If you let go the fear, the fear let’s go of you So said the surfer I passed on my first grim and terrified march down to the waterline at Muizenberg. Easier said than done, you Crusty Old Salt. But since knowledge is power, (And I already got a handle on the shark side of things HERE ) I decided to enroll in Spike’s Winter…
I am so stoked that I learned such awesome stuff in this little thing called a MOOC. Confession: Despite being enrolled in the MOOC I had to Google what exactly the acronym stands for…wait for it… Massive Open Online Course I completed Sharks! Global Diversity, Biology and Conservation with Cornell University and the University of Queensland on the EdX platform…
I choose to Stand Up Paddle because of the paddle, really. I prefer going into battle upright, with a weapon. So when they (they = Tarryn + Tyran @ XOTB) decreed that we were going out on surfboards (it was too windy to SUP), my heart sank a little. I have never surfed a surfboard before because of the paddle out. (At…
One of the first things you learn when you get on a stand up paddle board is to bring your big girl panties. It’s not for the fainthearted. The second is to learn to balance. You start with a wide board, a wide stance, some flat water and a fully engaged core. With a little ocean knowledge, courage grows and with…
One of the things I have had to come to terms with since I started stand up paddle boarding is my love/hate relationship with wetsuits. The LOVE part is easy. My winter wetsuit is the only thing between my peaches and cream and the cold Benguela current, which churns it’s way up from Antarctica without any deflection, straight into Cape Town. The…
There isn’t a day I paddle out into False Bay that I don’t think about sharks. I have seen the aerial photos. I have watched the National Geographic documentaries. I know the sharks are there. Great Whites. Bronze Whalers, Raggies. But mostly Great White sharks. On a clear day you can see Seal Island, their hunting ground, from Baden Powell…
No one prepared me for the most fascinating social interactions I’ve had in years (Not counting Twitter)
