My Very Own SUP
If you’ve been following along with our journey into stand up paddle boarding I’ve got a big surprise for you. As soon as my wife got her paddle board she was hooked. It’s simply a fun way to get exercise and enjoy the outdoors.
I had been riding her paddle board more and more as time went on. Down on the Long Island Sound I have really enjoyed riding her SUP in the rough water. What can I say? I like the challenge of not falling off!
This actually worked out pretty well because when the water is rough she doesn’t really want to use the paddle board. So we sometimes take turns making short little journeys out to a buoy and then back again.
Well this sharing the board routine hasn’t been ideal as you can imagine.
The strangest thing happened.
A friend of my wife’s texted her and said “ I left my SUP at my old house in Massachusetts, if you want it you can come take it… a tree fell on it and it’s damaged.”
Well this piqued my interest for sure. I’ve wanted to get a board for weeks now and now this opportunity occurs!
But how damaged is this board? And how far away is it?
We figured we could turn it into a picnic day. So, we mapped out the drive, which took around 90 minutes each way and planned for a visit to a state forest. We brought our dog along for the ride which worked out nicely because he got to go swimming in lake at the state park.
So how did the board look?
Right away I noticed the “big” damaged spot that we were warned about. To be honest it wasn’t bad at all and my wife’s friend was definitely overreacting to the damage. It’s one of those Surf Tech boards with the bamboo laminate. The bottom has a beautiful bamboo pattern just like my wife’s SUP. Pretty good score, huh? – I thought so!!!
I’ve repaired some serious surfboard damages in the past so this, maybe 2 inch hole, was going to be a piece of cake.
Of course I brought some ropes and equipment to secure the board safely in the back of the truck. Man this is a big board. It’s way bigger than my wife’s paddle board in every dimension. I can already tell just by its size that this board is going to float my weight with no problems whatsoever!
When I got it home I measured it. At 11 feet 6 inches my new paddle board is a full 14 inches longer than my wife’s board.
I can’t wait to ride this thing, but first I’m going to need to repair this rather large ding in the board’s rail.