Alex is the Queen of Kijiji. If she’s not selling something there, she’s finding something. And she found paddleboards.
For the record, until now, I thought of paddleboards as a fad. It seemed like someone had ruined what was previously a good idea and turned it into a trend. Exactly what idea, I’m not sure, admittedly, but it always felt wrong.
But Alex and the girls had tried it a couple of years ago when we went to Oyama, and someone was selling two for $500. That was a deal we couldn’t pass up.
If you’ve never tried a paddleboard before, think of a surfboard made out of some kind of heavy latex or vinyl that you inflate to 12-15 PSI. It becomes stiff (ahem) as a, well, board. You can stand on it without any kind of a bend. And yet, folds up to fit inside a bag. Really interesting construction, those.
We brought two to Ruskin. And today, a 32C scorcher, we decided to go to Whonnock Lake (along with all of Whonnock) to give them a whirl.
Well, after I dropped off Alex, Monkey, and Choo Choo at the No Parking area – the only stretch for nearly a kilometer without a car in it – and went off to find a spot. They found Asinkwe and started the operation to inflate the paddleboards.
Lesson #1: Check the O-rings, which I realized only partway through were upside down, making it impossible to click the hose in properly.
Lesson #2: Inflating has two parts: Inflating and Pressurizing. The former is easy, takes only a couple of minutes; the latter requires a lot of effort and can be quite tiring. Bonus: upper body workout!
Alex and Monkey went out into the lake on an adventure while Choo Choo and I waded into the lake. Asinkwe stayed on the beach to tan, amidst the barely clad mid-to-late teenage girls.
The water was nice, especially in the heat. We bobbed about, certain that I was looking every bit the middle-to-late aged dad, with t-shirt, sunglasses, baseball cap, and poorly applied sunscreen. There are parts of my upper torso that have not seen the sun in a decade.
Alex came back about a half hour or so later, give or take, with Monkey still somewhere out on the lake. I figured I needed to understand what all the fuss was about these SUPs, so took the lifejacket (which despite being an adult large ended up being tight), pushed the board out, and did my best not to fall in.
I used to be good at yoga (this is going back over 15 years, mind you), and I could hold a balance perfectly. But standing on a “board” on open water while trying to paddle? That’s a very different beast. I’ve watched dozens of Fail Army videos of people who have dramatic falls on these things and it always seemed like they just didn’t know what they were doing.
I didn’t know what I was doing.
I stayed afloat, out of the water. But anyone watching me would have seen, quite clearly, that I was struggling. I wobbled more than a Jell-o mould on vibrator.
Crossing the lake, I eventually found Monkey swimming next to her board … sans lifejacket. This is a parenting moment, folks. Although my kids know how to swim (though not at the level I had planned when they were much younger), I’m not a fan of them swimming out in unfamiliar waters alone. I’ve heard too many stories of people drowning from simple things that could have been prevented with a flotation device of nearly any kind. Suffice to say, she got a bit of a lecture.
Crossing back turned out to be a bit more difficult as the breeze was just strong enough to be challenging to a SUP newbie. So I sat and paddled like a canoe. Which, I must say, was far easier than reaching out over the gunwale.
By the time I got back to the beach, I had come to rather like these SUPs. I’m a mere beginner and I really need to figure out the proper stance and stroke, but I can totally see myself doing this more regularly.
After packing up the boards, Monkey and Choo Choo dove back in the water while I sat with our stuff. Before me were several of the aforementioned mid-to-late teens who seemed to not have a care in the world about being leered at. I might officially be getting old.
Just after 5:00 (we’d been there maybe 3 hours), the girls came back in and declared that they were done. We packed up, had some overpriced ice cream from the truck that had managed to find a spot in the overcrowded lot, then hauled all the stuff to the No Parking Zone so I could then continue on to get the car.
Amazingly, after all of that, my shoulder didn’t hurt. I’m so hesitant to suggest that my bursitis is gone and all that remains is joint stiffness, but my hopes are high – after all the pumping, paddling, and carrying, nothing truly ached. Maybe all I needed was just more exercise? I don’t know.
Either way, I think it’s clear I’m going SUPing again, and finding time to do this in Calgary will be a good thing.
