SUP with Presence

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I paddled yesterday in conditions to my liking. The tide was low the wind was down, the waves were small and the crowds were gone. I caught a couple of waves, and those were fun, but the rest of the time I was sort of out of focus, off balance.

Enter yesterday’s post from Power of Presence titled “Paddle Barefoot – set your feet free!”.

The opening line “Paddle with an open heart and your mind will follow” gave me pause.  The whole post made me ponder adding breathing to my SUP outings.  And while bare feet are out of season for me, the whole notion of bringing a bit of consciousness to my paddling was refreshing.

I engaged with the author, and downloaded a paddleboarding guided meditation.  More on that when I’ve gotten waterproof audio gear.

 

WhatSup with Blogging 101?

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It’s been a head’s down week at the WHAT SUP site.  Blogging instruction, blogging compatriots, blog posting, all to make a better blogging experience.  I even made a blavatar, which is the little square graphic that shows up in mysterious places, like the little N for Netflix.

So how do you end a week like this?  Stand Up Paddleboarding at sunset seemed so simple an answer, even though I spent a bit of time upside down.  Check it out.

Paris Patterns

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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. 

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A lineup of rental bikes.

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Train across from Gare d’Lyon.

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Staircase down the street from Gare d’Lyon

Settled on SUP

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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.

Real Surfers

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Yesterday I read a blog post from Real Surfers.  It was the first surfing blog I followed.  For one the guy, Erwin Dence, has a great sense of humor, but two, which maybe is actually one, he’s a fantastic artist.  The image above is from his web site.  There’s more where that came from.

But yesterday wasn’t about Art.  It was about waves, or better stated, the absence of waves.  He and his buddies got Skunked, though it sounds like maybe there were some bitty waves.  At the same time, my backyard, Pacifica, CA, had huge waves.  Too big for me.  I’m looking forward to our surf waning a bit, which it appears to be doing.  Maybe the next swell will hit the northwest where Real Surfers is based.

But check out the drawings in this post.  This is what drew me to Real Surfers

You’ll Find Me at the Beach (fiction)

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You’ll find me at the beach, or thinking of the beach. Waxing my board. Looking at the surf. Deciding which break to ride. I’m a surfer, but I don’t say it out loud. Not like the guys who wear tan jeans, blue pocket tees and black low-top Converse All-Stars. They have tans with blond hair and cruise the boulevard with their boards hanging out the back of their mommy’s new station wagons. Most of them don’t surf. Those that do can’t stand up and turn. We call them hodads. Continue reading →

Simple Steps

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Today I called my son’s girlfriend, Tori, to see if she wanted to hit the surf.  She did and we did and it was small but glassy and I got more waves in this session than in any other since starting paddleboarding all of three months ago.

AND I took my first steps toward the nose.  I couldn’t stop smiling.

Tori said I was shreadding, but you know, she may have exaggerated a tad.

But here we are, and boy can she smile.

Tom and Donna 29th-0798