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Stand Up Paddle Board

snoWYmonkey

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@WaterGirl I rarely wear my lightweight neoprene capris and zippered jacket. Our big lake is very cold, but the air temp is h8gh. I do always bring it in my strapped on dry bag just in case. Usually don them when coming ashore and going for a swim instead of a cool off dip.

For full moon night paddles I always start of with the wetsuit combo on.

On faster river sections which I never do I also always wear one as the swim could be lengthy and frigid and happens at least once or twice per paddle session on river.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Venture #2 - solo at a tiny reservoir near my house. It takes me more time to inflate the board than it does to drive there. Out east, we'd call it a pond, not a reservoir. The water wasn't exactly clear - despite the heat, I wasn't remotely tempted to "accidentally" fall in. But I was the only one out on the water, and there was a great, unobstructed view of the foothills. Well, there would have been if it weren't so hazy.

I accomplished my goal, which was to do a down dog. Kind of anticlimactic. This board is, I think, a cheater board - ridiculously stable. Then I started inching my way from standing into any kind of position where one foot was in front of the other. That was instantly destabilizing - and being alone out on a murky pond, I decided not to mess with it. Just paddled to the far side of the pond, let the breeze push me back, rinse, repeat, until I was ready to go. I may have just closed my eyes for a while here and there ... but not for very long. Aside from the obvious, one side of the pond was closed for nesting birds; it was just demarcated by a line of buoys, and it would have been easy to drift past them.

Also: I am in love with the velcro paddle straps on the side of my board. Makes it very easy to just float around without a care.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Oh! Question. What do you do with your car keys? My car only has powered keys, and I don't want to even think about what happens if they get wet ... or sink to the bottom of a lake. The first time, I double bagged them in ziploc bags and put them in a dry bag at the front of my board. This time, I also double bagged them, but I put them in a zippered pocket of my PFD. I don't love either solution - in the dry bag they're not on my person (although unlikely to get wet, and it was clipped into the webbing). In my PFD, they're more likely to get wet. Amazon has waterproof key containers, but they are all too large to stuff in a flat PFD pocket. Seems silly to have a dry bag just for keys, though ...
 

WaterGirl

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@bounceswoosh what is the parking situation like? Would you be comfortable and would it work to use a lock box on the car? https://www.theinertia.com/surf/7-hide-a-key-options-for-every-surfers-car/
I realize that the lock boxes may not work so here are some water proof bag options - https://www.theinertia.com/surf/gea...bring-electronic-keys-into-the-surf-with-you/

So many surfers continue to just put the key on the tire ..... and every week the sheriff report details numerous surfers who's credit cards were taken and used for major purchases....
 

tinymoose

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I’ve always just put my keys, aka my fob, in my waterproof bag and then latched it to my board? Never had an issue with the fob getting wet or losing it.

Oh! Question. What do you do with your car keys? My car only has powered keys, and I don't want to even think about what happens if they get wet ... or sink to the bottom of a lake. The first time, I double bagged them in ziploc bags and put them in a dry bag at the front of my board. This time, I also double bagged them, but I put them in a zippered pocket of my PFD. I don't love either solution - in the dry bag they're not on my person (although unlikely to get wet, and it was clipped into the webbing). In my PFD, they're more likely to get wet. Amazon has waterproof key containers, but they are all too large to stuff in a flat PFD pocket. Seems silly to have a dry bag just for keys, though ...
 

NewEnglandSkier

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
You could try something like an aquapac (amazon has them)---it's small waterproof bag that would fit in a pfd pocket or wear it on a lanyard etc.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thanks, guys! I have now realized that what I meant by "I couldn't find anything to hold my keys" was "I can't find anything to hold my keys that is significantly cheaper than what I paid for my PFD," LOL. Double Ziploc bags will work until I SUP enough that a $40 key pouch starts to make sense.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Venture #2 - solo at a tiny reservoir near my house. It takes me more time to inflate the board than it does to drive there. Out east, we'd call it a pond, not a reservoir. The water wasn't exactly clear - despite the heat, I wasn't remotely tempted to "accidentally" fall in. But I was the only one out on the water, and there was a great, unobstructed view of the foothills. Well, there would have been if it weren't so hazy.

I accomplished my goal, which was to do a down dog. Kind of anticlimactic. This board is, I think, a cheater board - ridiculously stable. Then I started inching my way from standing into any kind of position where one foot was in front of the other. That was instantly destabilizing - and being alone out on a murky pond, I decided not to mess with it. Just paddled to the far side of the pond, let the breeze push me back, rinse, repeat, until I was ready to go. I may have just closed my eyes for a while here and there ... but not for very long. Aside from the obvious, one side of the pond was closed for nesting birds; it was just demarcated by a line of buoys, and it would have been easy to drift past them.

