Baby steps...

Well, maybe that should be: baby strokes?

When I got up this morning, there was a light breeze; already in the 70s and really humid.  Overcast.  I checked weather: current conditions was showing the wind at 10 mph.  The hourly predictions were showing it was going to increase.  A Wind Advisory for this afternoon, with winds from 30 to 50 mph!  A good chance of thunderstorms.

But, right now, it was light.  I debated - should I toss that board in the water?  A few minutes later, I looked at the trees across the canal... those are my anemometer... it was calm.

Calm?

I put on some swim trunks and went out to get the dock ready: I put a piece of carpet at the edge of the dock and tied a line with some hand-holds tied in to an upright.  I put the fin on the paddleboard, assembled the paddle, tied a short line with a loop to the front D-ring on the board.  I put on a pfd and plunked the board in the water!

Now what?

I have been looking at YouTube videos - they said to start in the kneeling position.  Getting from the dock to the board was easy...

I didn't know Joan was out there with a camera.  After the fact, I am glad she took these.  I paddled away...

I went down the canal a ways, practicing what I had seen in the videos.  Yep, I can turn; can even paddle reasonably straight.  I was pleasantly surprised that balancing in the kneeling position felt pretty stable.  On my way back to the dock, I saw the Blonde with the camera...

"Hi!  Look - I'm paddling!"  (reference to Bob, tied to the mast, in the movie "What About Bob?"

I made a 180º turn and pulled up to the dock.  "How was it?" Joan asked.

"Well, with a whole 10 minutes into it - not bad!"  The tide was good for being able to reach out and pull myself onto our dock.  We visited for a bit, while I worked up the nerve to try standing.  I stood by the dock... wobbled... sat back down at the dock.  Thinking to myself, "Self, this is probably not a good idea, standing by the dock... if I fall, I am likely going to whack myself on the dock."  I sat back down on the dock.

The videos said you will be more stable when standing with your paddle in the water.  I positioned my feet again, gave a little push off from the dock and stood up... not sure how it looked, but I felt like a baby giraffe right after it is born - there was some weaving and wobbling.  But, I remained standing...

The wind was coming up again... probably 4 mph, gusting to 5.  It felt like the gale-force they are predicting for later today.  I paddled down the canal...

I practiced some turns.  Tried going straight.  Tried to "look out" like the video tutorials said to do, but found myself looking at the blade of the paddle and where it was going into the water.  I tried to "feel it" - using my core instead of just my arms.  Oh yeah - I feel that in my stomach.  I went down the canal aways, did my best 180º turn... felt like I was flying... I'm sure I was zipping through the water at 1, maybe 1.2 knots.  I may have to put off racing until my next time out.  ;-)

Kidding aside, I was happy just to not be swimming around in that canal.  Heading back to our dock...

You can see by the big rooster-tail behind me that I am really flying!  Or, not.  One more big decision before I came up to the dock: approaching it standing or kneeling?  I decided to gracefully drop to my knees...

What was that loud noise?  Ohhh... that was me, plopping down... maybe it wasn't as graceful as I thought?  BUT, I was down and reasonably dry!  Well, except for the sweat pouring out of me... humid, warm, not much breeze (are you sure?), and a bit of fear.  Back in our skiing days, the saying used to be: if you aren't falling once in a while, you aren't pushing it.

I go with a different saying these days: it takes longer to heal - try not to fall, dumbass!

I made it back to the dock without incident and pulled the board out of the water.

All in all, I'm calling this a successful first outing: I wasn't sure I was even going to try standing, so I exceeded my initial goal (of not drowning).  Didn't break anything (equipment or bones).

After some rest time, I do feel like I been doing sit-ups... and I can assure you, that is not the case.  This may turn out to be good exercise.

:-)

(Thanks to Joan for bringing out the camera!)