Friday, June 05, 2009

Stand up Paddle Boarding

Every friday night here in Monterey, a group of us get together for our FNOS (Friday Night Ocean Swim). I will admit that this year I have yet to get into the frigid waters of the Monterey Bay. To be honest, I'm so tired of being cold!

It was a warm sun-shiney day today here and the water temp could have been nice for all I know; and by nice I mean a balmy 55 degrees, but I didn't want to take a chance. So, instead of getting "in" the water, I was "on" the water, stand-up paddle boarding.

Dad has been doing it for quite some time and even made his own board. The one that I was on, however, is from Surf-tech. It is a wide board and probably around 12 feet long. Balancing on the board was no problem and I seem to have picked it up pretty quickly. What a different perspective being "on top" of the water. I even had people on shore waving to me, which of course I had to wave back!

After trying the Surf-tech board, I "graduated" to dad's home-made board. It was lighter and not as wide. It took a bit more concentration to balance on this board, but it moved through the water a lot quicker.

After triathlon training, 40 mile ride followed by an interval run workout, I'm going to meet dad for another paddle board session. Hope to have photos up tomorrow evening.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Where are the good SUP spots in the Monterey / Carmel area? I'd like to do some general paddling around as well as try to do some surfing. Any advice is appreciated. I live in Sacramento but have a place in Carmel and have just recently taken up paddle surfing.
Jeff