Sunday October 3, 12021 HE
Several of my colleagues have paddleboards, so we decided to do an “F-T-T” (Fit To Train) paddle session. Fit To Paddle. I have two paddleboards, as does Aieisha. So there was room for two additional paddlers. Though, only one non-paddleboard owner stepped up to the plate. You know who the rest of you are. 😉
The conditions weren’t forecasted to be as beautiful as last weekend‘s paddle. But it wasn’t going to be raining or windy. The conditions were good for a leisurely paddle and hopefully pleasant enough to stoke the stroke stoke. And beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Who am I to say that a sunny morning is more beautiful than an overcast one.
We met at Locarno Beach to get our kit in order. Below are Aieisha and Nav pumping up in the morning twilight.
The conditions on the shoreline were mild for temperature but overcast with a socked-in skyline. Not the sunrise paddle scenario I had sort of promised.
We needed to take one shoreline selfie for posterity.
There was a light easterly wind, and the tide was going out. We set out paddling east so that we would have a tailwind on our return. The photo below is the crew as we set out from Locarno with Point Grey in the background.
As we got further along, you could see the comfort level of our paddlers change. It seems the more out of practice paddlers in the posterior were getting a bit more adventurous with their paddle placement.
After some time on the water, we settled on paddling over to peep the properties along Point Grey Road from the water. Below we are making our way over, leisurely.
It wasn’t the sunrise paddle that I had promised everyone. But at least it wasn’t raining. You can see the sun trying to peek through to deliver in the photo below.
Along the way, I played around with a few of the SUPBoarder Challenges. SUPBoarder has posted a series of three challenges to push your boundaries and work on your SUP skills. The challenges are a cross-step, one-foot, and a step-back turn (how many in 30 seconds). Interestingly, I have been playing around with one foot paddling in calm water for a little bit. But compared to the folks at SUPBoarder, I still have lots of room for improvement.
I did some one-footed paddling throughout our run and managed to stay high side of the board. I also did a bit of board walking. And at the end of our paddle, I took advantage of my peers to time my turns. I only manage to rattle off four in the 30 seconds, and declined to have it documented on video. Again, lots of room for improvement. Below is the video for the first of the three challenges from the team at SUPBoarder.
The view to the west had a bit more promise for pleasant weather. Maybe we missed our perfect paddle by being a day too early this time.
Post-paddle, we went for coffee and brunch at Aphrodite’s Organic Cafe in Kitsilano. It’s always good to refuel with friends!
We will see if we can entice any more colleagues to come out on any future paddles. Or whatever the next team physical practice is. There were rumbles of a mountain bike adventure, as well as water polo and snowshoeing as future possibilities.
I SUP Explore 