When all my plans for the day started to fall through I
decided to turn my day around and take out my surfski which has been shamefully
neglected over the last (several) months.
It was really good that I got out on it as I hadn’t even begun to
realize how much I’ve missed it. I
loaded up all my gear and headed to Bicton Baths (where we often launch our
SUPs from). It’s an ideal spot on the
river, fairly calm and a good distance to the spit which not being exhaustingly
far. I had a really fun time trying to
find my balance again and using good, efficient technique to keep myself
moving. I took a lot of boat wake from
all directions and had no problem staying up, bracing when I had to. It was only on my way back that I had a moment
of distraction that almost led to me swimming – I don’t know how it happened
because as always it happened so quick but suddenly my ski was tipping to the
left as I braced very hard to the right, I could feel the water coming over the
side into the seat – I had a moment of thinking ‘oh shit, I’m going to get wet
and uh-oh, it’s been a while since I’ve done a remount in open water…’ As these
thoughts rapidly fired through my head I somehow managed to pop back up and was
steady… and surprised. I mean I was
tipped enough for water to come into the cockpit and yet managed to not go
in. A win in my book. Guess it helps to have a strong core and
confidence in bracing (leaning on your paddle really hard on the water), I’m
actually proud that I didn’t pop back up and go right in the other side which
can easily happen. Ha.
It was a great day to be out, it made me quite happy and
though it took me a little while to again get used to being so close to the
water (rather than high up on my SUP) it was a lot of fun and I’ll have to do
it more often – the only thing that really stops me is the hassle of loading it
up on my car every time I want to go out – I guess on the plus side though I
can launch from a variety of places whenever I do go. Upside.
.JPG) |
| My view from the beach post paddle |
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