Today's adventure was to address something on my vacation bucket list: stand-up paddleboarding. Happily, our friend Kyla has three paddleboards and was willing to take us out. Thane rented a fourth board so we could all go together.
We left about 11:00 from the Kona pier at the south end of Ali'i Drive. The shallow lagoon was calm, but there was a swell right outside of the entrance. I managed to get upright and paddle a bit in the lagoon, and then the circus act began. The first time I got up off my knees out in the open ocean the swell coming from the side knocked me off balance and threw me into the water. Uh, nobody told me how to get back on.... Actually, it wasn't too hard to pull myself up on my belly onto the board with both hands pulling on the opposite side, but I'm quite certain it wasn't graceful or pretty.
After that, my biggest problem in standing up was getting my upper body up once my legs were straight. A massive center of gravity up high is not helpful! I spent most of the hour paddling from my knees.
Thane didn't fare much better than I, although he did paddle back into the lagoon on his feet. I think we'll both do much better if we go out again sometime in the next few days. Rowan got it figured out, though, and did great. I had her paddle around the lagoon a bit at the end so I could get her picture. She's on the board Kyla used for most of our excursion. Thane mounted his GoPro on the front of it - we got some pretty silly video footage of us falling off and scrambling back on.
I'll say goodnight with a photo of the sunset from our bedroom lanai this evening.
