Eileen Swanson's Tales

>>November 5th, 2009

I love Stand Up Paddling.   I was first introduced to SUP last winter by a good friend, Brent Allen.  He took Reid and I out to Monterey to teach us how to SUP.  It was awesome, I fell in love immediately.  It’s one of the sports where you need to use your entire core to control every movement.   Being a former gymnast, I LOVE any sport that involves using my upper body and abs.   I am actually better on my hands than on my feet   well maybe not, but close!!

A couple of days ago, Brent invited Reid and I to help out as water safety at the Marin Triathlon with Surf Tech.  We were so excited and totally up for the challenge.  Stand Up Paddling for the 2nd time only and having to lead waves of swimmers was kind of a scary thought, but the scarier the better for the Swanson’s.  We are crazy that way   We had a blast and found our sea legs pretty quickly.   After a good 15 mins of SUP on my SWEET Surf Tech board,  I was feeling pretty confident and relaxed and having an amazing time out in the bay.   If I fell in, it would have been pretty cold, but I was so glad to wear just boardshorts and a sports bra.  I got hot working hard and trying some new tricks. 

After all the swimmers were out of the water, Duke (head sales guru at Surf Tech) wanted to take some pics and have all of us race.  There were 4 of us on boards and all of us were stoked to race each other for fun of course! Yeah right, you know me, HA!  This was so much fun!  Then we got crazier and I was dared to do a handstand.  It took several attempts for me to hold the handstand, but I never fell in…much to my surprise.  The race announcer was calling out my attempt play by play and every tri spectator was watching.  If you know me well enough, you would know that I love the pressure.  I was a gymnast, remember! )

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