Whaaa'SUP

The cool people know that SUP stands for Stand-Up Paddleboarding.  And the extra cool people have either tried it or are going to try it… soon!

I have now tried SUP twice and consider myself hooked.  This is absolutely going to be an annual summer activity.

I, personally, love activities on the water that don’t involve actual swimming (Allison Schmitt I am not!).  For me, being near or on the water is both invigorating yet calming at the same time.  That’s exactly how I would describe the SUP experience:  stimulating yet soothing; energizing yet lullifying; exhilarating yet pacifying.

In a word (or four)… really, way COOL, dude.

K and I tried SUP for the first time back in May and it was nice that we were kid-less because it was new to us and we could set our own pace; do our own thang, y’know.  But, it is definitely a family-friendly activity.  We took the girls this second time and also saw several kids out on paddleboards with their parents.  The winner was the dad with 4 kids on one board!

I’m convinced my girls will love it, too, once they can get over the idea of swimming with the big carp in the lake.  R FREAKED out at the sight of them and that kinda put a damper on their SUP experience.  We forced them to paddle around for some pics but K had to appease them by renting a paddle boat, which they ended up totally loving.

I left K with the crybabies and caught up with a couple of my girlfriends that had zipped by us earlier and we spent the next hour just paddling and cruising and periodically jumping into the water to cool off.  It was just awesome. 

I found that I liked doing a combination of some standing and some kneeling and have a feeling that I’ll get a little more confident and adventurous each time I go.  I’m even planning on trying the yoga/Pilates-on-the-water class they have some day!  I didn’t have time to this outing. 

 I love how it is a sport that is accessible to pretty much everyone.  Old, young, fit, flabby.  You can dig in deep and get a great workout out of it or just piddle-paddle and cruise around.

Some suggestions I have from my perspective:  If you can avoid paying for a lesson, do so.  This was on a very calm lake and all they told us for the 30-second “lesson” is, basically, face your paddle this way, switch sides about every 3 strokes and keep your leash on at all times.  Hmmm.  All things I figured out on my own within minutes the first time we went out. 

Also, wear a hat, sunscreen and definitely take water with you.  And take a waterproof camera, too, because EVERYONE looks cool on a paddleboard!

Nobody should die without having first tried this!

 

A Dozen Years of Bliss (Sorta)

… and the handsome stranger wooed the fair maiden with his wit, charm and bottomless bank account.  They married and rode off upon their ATVs into the sunset never to have a sour word pass between them nor have a moment’s stress longer than a nano-second ever cross their path… and they lived happily ever after.

If you believe that, I’ve got some oceanside property in Arizona to sell ya!

Really, I did marry my best friend.  My soul mate.  My other half.  Does that mean I’ve never wanted to bash my fist into my bestie’s face after an episode of pure, unadulterated aggravation?  Not even.  But, thankfully, I’ve more often found myself marveling at what an incredible blessing it’s been to have found a companion who has brought into my life such a dimension of enjoyment and inspiration that I don’t think I would have know otherwise.

We just celebrated our 12^th wedding anniversary.  Our gift to each other was a stand-up paddleboarding outing (I will report about that in a post very soon.  Awe.Some.)  followed by some serious chowing on some southern style BBQ which fueled us up for our midnight hike to see the Supermoon. 

THIS is how I want to be living life.  With an adventurous partner, raising adventure-loving kids, overcoming Lazy every chance we get.

Which brings me to my real-life fairy tale which goes more like this:

… and after the handsome (albeit short-ish) stranger narrowly avoided a fist fight on their first date, the fair maiden miraculously agreed to see him again, thus starting them down a bumpy path of deep love, massive annoyance, fun adventure, scary adventure, absolute joy and delight, definite frustration and anger… all while riding/cycling/jogging/paddling off into many sunsets and sunrises together which all culminates into them living pretty darn happily ever after.