Another weekend in the books. This one had a little bit of stand up paddling
and a lot of focus on gearing up for the Whole Life Challenge (WLC) – both productively
and counter-productively.
Friday night was the WLC info session and while I had every
intention of going, it just didn’t happen.
I was just having too much fun at after work drinks (I only had one) and
having to meet friends for the theatre that I just enjoyed myself rather than
racing all around town to hit up the meeting.
I’ve already been doing a lot of research into it so I’m fairly up to
speed anyway so hopefully it will all be fine.
I don’t know about you (you being anyone gearing up for WLC)
but I seem to be more relaxed on letting myself ‘binge’ on non-WLC/ non-paleo
food more now that I know I’m about to settle in for a hardcore focused 8 weeks
of WLC than I actually would be if it wasn’t on the horizon. A few others that I’ve also spoken to about
this completely agreed with me – I’m not 100% focused on perfect diet except
during these ‘challenges’ and in leading up to them it just seems like a valid
excuse though in reality it’s not – and ultimately it makes the transition that
much harder. With this in the forefront
of my mind I spent a bit more time this weekend preparing for the week (see
next post).
Sunday morning was for fun – specifically, SUP fun. Angie and Mel have both on separate occasions
told me they wanted to try SUP so I figured what better way that to get Stimo
to bring a few spare boards down and we can all give it ago. We had a nice little sleep in before meeting
at 10am (it was Father’s Day and the reason for the late start). The weather and water were perfect for the
first (or second) timers. The four of us
headed out from Bicton Baths across the river for a nice paddle down the west
side toward Point Walter spit before returning back along the east side. There was some challenging boat wake to
contend with but everyone managed to stay dry.
It was really good for me to get to play around a bit on Stimo’s DC 12.6
that I’ll be racing in a couple of weeks.
It’s narrow than my Fanatic 12.6 and much lighter. It really feels tiny to me though I don’t
have any balance issues on it at all. It’s
fun in the little bumps and really easy to get going. Half way back to the cars Stimo and I pulled
up on the beach though as he wanted me to give his DC 16’ a go. We’d just paddled through a choppy section
getting there and his only comment to me was that it was a bit tippy there and
then he jumped on the 12.6 and took off on me so I had no choice but to get on
the big board and figure out how to stay upright.
Right away we came up beside Mel and Stimo yells out something
along the lines of ‘side wake’ and Mel pipes in ‘what does that mean?’… my only
response – it’s going to be messy. And
it was. I think (I was in front at the
time) Mel dropped to her knees at one point just to stay on the board (it’s the
best course of action if you think you’re going to fall in) though me being
stubborn wouldn’t only because Stimo purposely gave me the tippy board just to
see if I could handle it. There were a
few ‘oh shit’ moments and a bit of wobbly legs but I got through the mess and
then it was game on. I started chasing
the boat wake to surf what little was there.
The 16’ has a bit of secondary stability (like my surfski) so I found a
bit more comfort after the few ‘almost’ moments and played around. I thought it would feel more bulky/ heavy
than it did (it is a lot of board after all) but it was pretty easy to get
going and keep going. I enjoyed it though
still don’t see the need for a board that big for me. I’ll stick with the DC12.6 (ha!).
Afterwards we got all the boards bagged up and loaded on our
cars and then as we were about to head over to Zephyr’s for some coffee
realized that somehow Stimo’s keys (in his truck) had locked the doors . We’re still unsure how this actually
happened. As it turned out – because there
was a shortage of parking – I’d pulled in and he’d pulled up right behind me
and so I couldn’t get out either. So
with a quick call to Stimo’s wife Jules to bring him the spare key we were off
to coffee anyway where we then got picked up by Jules to go back and get our
cars – unfortunate trip for Jules and the kids however but it all worked out in
the end.
I wish I had photos from the paddle, Angie and Mel were
awesome and looked great out there – the images however solely exist in my
head.
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