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Thanks for the wonderful response to these images. It’s an honor to receive the Featured Blogger award from Cee.
While touring the east coast in October this year a few images were shot on the diagonal. Continue reading
I looked for paddle boarders on the American river but didn’t find a one. The weather was warm with a hint of breeze to keep the fall leaves falling. Continue reading
We visited Paris in 2014. Me for the first time, my wife for a revisit. It was everything I’d hoped for and more. The place is simply a feast for the senses. It seems only fitting to submit these images for Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Patterns. There were hundreds. Mostly shot with my iPhone and edited with Snapseed.
A lineup of rental bikes.
Train across from Gare d’Lyon.
Staircase down the street from Gare d’Lyon
I lifted these lines right off his blog. What a great adventure.
“After a 4 1/2-month bicycle expedition around northwestern Europe, Joshua Sivarajah and his pint-sized paddling partner, Nero, weren’t ready for the adventure to end. So, they swapped bike for board, and embarked on a 1,777-mile journey down the Danube River—the continent’s second-longest river, nicknamed “Europe’s Amazon.” Photo: Joshua Sivarajah/ULI”
I found the site by looking for SUP sites, and sure enough he rides a SUP in some pretty interesting conditions.
As it turns out Joshua did some humanitarian work while on his trip by serving sandwiches for the Syrian refugee crisis. Check it out here.
Last night I told my wife, Donna, about the name change and she reminded me that I would lose a fairly wide spectrum of readers if I limit WHAT SUP to Surf. While I love to surf, I’ve also loved paddling through the South Florida mangroves; around the harbor by Jeff Clark’s Paddle Surf, through the Marina at 101 Surf Sports, along the kelp beds off New Brighton Beach, and down a river in search of Manatees.
From a relationship point of view, paddling promotes connection. We strap the boards on the roof and hit the road. We plan a day around getting in the water, exploring new locations, getting great gobs of time out in nature, and after exercising all those muscles we get a nice meal out. It’s been pretty romantic at times.
Plus there’s such a huge variety of topics to discuss like board selection, sites to SUP, fitness, diet, technique and SUP shops. I did a whole post on SOPOSUP, a cool little shop in Portland, Maine. We never got in the water, but being with the owner, reviewing his blog, and checking out the local surf, which was flat, was just fabulous.
I remember the first blog post like it was yesterday. It was from this past mother’s day when I sat on the sidelines with a bit of a cold. It was Donna who wanted to paddleboard. It was Donna to get in the water first. It was Donna who inspired me to give it a try.
She’s even asked about paddling at night. Here’s what it might look like from a pin I found.
Stand Up Paddleboarding for Life will still include SUP Surfing, where my little wave passion ignites in cool water.
I surfed today via Stand Up Paddle Boarding which is what got me into blogging. I’ve published 30 posts without really knowing more than write what I want to write. None of the pieces were long, and most included photos, since I love photography and find that photos tell a good part of my story.
In many of the posts I’ve included video, see below, since I do video for a living. And most posts are about Stand Up Paddle Boarding but sometimes it’s a stretch, like a post I did about Fenway Park while visiting Boston last month. But now it’s time to learn to blog from the helpful folks at WordPress.com, and my fellow Blogging 101 classmates including @michelleweber, @chrissiepollock
and @aisajib .
I live on the coast, about 15 minutes from San Francisco. I have a wife, two kids and a cat. We see the surf from the back of our home. My oldest son and his wife are about to bring us our first grand child who’s a girl that I nicknamed Sprocket. I’m a lucky man. Yes I am.
We’d heard about paddle boarding in waters where Manatees live and took a tour with Anik Clemens from Anik’s Perspectives. She’s lived in St. Petersburg, Florida the past 9 years and knows the SUP shops and venues for paddling. She took us to the Weeki Wachee Springs State Park where we put in for the 6 mile down-river paddle. She’d set us up with boards from the Kayak Shack that sat right on the water at end of the trip. We parked at the shack and got ferried, with our boards, to the put-in point at Weeki Wachee Springs.
The water was cool and clear. The surrounding jungle close. The river was teaming with small schools of Mullet and a smattering of Sheepshead thrown in for fun. Needlefish slipped in and out of sight while Anhinga and Kingfishers punctuated the trees.
