Calm on the water
Something my two boys and I have come to know so well...
There is nothing more soothing than the sound of lapping water and waves. Our blood pressure slows, we become calm and tend to want to fall asleep. It urges us to let out a deep sigh...
But what if you could get a full body work out while experiencing this meditative calm. And what if you could do it as a family or with a group of friends? Bring your dog? Put a life jacket on your toddler and work out while they sit, mesmerized at the front of your board? This is paddleboarding! It doesn't matter if your 7 or 70 you can do this!
Email me @:
celestemarie25@yahoo.com and I can provide you with more info!
Life highlight: Hawaii Paddle...
Here is another story of a paddlers discovery!
Meditative experience!
For 38-year-old McChristie, who works for the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and also publishes a regional outdoor magazine, the fun started in the summer of 2010, when she was at a meeting at a lodge on Lake Superior and saw staffers of a local paddling centre SUPing in the waves at the mouth of a river. When an instructor encouraged her to give it a try, she kicked off her running shoes and went out. “I like the challenge of learning a new way to paddle, and the perspective of standing up rather than sitting down,” says McChristie, who has done a fair amount of canoeing and kayaking. She’s noticed stronger core muscles, but for her, the real benefit is the mental-health payoff. “The calmness, the rhythm of the waves and the water and the paddling…. It’s really meditative,” she says.
Celeste m. Photography gulf shores
That same summer, she and her husband, Darren, bought a board, and their kids—Sarah and Nathan, who are now age seven and nine—began to take turns on the board with their parents, first just standing up to balance and later using a paddle.
Celeste m. Photography gulf shores
Last summer, McChristie took a SUP instructor course in Thunder Bay so she could improve her own skills and introduce others to the sport as well. “Being out on the board is a healthy way to escape the stress of a typical day,” she says. From June to September, she tries to get out for 90 minutes about once a week, often on a small lake where her parents live, near Thunder Bay, but increasingly on the bigger swells of Lake Superior, too. “My fibreglass sea kayak is hard to manoeuvre on and off the car roof rack on my own,” she says. “But it’s no problem for me to throw on my board [boards weigh only 20 to 25 pounds] and take off to the lake for a paddle.”
Celeste m. Hawaii
The benefits of stand-up paddleboarding
Stand-up paddleboarding has become the “it” water sport. What’s not to love? It’s a great core workout and it’s fun
By Bonnie Schiedel
