Outside Women

Today, I feel like I lost one of my best friends. I heard the straps of my surf rack snap and within seconds my stand-up paddleboard flew off the roof of my car and onto the highway. I quickly pulled over and darted out the door.

The stand-up paddleboard had landed between the exit lane and the slow lane, fin side up with cars and trucks driving by at high speeds on a blazing hot August afternoon. As I looked at the 10’6″ SUP laid across the road, my chest tightened and my stomach formed into a knot. It was unsafe to try to retrieve it, and also, I had no one way to bring it home with a busted rack.

That stand-up paddleboard was so much more to me than just a board. It came to me when my life was in crisis, and got me through the hardest moments in my life, up to the day I lost it.

My life was in turmoil when my friend and neighbor told me he was selling stand-up paddleboards, and I should think about getting one. He knew I loved to surf, and he did too, but found that the reliability of stand-up paddleboarding always scratched the itch that the waves and surfing doesn’t always provide.

I bought a used epoxy Riveria stand-up paddleboard from my friend, along with a carbon fiber paddle, for $500. It was a cruiser shape with a 2+1 fin set-up – stable and fun.

I met so many friends while riding that SUP, adding dozens of wonderful humans to my friend group. I paddled with girlfriends, enormous gatherings of paddlers, my boyfriend and friends. We had so many laughs and beautiful days on the water paddling, relaxing, and listening to music.

I took that SUP out at Mission Bay at night to watch the fireworks shoot off overhead. I paddled to Humphrey’s By the Bay, to watch concerts from the water. I paddled across county and state lines: lakes, rivers, bays, marinas, and the Pacific Ocean with that board. It never let me down and I always felt better after taking it out.

Over the eight years that I had that SUP, I experienced hundreds of solo paddles while I sorted out my busy mind and let myself feel free. Launching onto the water and paddling away from the shore, I could leave everything behind: my troubles, my cell phone, my work computer – everything would be put on hold while I took the time to glide on the water.

The steady strokes and blade of the paddle running through the water calmed my nervous system, let my breath flow gently through my lungs and breathe out the stress.

I know that I can get another stand-up paddleboard, although Riveria has since gone out of business. But it was the soul, the memories, the gratitude that I had for that board in particular that meant so much to me. Having it literally ripped from me was devastating and unexpected.

The only thing I can do is be grateful for all of the hard times that SUP got me through, and know that it served a much greater purpose than was ever intended when it was built.

RIP my beloved Riveria SUP.