SUP Duck
Duck, North Carolina is part of the barrier islands on the North end of the Outerbanks. When I woke early, I was starving. So of course a breakfast bagel was required to satisfy this hunger. With a little help from our friendly neighborhood search engine I found a “New York” bagel store, Barrier Island Bagels in Southern Shores, NC. , in a strip mall next to a Starbucks. https://www.barrierislandbagels.com
When I walked in, the staff and owners were hard at work preparing a lot of bagels and food, and while no one was in the store, which confused me…..but I wasn’t there long, I could tell the staff knew their business. By the time, I received my fresh off the grill bacon, egg, and cheese bagel and walked out the door, cars were streaming in kind of like the scene in Field of Dreams at the end with cars coming to the field, “Build it and they will come”. I ate a Great New York Bagel!! Everything about the experience was perfect. Barrier Island Bagels is a must stop for breakfast.
When I got back to the house, I crashed out dead asleep. Traveling the length of the state of North Carolina, sleeping in a tent the night before with three hours of drowning trying to learn how to Kite Surf the day before had worn me out. Next thing I knew, the time was 1:30 pm. Nature has a way of knowing your limitations.
Once I got up, not being one to sit still, I went to go look at the beach. Not flat, but kinda mostly flat. What should I do? Paddle Surf!! Oh, and by the way I noticed that… not one person was in the water… anywhere. Why? I didn’t care. I have a wet suit. Not being one to sit around, I raced back to the house to get geared up for a new adventure.
Duck Beach is a great beach with houses lining the beach. Beach access is a little limiting, but there seemed to be beach access within each neighborhood along this part of the beach. Duck Beach
Getting geared up, I took minute to get situated. I mean what do I wear? If I go full spring suit, I am going to melt in the sun. Never mind the arm pit rash, that will develop from paddling which would cripple any further water adventures. Ok, bathing suit gonna have to risk the cold water heart attack. Yes to booties, I know the water is going to be cold. And a vest wet suit top. That should do it.
Tunes.. check. Waterproof tunes. Nope. Now I have extra incentive not to fall in. The only device in the truck was an old Ipod. Not waterproof. If I fell in, the sturdy device will be an obsolete Ipod. The waterproof headphones didn’t have a charge. Whoops. I guess the old plug in headphones are going to have to be risked getting wet if falling in the water happens.
The choice was between a couple of sweet stand-up paddle boards. The big one or the small one? Who am I kidding? Battleship size for me at all times. Was there anyone in the water yet? Nope. I took a minute to gear up on the beach. A lady was sitting in a chair absorbing the sun and reading a book. She stopped reading for a second and she looked at me with total wonderment as I got my gear together. As I headed to the water, I could feel her gaze of “boy what in the hell are you doing?”.
Ok, I hadn’t paddled since, well, last September? There is not a lot of paddle surfing during ski season in Colorado. I knew nothing of this board which added to the risk factor of possibly falling in. Was I going to fall or ride? Fall? Ride? I got it, at least not yet, kneel. This is the easy way out. Plus with the little bit of waves coming in, kneeling is a simple way to get out and not take a swim.
Oh yeah, the water temperature? Damn cold. Thank god for putting booties on. Pretty sure this water was straight from Nova Scotia, and I was going to do everything I could to stay on top of this board, the only thing separating me from hypothermia and certain death. I am not sure about the dying part, but I wasn’t in the mood to challenge this potential problem.
I worked my way up to standing. Super Shaky. The board tilted on edge as I placed too much weight on one side then the other, not hard to do when I have superior weight distribution. The board was no longer 2 feet wide. The board is now 6” wide, completely on edge, and the board was the only thing protecting me from the icebergs floating by. Not one to be afraid of talking to myself, I was saying a whole of “No!, Shit!, Don’t fall!” I could feel the on lookers from the beach looking as if they were witnessing a car accident getting ready to happen. Not today!! Ha, I win! As each second went by, the board stayed more and more on the water, and I gained confidence.
The best way to keep the board steady is to paddle, so a paddling, I went. The beauty of stand up paddle on the ocean is that at any minute with one subtle shift in balance you go straight in the water. And on a hot day? Great idea. Not today. Hypothermia and iPod drowning were the incentives for me to not go in. Two things happened on this 2 hour journey.
One, the dolphins getting after the schools of fish I was paddling through was awesome. What a fantastic creature of nature! Just smooth. Cruising, owning the ocean. As they crested slowly and with the confidence, in a manner only a dolphin can have. The water was dark and having the comfort of the grey blue animal gliding near me was so cool. And don’t kid yourself that I didn’t think about the wives tale of where there are dolphins there are no sharks which is way better than seeing a seal in the water.
I have been in the water with seals and I have to say I was a completely wrecked mentally. In that situation, any time I hit the water, I might as well have been a cat because I wasn’t in the water very long thinking of seals and sharks. https://www.theinertia.com/surf/this-drone-footage-of-tiger-shark-patrolling-miami-beach-is-almost-hypnotic/?utm_source=spotim&utm_medium=spotim_recirculation&spotim_referrer=recirculation&spot_im_comment_id=sp_64ufMw0S_203017_c_wXbW1e
The second thing that happened was I know what a zoo animal feels like. As I paddled down the beach, I occasionally looked to the beach. As I passed by, slowly, the people on the beach stopped and looking at me as If I was some kind of circus freak. Oh they had plenty of time to gawk. My paddling was steady, not fast.
My goal had been the pier to the North of where I started and the pier finally arrived, and I had to flip the board around starting the journey back to where I had started. The trouble was the swell kicked up just a little by the pier tempting me to ride a few. The sweat from paddling was encouraging me to go in the water, my frozen feet even in booties said otherwise. With the swell rocking me, I was doing everything I could to stop from falling in.
I returned to where I started. The lady’s family was now on the beach throwing a frisbee around, so I had an audience. As calmly and casually as I could, I paddled in with the waves. Moment of truth time. The beach coming in fast. Me, steady on the board. My Timing? Perfect! Yep, put the board on the beach and stepped off like a pro. Shoot I didn’t even fall as I grabbed the board and leash as my legs were rubber and feet numb from trying not to fall in the water for two hours. Success!
