I might have got quite into paddling the next summer but that was the summer of 2020 and we all know what happened there. But during one of the phases of “you can go out and do things but still keep 2m away”, I realised I could hire a paddleboard and go out on Poole Park Lake. You can’t get much more social distanced than being on a foam board in the middle of a lake on your own. I’d been out and about during the last few months – lots of walking around the rec, around town, along deserted country lanes, a few hills – but I hadn’t done anything that wasn’t strictly out of the ordinary. So this was a nice break and maybe the first fun thing I did in 2020.
There isn’t actually a lot to say about it. I had to change outside because the changing rooms were closed but that’s fine. I can get in and out of a wetsuit on the side of a pond. What I’d enjoyed about my first SUP experience the previous year was the absolute lack of pressure, the way we’d just had an evening of playing under the eyes of a professional but now I could go out and play without having to keep half an eye on my Rangers. There were no professionals out on the lake with me but they were around, there’s only so far you can go on a lake the size of an overgrown duckpond and most of it is pretty shallow.
I’d kind of guessed that I can’t stand up on a stand up paddleboard while I was out with the Rangers but having an hour to myself confirmed that. But it turns out paddling on your knees is a perfectly valid way of getting around and although I suspect you’re not supposed to splash the paddle from one side to the other, I could get around at a reasonable speed. That’s probably another thing you’re not supposed to do. SUPers who know what they’re doing always look so serene. They just glide across the water, making it look like there’s no hurry, no difficulty, nothing else going on in the world. I don’t paddle like that. Even when all I’m doing is entertaining myself on a lake for an hour, I think I still look like I’m rushing to get somewhere. My instinct is still to pick up the speed. Speed is fun! I hate Formula One but so would everyone else if it was just twenty-odd cars wafting around the track enjoying a nice afternoon out. And so when I’m paddling, I like to go as fast as I can.
I know exactly how non-serene I look, actually. I bought a GoPro in February to take on two trips to Iceland that didn’t happen and so this was its first outing. I accidentally filmed a timelapse of myself paddling and I don’t look like a swan. I look like the swan’s feet underneath the surface. But I had fun, I got out in the fresh air, I had a go at something that was still pretty new to me and I did it all according to the rules. And later on in the year, I had another new paddling experience.
Bumblebee Paddles 