SUP! First Time Paddle Boarding

In the last year or two, I’ve grown to love the beach.  Ever since moving in with my roomie, beach days/ hiking have been our go-to bonding days.  Last last Sunday [4.12.15], we decided to spend the day in WLA: beach biking, lunch, stand-up paddle-boarding (SUP), and laying out.  We’re ambitious but decided to rest up a bit later into the morning and only got around to lunch and SUP.

After parking on the street, we stumbled across the Venice Canal/ walkway.  I have seen pictures but never knew where exactly this was, but it was conveniently along our path to lunch.  It kind of smells here though.

I guess it has become our tradition to start with lunch at C&O.  There was a guy with a blue parrot and he let us hold it!  Well, just Leonie, I didn’t want to.  Afterwards, we walked to our SUP rental since it’s only a mile away in Marina Del Rey.  We got a groupon deal from Phins Water Sports Club for the one hour stand up padding board rental.  I’ve never done it before but was always curious about it.  With my terrible luck, it was a windy day on the water.  They advised me against going too far or it would take too long to get back going against the current, but I didn’t even want to leave the little pool of water right by the docks!  I think I spent over half the time on my knees or booty… it took so much effort paddling against the wind that I felt more in control than when I stood up.  Standing up paddling isn’t so bad with no wind though, I guess I just got unlucky with the weather.  It really felt like I put a lot of effort into paddling (up or down) and within seconds of the wind, I was back to where I started… or worse… I didn’t move at all.  Not the funnest first time experience… quite the struggle actually!  But it was relaxing just floating on the water and laying out.

Well, the manager at Phins, Chris, was nice enough to take some pictures for us and sent it to us later.  It’s not the best quality, but better than nothing.  Gotta document my first time, right? 😉