Also: I am in love with the velcro paddle straps on the side of my board. Makes it very easy to just float around without a care.

I think it's great that you did your down dog! I've seen some SUP yoga flows on Youtube, maybe try something like that to up the challenge a little bit since there is more movement. Down dog is probably the only yoga pose I've actually done on a SUP and I found it pretty easy as well, I think it's because that's such a balanced pose.. front to back and side to side. Though being balanced sure isn't a bad thing when alone on the water where you aren't wanting to fall in as you mentioned. I've been wanting to do tree pose, but that definitely needs to be somewhere I wouldn't mind falling in lol.

My board has the velcro paddle straps as well, I think that's an awesome perk! When I used to go out on my old board I definitely recall being nervous about losing my paddle. I would stick it in the webbing at the front of my board when just hanging out, but it was always in the way and a little worrisome still.
 

Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
My safety kit for my SUP has a waterproof pouch for my keys in it. Fox 40 is the make. We are supposed to have 50' of throwing rope with you on the SUP. Last weekend I heard that some paddlers were warned, not fined yet, about not having the rope. Most had a whistle. The pack contains a whistle, throwing rope, light and a little waterproof pouch.
 

snoWYmonkey

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
My safety kit for my SUP has a waterproof pouch for my keys in it. Fox 40 is the make. We are supposed to have 50' of throwing rope with you on the SUP. Last weekend I heard that some paddlers were warned, not fined yet, about not having the rope. Most had a whistle. The pack contains a whistle, throwing rope, light and a little waterproof pouch.
Jilly is this for lake or river? While we have national park boating rules for SUPs, I have not heard of the rope for lake paddling, though it is not a bad idea. For the rivers it makes total sense.
 

Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
Across Canada. Water falls under federal jurisdiction. Lake or river in every province. The only difference between canoe/Kayak and SUP is a bailing bucket.
 

Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
Pack kit. The black thing is a waterproof envelope and it has Velcro so it's attached inside the pack.
 

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Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
I use this waterproof pouch for my keys at dragon boat practice. That's a 6" ruler beside it.
 

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bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Seems like literally every waterproof item on Amazon has at least one "My stuff got wet and totally ruined!" comment. User error or manufacturing defect? Hard to say. Just like every other product, at least one person has had a horrible experience. Anyway, thank you for all the ideas and @Jilly for sharing your setup!

I think it's great that you did your down dog! I've seen some SUP yoga flows on Youtube, maybe try something like that to up the challenge a little bit since there is more movement. Down dog is probably the only yoga pose I've actually done on a SUP and I found it pretty easy as well, I think it's because that's such a balanced pose.. front to back and side to side. Though being balanced sure isn't a bad thing when alone on the water where you aren't wanting to fall in as you mentioned. I've been wanting to do tree pose, but that definitely needs to be somewhere I wouldn't mind falling in lol.
I guess technically I did a bunch of other poses, but they were all seated or lying down (child's pose, baby cobra, that sort of thing) - with the exception that I actually did do a forward fold. So I could probably cobble together a sun salutation. Trying to separate my feet fore/aft even a couple of inches seemed very unstable - my guess is that I got anxious and started locking up my muscles. I'll keep trying - especially if I go somewhere with clear water ;-)

I can barely manage to hold tree pose on a mat - it would be a miracle if I could do it on a board! And ye, all of this is just on wakeless lake water. River or ocean water would be a very different situation.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I paddled solo at Union Res on Saturday. I was out there, messing around with slight balance challenges faaaaaar away from any other people, when it occurred to me that I really had no idea how much work it might be to get back on the board. So I paddled up to a likely seeming crew - two adults with a dog on one board; two kids jumping on and off of another. I asked if they would mind keeping an eye on me as I got in the water and then tried to get back on the board. No problem. Then the guy asked me if I knew anything about getting back on the board. ... No? He pointed out that if getting on from the side was too challenging, I could clamber up from the back.

