Stand up paddle boarding

Today I went stand up paddle boarding for the first time with Karen & Marc. We bought a deal on Living Social last year for a 2-hr lesson with Washington Surf Academy. Originally we planned a date to go last October but the weather was bad so the owner, Andrew, advised us to wait until the summer. Well unfortunately that didn't help anything because we still ended up with a rainy day and wetsuits rather than sunshine and swimsuits. Regardless of the drizzly weather, we still had a fantastic time! It's quite a workout, so the cooler temps probably helped us from getting too tired.

There were 12 students and 2 guides in our group. After a brief lesson on how to get the board into the water and the correct way to get onto the board, we were standing up and ready to paddle! The boards look vaguely like a longer and wider surf board. The main difference, to me, was the stance - we were standing with our feet hip width and parallel to each other, rather than one foot forward/one foot back (like in surfing). Once I got comfortable with the body position, I found it quite easy to balance. About half the class ended up falling into the water at some point during the lesson but luckily I wasn't one of them.

I only wish we had our camera with us! Right after the lesson we went to West Marine and bought a dry sack so next time we will be able to take the camera with us without fear of dropping it into the water. Until then, here is a cool picture of some other people :)

Now that we know how to do it, there are plenty of places around Seattle that rent boards without us having to take another lesson. I also want to try stand up paddle yoga sometime!

Overall it was a fun way to spend the day and I look forward to going again! Although next time I won't complain about my arms being tired after 2 hrs...considering this guy paddled 300 miles over 5 days between Hawaiian islands. wow, that's inspiring!