I didn’t think I could spend 30 minutes talking about paddles. It’s funny how that happens. But I decided to take a fairly deep dive into what makes a paddle a paddle and the different materials. I didn’t even start to go into paddle blade shape or any of those advanced topics. This is just…
I really like podcasts. I love how easy they are to listen to, and how I can just download them onto your phone. I also like how you can have a bunch of them on almost any subject you want. I have been working on a podcast project for a while. The idea is that…
I want a board that does it all. I mean everything. It needs to be fast, be stable, be able to carry stuff, be able to handle itself in chop with good nose volume, be able to downwind well, be durable, and be fun to paddle. Oh yeah, and be affordable. Is that too much…
Standup paddling is a growing sport that tends to attract enthusiastic followers. And why not? It’s fun, not terribly expensive, and relatively easy. Plus owning a board is fun! People love their boards. Once you get one, you want another! A typical progression of a flatwater paddler — one that doesn’t surf — is to…
Inflatable paddleboards are the new hot thing. People are buying them in droves. City dwellers like them because they are easy to store. Beginners like them because they are inexpensive. Rock hoppers like them because they can take an impact without getting dinged. Even experienced paddleboarders are using them. They are even being used by…
Having recently transitioned from a hard board to an inflatable, I can say it takes getting used to. I really enjoyed how quickly I could transition from being in the car to being on the water. Sometimes I could do that in close to five minutes. This wasn’t a small thing. When you’re using your…
One of my favorite things to do on the Hudson is to find little creeks and streams and go up them as far as I can go. I used to call it exploring, but now, thanks to fellow paddler Davis Janowski, it has a great name: gunkholing. I can’t think of a better reason to…
So why? What’s the purpose of going out into the water over and over again? Why I do do this? It’s crazy, you know. Crazy. I’ve come to the conclusion after paddling for over ten years that the water is the wilderness. It’s wild. There’s no taming it. It may behave yourself for a while….
One of the things that’s true about standup paddling in an area where there’s not much standup paddling is that people don’t know what to do with you. Many times I have encountered people on the water who had never seen a standup paddler before. This can be pretty funny. One time I was crossing…
I think most of us are pretty tired of social distancing. I’m exhausted from doing it day after day after day, always thinking about having a six foot radius around you. It’s not natural and it’s not fun. Thank goodness for paddleboarding. Seriously, thank goodness. It’s a natural social distancing sport. We have to keep…