{"id":24794,"date":"2021-03-27T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2021-03-27T19:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=24794"},"modified":"2021-03-22T12:33:45","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T19:33:45","slug":"paddling-through-the-seasons-on-the-north-san-gabriel-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2021\/03\/27\/paddling-through-the-seasons-on-the-north-san-gabriel-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Paddling Through the Seasons on the North San Gabriel River"},"content":{"rendered":"

I paddle all year round. While there are a few days when it’s just too cold, usually with precautions (shorty wetsuit and some layers) I can paddle most of the winter. The water temperature rarely drops below 60, but of course, that’s plenty cold enough to be harmful if I fall in (which happens now and then!). While I’m paddling solo, I’m never far from a house or cell service, and I’m fanatical about wearing a life jacket.<\/p>\n

This past summer I turned 65, so I decided I should set a goal for 2020 to get out on the water at least twice a week.\u00a0To keep myself honest, I started keeping a log of my paddling. By the end of the year, I had logged 125 trips (an average of 2.4 per week), with an average length of about 1.5 miles. The longest was 5 miles on my birthday.<\/p>\n

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I discovered stand-up paddling late. Throughout high school, I canoed, and took up kayaking in college and have done both off and on ever since. I really started getting re-engaged with paddling when my sons were in Boy Scouts and then Sea Scouts. As they aged out, I continued on as a Sea Scout leader, focusing on all kinds of boating from 100-ton vessels down. At the time, I noticed that the kids were keenly interested in stand-up paddling, but I really didn’t get the attraction. I mentioned that to my old friend, Kip Peterson, who said that he didn’t get it either, but planned to go find someplace where nobody knew him so he could try it out without embarrassment.<\/p>\n

That actually seemed like a good plan, so with a bit of research, I found that our local REI ran introductory SUP classes down at Spring Lake, between Austin and San Antonio. Fifty dollars for equipment rental and a couple of hours of instruction seemed reasonable, so I signed up. I can’t imagine a better place than Spring Lake\u2014it’s a beautiful, crystal clear spring-fed lake. The REI instructor, Boris, was actually quite good\u2014knew his stuff and was a good teacher, and most importantly was able to help an experienced paddler like me adapt what I knew to a new kind of boat with very different handling characteristics.<\/p>\n