You know that story that your swimming teacher told you about the monster that lives in the deep end of the pool that eats kids who are unsupervised… no? Well maybe my swimming teacher was slightly evil, but that’s what I remember from my swimming lessons. Needless to say I’ve developed a slight fear of deep water. It’s not because I can’t swim, I can doggy paddle with the best of them and win any water treading competition! It’s just the fear of something coming up from underneath and pulling me under. So when a friend of mine and her husband started their own stand up paddle boarding business my first thought was “I wonder if they will have lessons in a pool?”. No such luck. The lessons were going to be held on murky Wascana lake. Bleh! I was out, there was no way they would get me to go in that water!
Then I received a private invite for some of their close friends to come out to a “Try SUP/SUP Yoga” night for FREE. I had just started coaching with Beachbody at this time and had made a commitment to myself to start trying new things. I kinda locked myself into this before I even knew it. So I went. It was a Tuesday night. I was completely prepared to go for a swim. I wore tight clothes that wouldn’t hold too much water, pulled my hair back, put towels in the car. I was ready to fall.
We started with a dry land session of how to get on the board and then how to stand on the board if we felt we could handle it. My friends husband, Chris, saw the look of fear on my face as we prepared for the water and casually told me to “relax the worst that can happen is you fall in”. Yup, that’s what I’m afraid of thanks! And then we hit the water. The first part wasn’t that bad, I could handle 3 feet of water while paddling on my knees no problem! Soon everyone was starting to stand up on their boards and, being the new competitive me, I had to go for it. After about 10 minutes of tensing my legs, shaking, and grimacing, I finally started to relax and even to take longer strides with the paddle. Telling myself the water was only 2 feet deep (it wasn’t) was actually tricking my body into calming down and I started to enjoy my surroundings. It was a beautiful, calm evening around 7:30pm and the sun was just setting over the legislative building. It was gorgeous!
 |
| SUP Yoga with Kristal |
After some practice we all headed over to a little cove for some SUP Yoga with Kristal. It took a considerable amount of core muscles (thanks T25!) to stay on the board while doing some of the poses but the view was spectacular. I was able to spend the peaceful moments drawing closer to the Lord and focusing my mind on communicating with him and his will for me. I don’t have much “down time” in my life being a busy wife/mom and this was truly a blessing. Some of the group headed back to the shore to wrap up for the night but I actually found that I was enjoy paddling so much that I went around the lake with a part of the group just because!
 |
| Love the challenge of yoga on a board! |
I am so glad that stand up paddle boarding was the first fear that I conquered because my success and enjoyment of this activity has shown me that maybe I’ve changed from my past self. Fears can be overcome and activities that I never thought I would enjoy can become some of my most favourite things to do.
This experience has given me the courage to try so many more new things. Including things that I’ve written off because of fear. Some things to look forward to in the future… long distance running, repelling down buildings, skiing, and many many more!
If you live in the Regina, SK area and are interested in learning to SUP (Stand Up Paddleboard), taking a SUP yoga class, or renting a board then give Chris and Kristal a shout at The Queen City SUP Shop http://www.queencitysup.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment