COMMUNITY + CONSERVATION + CONNECTION!
For Paddlers, By Paddlers!
Cali Paddlers are known for their passion of exploration. A desire to paddle our waters, and pay respects to the amazing wildlife and nature that lives in our waterways. Please enjoy this series of articles and broaden your paddling horizons. ~C.P.
Lake Elsinore is the largest natural freshwater body in Southern California. It is not a reservoir nor is it created by engineering. Since it is owned by the city of Lake Elsinore, it’s main purpose is recreation.
A review of the SUPerior motion sensor by Motionize. You might have heard about this product with their recent collaboration behind the innovative force at QuickBlade who will be embedding this sensor in QB paddles. Pretty cool! In our case, the stand-alone product is what we have our hands on and we are excited to see how the product not only helps us analyze our stroke and paddling effort when paddling SUP, but improve it! Does it get in my way when I switch sides? Was the weight noticeable? Was it easy to setup before, and use during a paddle? I was excited to get on the water and see how it stacked up against other products.
Cali Paddler is thrilled to share some great exercise tips from a paddling friend we have shared the water with. Sporting a great background in fitness training, and a resume every paddler will be stoked to get tips from, we welcome Shannon Harnett of Shanimal Fitness on board in this new series of tips to help enhance your paddle fitness training.
In the short amount of time I have been paddling, I have noticed many paddlers especially OC1 paddlers having pain in their lower back, knees and hips. This can be attributed to doing a sport that tends to be dominate on one side. Paddlers many times will pull different on the Ama side with more twist, more hip involvement and explosion. When your spine is subjected to asymmetrical forces or torsion (twisting) applied by torque, such as paddling on one side of the boat, the discs of your lumbar spine get loaded and lock up. This increases the rigidity along the spine and cause muscles to go into spasm and even turn off.
“Who would want to paddle in a swamp?” was apparently a common jeer sent in his direction. Now it’s almost impossible to drive that section of Highway 1 and not see numerous paddlers heading in and out of the slough. Having paddled there many times both on my own and leading tours I don’t know how anyone could not be entranced by it. It is miles of flat, and depending on the wind, calm water, abundant seals and sea otters, hundreds of species of birds, and that serenity you get when you venture out on glassy water far enough away from roads and people that the loudest sound is your paddle in the water.
If you have ever thought about trying prone, and wondered what the draw is. Or been intimidated from horror stories about how it is cold and hardcore...then this article is for you. Join us as we share our impression of prone paddleboarding as a total newbie that has paddled other craft. How is it compared to SUP and Outrigger? Why is it growing in popularity now, after being around so long before SUP was trendy? And most importantly, did we enjoy it? Find out here...
Join Cali Paddler as we review a product that we couldn't wait to try out and add to our paddle accessories. If you have ever paddled SUP or prone, this promises to be helpful. The product is called the ShoreStand. A portable and collapsible stand for your board to keep it from dinged up or scratched on the ground. Check out our thoughts below.
What set this race apart for me, however, is the location. The fact that it is a little way out of crowded SoCal and the beach is maybe a little cleaner is worth the drive. Everything seems to run on time, at least for a paddleboard race, and like may races, everyone is stoked to be there.
Well, I'm not going to make it.
I didn't time it right. I should have waited. I should have paddled harder. The wall of water charging towards me keeps getting higher and higher. I am not going to make it over; there is nothing I can do but try. When you get to this point, you can't turn back.
The bow slices through the top of the wave, but the ama bounces up and arcs gracefully over my head. No brace can save this....