The water was beautiful. My climb back up onto the board, not so much. I tried from the side, quickly gave up, and tried to get on the board from the tail. It was astoundingly difficult for me. I just couldn't quite reach the handle, and getting my legs around the board seemed to actually make things worse (tipping it, I think). It actually reminded me of floundering in powder after falling - and so I took a page from that book and gave myself a breather before trying again. Eventually, I did manage to scramble back on. I'm sooooo glad I decided to test it out near other people, rather than waiting to fall in and then possibly trying to figure it out for the first time all alone. I also verified that there's plenty of buoyancy from the life jacket, so no actual need to panic. But still ... I don't think I'll be making a habit of falling in. Or maybe I *will* make a habit until I am actually decent at it. Probably depends on how hot it is out on the water ...
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
I paddled solo at Union Res on Saturday. I was out there, messing around with slight balance challenges faaaaaar away from any other people, when it occurred to me that I really had no idea how much work it might be to get back on the board. So I paddled up to a likely seeming crew - two adults with a dog on one board; two kids jumping on and off of another. I asked if they would mind keeping an eye on me as I got in the water and then tried to get back on the board. No problem. Then the guy asked me if I knew anything about getting back on the board. ... No? He pointed out that if getting on from the side was too challenging, I could clamber up from the back.

The water was beautiful. My climb back up onto the board, not so much. I tried from the side, quickly gave up, and tried to get on the board from the tail. It was astoundingly difficult for me. I just couldn't quite reach the handle, and getting my legs around the board seemed to actually make things worse (tipping it, I think). It actually reminded me of floundering in powder after falling - and so I took a page from that book and gave myself a breather before trying again. Eventually, I did manage to scramble back on. I'm sooooo glad I decided to test it out near other people, rather than waiting to fall in and then possibly trying to figure it out for the first time all alone. I also verified that there's plenty of buoyancy from the life jacket, so no actual need to panic. But still ... I don't think I'll be making a habit of falling in. Or maybe I *will* make a habit until I am actually decent at it. Probably depends on how hot it is out on the water ...

When I did a lesson they had us use our legs mostly to get back on from the side. Hands on the side of the board and then in a laid out position kick kick kick to propel yourself on. I STILL haven’t had a non-rainy day line up with free time to go paddle. It’s almost funny at this point, like the weather is conspiring against me.. :doh: This is something I want to practice right away when I do go out though since I haven’t done it in awhile and the inflatable board is thicker than my old rigid so I do wonder if that will make it more challenging.

Good on you for being safe and asking them to keep an eye out during your practice!
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
When I did a lesson they had us use our legs mostly to get back on from the side. Hands on the side of the board and then in a laid out position kick kick kick to propel yourself on. I STILL haven’t had a non-rainy day line up with free time to go paddle. It’s almost funny at this point, like the weather is conspiring against me.. :doh: This is something I want to practice right away when I do go out though since I haven’t done it in awhile and the inflatable board is thicker than my old rigid so I do wonder if that will make it more challenging.

Good on you for being safe and asking them to keep an eye out during your practice!

Last night, the first video I found on Google said exactly that - that your legs need to be out behind you, floating in the water, rather than below you. I'm 100% sure my legs were below me and I was trying to just hoist myself onto the board like I was pulling myself up out of a swimming pool. I definitely need to try again and see if it's easier for me with this in mind. In the video they also weren't wearing vests - the vest gets in the way and makes it all very awkward.
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
Personally I always dress to be in the water - if the water is cold, I'm in neoprene pants, maybe top too depending on temps. I went this weekend and it was HOT, so I wore long thin pants and a long sleeved top. I find I'm more comfortable skipping the sunscreen except on my face and just getting my clothes wet to stay cool. (Just splashing myself is sufficient - I don't necessarily want to go through the effort of getting back on the board...)

And I always wear my PFD. I honestly haven't given it a ton of thought as to why other than it's comfortable and holds all my stuff in the pockets so why not? It does seem sketchy to think I could get it off the board and put it on after I get myself in trouble, should I ever need it. I have several of those waterproof pouches so I have my keys and phone, and have a holster attached to my PFD for my binoculars (for birdwatching)... so honestly the PFD is just handy and I just stick with the plan of always wearing it. Maybe it's all my downhill mountain biking experience, but typically the times you need your body armor the most are the days it's not on your body... So with a piece of safety gear that's comfortable to wear? I'm just going to stick with always wearing it.

And I have gone out alone before. I wouldn't go particularly far from shore alone, and would prefer to be where others can see me but.... I do go hiking alone too (again, nothing huge, but I guess it does align with my comfort level of doing outdoor things solo.)
 
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Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
From the back of the board...flutter-kick up, pull up till most of body on board. Tuck your knees under. Knees and toes lining up. Get stable in your centre. Then take the leap of faith and stand up all at one time!!

We're supposed to wear the pfd when you're on the board. It's considered a vessel in the terms of being on the water. It's not a toy! There are major fines being issued this year by the marine police for not wearing the pfd and not having the safety equipment with you.
 

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