tin.fish

Whilst researching a first paddleboard for a friend, I was inevitably drawn to choose a new paddleboarding.  Honestly, I was not looking for myself but a review of the Shark SUP Performance Tourer 14  resonated with me. It's a tentative baby-step from Tourer to Race paddling.  With a flatter rocker line (yeah - I know what those are now too!) the nose carves through the water like I'm riding a torpedo as a sort of aquatic homage to the end scene of Doctor Strangelove. There are various reasons to own this board, but I'd be stealing better informed comments from the review. But then...  Sunday was rough and I found myself at the beach alone just for a little look.  I had the Aqua Marina Magma with me in the car and a moment of madness took me.  Ten minutes later I was wet suited and running into the waves like a man possessed.  Early attempts to take the down-wind stance proved difficult, and I was wet before I knew it.  Legs like jelly and I ...

My paddleboarding journey started what seemed like years ago, because it was in fact years ago.  Seven in fact.  After a paddleboard rental in Torbay, on a forgivingly flat day, i was bitten by the bug.  By the following spring I had purchased my first paddleboard having done a frankly appalling level of research.  The board was an Aquamarina Vapor.  Whilst ideal for my Wife, I’d picked something entirely unsuitable for myself and it bent under my weight like a comedy banana.  The starter paddle was too short for me by about two feet too but I persisted that year to try and get a feel for SUP.  Oh how people must have laughed at the portly little pale man, flailing around in the shallows, fins almost clean out of the water like a seal waving at the crowd. I should probably rewind a few years to explain that, in spite of how ridiculous I might sound so far, watersports (not the urination kind) are not a new thing for me.  From an early age, I spen...