Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons

Over the past few years, an old sport has been going through a revival. Ancient Hawaiians used to stand up on their boards and use a long paddle to travel from one place to another, sometimes from island to island. As a sport, this faded out some time ago, but in the past few years it has come back and gaining a following (Some people attribute it to the sightings of Laird Hamilton trying it out). It's done as a variation of surfing and as a long distance paddling category for competitions such as the Molokai Crossing and the Catalina Classic (both ~30 mi).

I've been following it for the past year and trying to figure out a way I can get in on this action while up here in Utah for school. I've tried starting a club. I tried (meekly) getting some companies to donate a few to the school. Several weeks ago there was an Outdoor Retailers Convention up in Salt Lake for outdoors equipment retailers (closed to the public). A few companies that made standup paddleboards were there promoting the sport, doing demos, etc. I called up a few sports stores in the area to ask if they were going or had any extra tickets or passes. No luck. I emailed several manufacturers of the boards and paddles to let them know I was interested, but needed help. C4 Waterman is the only company that responded, asking for a business plan for the club. I responded by retelling them there wasn't a club yet, we didn't have any equipment, and that I'd need help writing a business plan, but would be glad to do so. No response. I don't blame them.

So, I'd given up. Any used boards I could find on the internet were several hundred dollars and weren't any closer than California. I thought of building one, but that would still cost a chunk, and I don't have the tools or time to experiment now. I couldn't put that much strain on our family budget or time together.

Then, out of the blue, I looked up paddleboards and windsurfers on Craigslist.com for Utah. One guy was selling one of the demo boards from the show and wanting $1800 for it, 2100 for a package with some other stuff. Chyeah right. But another guy was selling a paddle and an older 12' windsurfer for much less. Woah! Emailed the seller, discussed and discussed it with my wife, asked the guy a bunch of questions, went and looked at it, and worked out some ways to pay it off. We went and picked it up on Tuesday. Here's a picture of it.

Thursday, we tried it out. I had Emily drop me off just outside the Utah Lake State Park, where I hopped in the river and tested it for a minute. After we agreed to meet back in an hour, I took off. Click on the picture for a closer look of my route.

I figured I'd only done a mile, mile and a half. I was surprised. The picture on Google earth is old, there's no breakwater shown, and the water level is actually several feet higher right now.

I stayed close to the marina trying to meet up with the Civil Engineering opening social to count an activity point for the seminar class, but no sign of them. I found them at the BYU property on my way back up the river. They'd just launched their concrete canoe into the water as I went by and I got about 25 open-mouthed stares. A good friend and I exchanged greetings, Cameron Stewart from Oxnard. From what I could find on the internet, there's only been a small handful of people in this state, who've tried it in this state. As a hopeful claim to fame, I may very well be the first person to try this on Utah Lake. If I'm totally wrong in this, let me know. What I'd really like to do is cross the lake and back (12 mi) before winter, and maybe next summer try crossing the lake the long ways (25-30 mi).