We shared the river with a few tour boats, and some fun-loving folks who climbed a tree to a diving platform. As it turned out, Anik and our very own Donna were not afraid to take the plunge. Check out the video for a two minute look at our trip.
We’d found six Manatees by the end of the trip. The first one glided under my board like a ghost. Down river a pup scratched its back under a submerged log. My GoPro Hero 4 Silver captured most of the footage. Super Slow Mo thanks to iPhone 6S Plus.
The little one is Kyra, Anik’s lovely 4 year old daughter. Donna, Kyra, and Anik took a stab at singing Nimo’s song “Planting Seeds and Nothing More,” in front of one of the Weeki Wachee Springs mermaids.
If you like this post you’re sure to like our tour through the mangroves.
The weather in St. Pete cooled for us which is a good thing given the 60 degree swing between the lows in Maine and the temperate Florida gulf coast. We’re here to visit our niece and her daughter. They’re cuter than cute and they love St. Pete.
Yesterday we drove to Sarasota where we shot video for a Chakra Meditation with Anik Clemens, Janice Baxter, and Donna Blethen. Janice and Anik then guided us through the mangrove tunnels on SUPs provided by Surfit USA.
South Lido beach is a serious wild life area full of White Ibis, Belted Kingfisher, Great Blue Heron, Common Egret, Horseshoe Crabs, Little Blue Heron, Mullet, and more. We had to lie low paddling through the close cover of matted mangroves that squeaked in the wind. The overhead sky leaked through to shallow clear water then came blasting out in full fall blue once we exited a grove tunnel.
If only there was more time we’d surely do it in the early morning light.
Blog post
We started and ended our New England adventure at Logan where water surrounds the greater Boston area. It was odd to have the ocean so near yet not be aware of its presence, it’s scent. But the leaves left me longing for more.
The stately yellow tree on Letti and Dan’s quiet little Cambridge street was my favorite. It must have peaked the week we arrived. In the early morning light it simply glowed.
One windy afternoon we returned to find the street littered bright yellow. The stairs to our neighbor’s porch wore a fresh dressing from the fallen leaves.
Returning from a week in Maine where I found flannel-lined jeans and an extra thick beanie my best friends we found our tree quite barren. The wind and chill had shaken the color right out of the hood.
The final image hints at winter with blues and cool pastels.
We’re headed for warmth and paddle boarding in the Florida Mangroves.
SOPOSUP is what. We met the owner, Raf Adams, at his store in South Portland, just a few miles from the surf at Higgins Beach off Cape Elizabeth. After driving around Portland for a few days we realized that all you need is for the wind to lie down and there’s paddle boarding everywhere. There’s so much water it’s just nuts.
The store was stocked with surf, glide, and race boards. I was drooling over the lovely shape of the Focus boards. Raf told us about great October waves they’d had at Higgins.
This Higgins right was photographed by Dustin Turin and it makes me want to see the place on a nice little 2-3 foot day.
We bought a SOPOSUP T Shirt and the latest STANDUP JOURNAL then drove out to Cape Elizabeth to watch the very flat ocean and grab a pretty solid bowl of clam chowder.
I took a minute to stick my hand in the water. It was cool but not the high 30s that settles in during the winter. Raf told us he wore 7mm boots and wanted 9mm. He’s seen below on the Presumpscot in January 2013
Wish there were waves since SOPOSUP rents boards too.
An imprint of FATHOMBOOKS.
Poetry, Fiction and Art
happy endings begin here...
Stories and memories from author, Tina Harden, of the series of children's books Cameron and Tigger the Tabby
Adventures in Watercolor Painting and Sketching, Watercolour Magazine, with Charlie O'Shields
Steve's body of work spans conflicts, vanishing cultures, ancient traditions and contemporary culture alike - yet always retains the human element.
thoughts and images from my perspective
Bursting my bubbles
Talk Books. Drink Coffee.
Blogger Without a Cause
Phyllis Moore MythRider Every story is an adventure. Come along for the ride.
from Donna Blethen, MFT
SUP DAYS are better than others 