SUP Potomac

We were in DC this past Saturday showing Rob (our visiting Englishman) some of the monuments on foot and after seeing him off decided to try hitting the Potomac on ShuBu.

We put in next to a place called Jacks Landing which (apart from the smell of the sewage) was a fairly nice area.

Because this was just before the big 4th of July celebration there were TONS of boats parked in the middle of the river getting ready for the big show, which in turn gave us plenty of obstacles to paddle around!  =)

We didn't try paddling to see the monuments from the water as we'd been walking in the sun all day and I was feeling pretty wiped by the time we hit the water...but we did see at least 20 planes take off right above us making this one of the most interesting nature vs city paddles yet.

Next time we paddle DC we'll have a plan (food, water, route, parking, etc.) and hope to see more of DC from the water.

Have any of our readers paddled DC???

If so, where is your all-time favorite spot to put in and what's your favorite thing to see from the water?

A few SUP beginnings...

Last week we had the pleasure of taking one of England's finest out to Robious Landing Park for his first SUP experience!

My sister-in-law's family was hosting a visiting soccer coach (Rob) for a week so they had little time to pack in as much fun as possible.  SUPing was one of the top activities on the list of things for Rob to try before he needed to head on to his next destination.

While we only had about an hour and a half of decent weather....we managed a few SUP beginnings that I'm very proud to mention here....

1st....Rob's first SUP (Rob on right, our nephew on left)

2nd...our nephew SUPed solo for the first time

3rd....our brother-in-law SUPed for the first time (Bob pictured on right)

And last but not least....Rob saw a SUPin dog for the first time

Fantastic day for new beginnings!

SUP Pony Pasture Rapids with SUPRVA

What a fantastic couple of weekends we've had in Virginia!

While the weather hasn't been consistently wonderful....it has been giving us a few good hours of SUPing before letting loose.

Two Sunday's ago we met up with Jason of Stand Up Paddleboards Richmond for a little ShuBu SUPing at Pony Pasture Rapids.

Dark clouds threatened our entire session......

but Mother Nature was in a good mood that afternoon and gave us plenty of play time...

Because the river was so low there was an abundance of exposed rocks that made for fantastic obstacles....

Below are a few shots of the boys taking on a nice little pocket of rapids....

While the boys continued looking for pockets to surf, I explored the greenery...

We paddled as far upriver as we were comfortable with and started the relaxing ride back down...

And then our relaxing paddle got slightly technical and I'm happy to report I remained standing through some pockets of rapids that I would not have tried a few months ago!  Sad to say we have no photos of it.

And then I'm not so happy to report that at the very end of our paddle (just before taking out), I got my ShuBu stuck on a rock and in order to dislodge had to step off of the board.  In doing so, I rolled my ankle on the slippery rocks below me sending a pain through my body I have not experienced in a very long time.

My foot went into shock and would not react to my brain telling it to move.

I had to sit on the rock for a minute (at which time it began to rain) and my unfortunate husband and Jason had to carry all three of our ShuBu's back to the parking lot as I was unable to do more than hobble behind them.

Definitely not a great end to the paddle...but a great paddle nonetheless!!!!

My ankle is still a bit wonky and I'm thinking I'll need to get it checked out if it doesn't heal up soon.  But I did do a very light paddle last night and it felt GREAT!

SUP Robious Landing Park

Got to check out Robious Landing Park for the first time while accompanying a friend on a river swim!

It was a beautiful area to SUP, though there was a lot of traffic on the water so you didn't get to connect with nature quite as much as other areas in Virginia...

We decided to paddle as far up-river as we were comfortable with and had a nice down-winder back to the car.

It was a wonderful lazy afternoon paddle....now we need to get serious about this 10 miler coming up in Jamestown!