Monday October 18, 12021 HE
My YouTube feed prompted me with this “rapid crossbow turn” by Yehor Tarasko. Ever since seeing it, I have wanted to get out on the water and give it a try. Today was the day to make that happen. And at the same time, it would give me a chance to challenge myself with some of the SUPBoarder Challenges.
I was going to fall in. That was a given. But this was the main reason that I invested in a dry suit last winter. It would give me the confidence to push myself outside of my comfort zone. And not be worried about the water and ambient temperature afterward. Despite getting the dry-suit last year, it still took me a bit to get comfortable with the idea of falling into fall and winter waters. But the added motivation from the rapid crossbow turn and SUPBoarder Challenges were just the inspiration I needed to risk a fall dip.
I left from my regular spot at Locarno Beach. I paddled out around Jericho Pier to the water off-shore from Jericho Beach. There are several speed marker buoys there that I’ve used to practice pivot turns. I figured that was a good starting point and warm-up.
Fortunately (or unfortunately), it didn’t take long for me to have my first spill. It was a routine pivot turn. My ego, in hindsight, says that it was cracking the seal so that the future falls would be less bruising.
After getting the first fall out of the way and patching up the ego with some justifications, I felt good about any future falls. For which there would be several, as per the GIF below.
But as the adage goes, if at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again.
Back on board, I re-built my confidence with a few more pivot turns. From there, it was on to some of the SUPBoarder Challenges. A bit of board-walking or cross-stepping.
And then on to single-leg paddling. The first one didn’t go according to plan. I am not sure what happened there, but I blame it on the big rogue wave that didn’t quite make it into the camera frame.
It wasn’t all fails though. I did have some successful turns and single-leg paddles.
But you can’t get better if you aren’t pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone. Though with that said, there is some room for improvement on my cross bow turn. Below is one of my attempts.
And here is Yehor Tarasko doing his version of the “rapid” cross bow turn. My problem was that I was only doing the cross bow part of it and neglecting the rapid component.
And if you are still reading and need a light-hearted break from reality, check out the video below of my fail compilation from this paddle session.
And below is a compilation of successes to repair my battered ego.
I SUP Explore 