, all six of us were only a point apart.
Colleen has filmed me surfing a few times in that past three months and I compiled the good, the bad and the ugly into this short video. Enjoy.
Eight year-old Hong, the elephant, paints a self portrait. I really don't know if it's real or not.
We're having a launch scheduled for tomorrow at 5:08pm. It's been a while since we've had a weekend launch. That usually means crowded beaches and loads of traffic. We'll be at the beach as always, and at our secret launch spot. ;)