I’m a little reluctant to admit this, but part of the reason I don’t surf more is that I go so infrequently that my paddling muscles are atrophied. It always takes at least a couple of days of surfing to start building them up again. And paddling during those days is pretty difficult. Shoulders burn out in the water, can’t breathe very well, and my lats, shoulders, traps, and triceps are always sore the next day.
Here’s the worst part: I live about five blocks from a dock on the Willamette River. It’d be a no-brainer to haul my board down to the river and paddle for an hour or so. I just realized this literally this week. I’ve been living in this particular house for 5 years. If I’d been paddling a couple of days a week during that time, I’d have no trouble hitting the surf whenever the opportunity arose.
Another nice this is that the water temperature is only a couple of degrees different. The temp at Pacific City today was 60° and the temp in the river is 62°. Geez, I feel like a total idiot. I’m going paddling in the morning.
I’ve paddled the Willamette many times up here in PDX. I had to stop though because I always felt weird for a day or so after…
Yeah, I’m afraid of that. But there’s so many wakeboarders and waterskiers on the river…and those guys get WAY more water compressed into their sinuses, etc than I ever would by just paddling.
Well, we’ll see how it goes…
So how was the river paddling yesterday?
I bailed on Monday because I had a hard workout that morning. I needed a nap.
I paddled this morning (Tues), though. Went great. Paddled just over a mile. Glassy water, lots of birds and jumping fish. It was nice.
On the way to the water I had to walk down a dock. At the end of the dock there was a very surprised looking young couple under a blanket. They weren’t there when I returned. 🙂