My Paddleboarding Debut - Tips & Resources for Standup Paddle boarding - SUP!

I am a land-loving cyclist, for the most part. But through the years, I have enjoyed a variety of water sports, including surfing (long boarding), ocean swimming, and even river boarding (outside Seattle - brrrr!). Plus, I have kayaked and canoed many times! Finally, this fall, I got to sample stand-up paddle boarding, better known as SUP, or just paddle boarding, thanks to my friend here in Santa Cruz, Max Montgomery.

Here I am: virgin paddleboarder at Natural Bridges State Park in Santa Cruz on a sunny Saturday in September. Max Montgomery generously volunteered to be my instructor and loan me his paddle board. It's so big, it;s like a small boat. Yet, I was still a bit wobbly standing on it even in flat surf conditions.

Max and I drove to the beach and hauled two big, heavy boards down from the parking lot to the surf. Actually there was no "surf," the ocean, which is technically, the Monterey Bay here in Santa Cruz, was smooth as glass, ideal, flat conditions to venture out into the water for a tranquil paddle. There was a little tiny bit of shore break. Max pointed out that is the most dangerous part; entering and exiting the water with the huge board, so he kindly managed that part for me!

Max provided three excellent pieces of advice for a beginner paddle boarder:

1. Use your knees! The first position to get onto the board after bellyflopping onto it, is to rise to your knees, just kneel on it, before standing up. Then, once standing, be sure to have your knees gently bent, not locked for optimum balance.

2. Momentum is your friend. A gently, steady glide is the best way to maneuver about because it's much harder to maintain your balance standing up, even on a flat ocean, if you are at a dead stop. So keep on gliding along, using your paddle on alternating sides.

3. Paddle using your core muscle group at the center of your body, not just your arms. This was the hardest part for me! I worked on the concept but will have to try again to get the paddling right so my arms and shoulders are less fatigued.

Max Montgomery has been a surfer for 30+ plus years and is a world-traveled Santa Cruzer. He says that he also loves stand-up paddle boarding because it's a calmer way to appreciate the amazing Monterey Bay!

It's impossible to mention Max Montgomery without talking about the group he co-founded with Brooks Lamber and passionately maintains: Best Day Foundation, www.bestdayfoundation.org, which helps children with special needs build confidence and self-esteem through safe, fun, adventure activities like surfing.

Max is also on the board of Ride a Wave - Creating Special Days for Kids with Special Needs. I deeply admire his dedication to giving disabled children and adults the chance to experience riding a wave and enjoying the ocean. Check out photos of past events and become a a sponsors at www.rideawave.org.

For more information about stand-up paddle boarding in Santa Cruz, here are a few (of many) options to visit:

1. Covewater - Stand Up Paddleboards, Santa Cruz, owned by Scott and Leslie Ruble
They offer paddle board classes, lessons, rentals, boards and accessories.
www.covewatersup.com.

2. Neil Pearlberg, the freelance surfing columnist for the Santa Cruz Sentinel, offers private classes on stand-up paddle boarding. Check out his website! He also wrote about how the well-established Santa Cruz company Caution Kites is manufacturing paddle boards in addition to their signature wind and kite surfing boards.

3. Inflate your SUP!  Can't stand to drive your car to a stand-up paddle board session? You will have a heckuva time hauling the typical 11 to 1- foot, 30-inch wide, 30-pound board on your bike or your back to the beach, so check out the inflatable paddle boards (iSUPs). Pete Gauvin, Editor of Adventure Sports Journal, suggests checking out surftech.com's inflatable model.

A disadvantage of paddleboarding is that they are so huge you really can't put it on your bike to get to the beach; meaning a need to drive there then haul the heavy boards to the beach. Max did the heavy lifting - thank you!

Missed Maverick's this weekend? Here's a report from the world's biggest wave contest!

Where in the world are the biggest waves? 

Surfers claim some of the biggest waves ever rolled through Northern California's Pillar Point area on Saturday, February 13, 2010,  the day that an elite group of surfers decided to hold the infamous Maverick's surf contest. This was the first time the contest had been held in two years and a $150,000 prize purse, the biggest ever, was at stake for the world's best surfers who were invited to join the competition.

 I could have jumped in my car and driven from Santa Cruz about an hour north to Pillar Point, a little north of Half Moon Bay. Instead, I asked my well-traveled friend and neighbor, Shannon Armstrong, to describe her experience watching the monster waves that towered 40 to 50 feet tall.

Here's a photo, below,  from the New York Times' Bay Area slide show.

After I told Shannon that I joined 54,000 others viewing Maverick's live online, she said:

"You definitely would have a better view of the surfers riding the waves and the standings by watching the internet stream at home. But there's nothing like the perspective of seeing the enormity of the wave from sea level and seeing how small the surfers are in comparison.
Mavericks was awesome!"

Here's the rest of Shannon Armstrong's report from that epic afternoon of surfing big waves:

Getting there
We parked about 5 miles from the action and rode our bikes to the view point, whizzing past the cars inching their way toward Pillar Point. Fire engines and ambulances were leaving the scene when we arrived (carting off the 15 people injured earlier by the high tide rogue wave that swept onto the beach). It was packed, but we were still able to weave our bikes through the pedestrians.


Viewing spots
You could view from up top the bluff, but we heard you could only see the surefers waiting for the waves on the backside and then missed all the action once they took off. So we hoofed it over to the announcer stand on the beach where people had been swept away earlier. Thank god we weren't there then!

We arrived around 1:30 p.m. - just in time to see the finalists set out from the beach. About 10 police  were guarding the barricades they'd put up to keep people off the beach below the cliff, even though it was now low tide and no real danger of being swept away.

There was no announcing we could hear and luckily we brought binoculars. It was bright, warm and sunny enough to need sunblock (it was so foggy the entire drive  up that we could barely even see the shore!)

The waves were HUGE
I overheard one pro surfer saying that this was the best Mavs contest ever! These mountains of water kept rolling toward us, stopped by a barrier of craggy rocks that looked like an eagle taking flight. People lined the beach and up the cliff, peering at the surfers bobbing above the wave as it broke in front of us. We always knew when someone caught one because there would be cheers from the viewers on the cliff. It was thrilling to see someone have the guts to fly down the face of the monster wave.

It was interesting to see how locals paddled out to the wave. I'm certain I would have perished in the 45-minute paddle to  the wave, should I ever lose my head and decide it seemed like a good idea to paddle out and give it a go.

Best of all
we were right there as the pros came to shore after the contest to see all their broken boards, exhausted bodies & big smiles when congratulating each other on a great day on the wave. The winner was Chris Bertish, a mid-thirties (one of the younger contestants, I think) humble south african with short sandy curls and a bit of blood on his chin, drawing attention to the fat lip he got when the wave pushed his board into his face on one ride. He was taking pictures with a bunch of people & doing interviews & only after he walked back to talk to his buddies in the roped off area did he realize he'd won. He said "nobody told me!" It was fun seeing his reaction when he found out. It was already posted to the internet...he was the last to know!

The cherry on top 
was riding a spectacular bike path along the ocean bluff back to our car...all 5 miles. Some high clouds were rolling in and the wind was cool, but the sunset colors were beautiful. We stopped on a cliff bench to enjoy it for a bit.

Yes, the New York Times Bay Area edition covered it here:
http://bayarea.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/mavericks-surf-contest-2010-a-lesson-in-natures-power