SUP: Maybe it should stand for Surreal, Unequaled Possibilities

Seems like spring is here a little early this year. Warm temps, calm and clear waters, plenty of UV-packing sunshine. It's the perfect time of year to expose yourself to standup paddleboarding. It may look difficult, but standup paddling is a viable activity for the vast majority of people between the ages of 7 and 70. I think our eldest paddlers were a man of 74 and a lady of 73. They loved it -- laughed like 8-year-olds. 

And the best thing about stand paddleboarding (besides falling) is the activities are only limited by your imagination. I was very naive on my first few trips. I loved this style of boarding, but it seemed limited to floating around and looking for dolphins (nothing wrong with that) and open water racing (which I also love). Surfing seemed doable but that was about it for my cromag-style brain.

Then my wife Marcie jumps on one, and with in minutes is pulling off yoga poses with style an ease. 

A few weeks later a close friend suggests we take a beer and a fishing pole on our boards and just drift offshore. It was sketch for sure, but also seriously fun. We jumped dozens of ladyfish, had all kinds of hits that we missed, mostly because we were laughing and trying desperately to keep our beers upright. 

As we reeled our crankbaits back to the boards, huge schools of baitfish would follow, then jump on our boards in an attempt to escape the gnarly teeth of the schooling Spanish mackerel below. There were dozens of shiners flopping around on each of our boards. One breached the security of my board shorts. :0

Just when I think we're doing it all, another friend borrows a soft top Laird for a few weeks. He was paddling and training, fishing on it and, well, sleeping. He'd just moved into a new apartment an didn't have a bed set up yet. So he took the fin off a board and just slept on the board, deck up of course. Said it was quite comfy. 

Another friend donned a dive mask, paddled around on her stomach and just stuck her head underwater whenever she felt the need. It was quite funny watching her gain momentum while swimming the board, then plunge her head beneath the surface. Created quite a wake. She was snorkle paddling, or snaddling as we've jokingly called it. 

Some guys on the East Coast are even spearfishing off them. Others are using them as dive platforms for near-shore scuba. 

Now I'm sure that none of us were inventing something unique (really nothing is), but it was new to us, probably new to Bonita Beach. But we began to realize: standup paddleboards aren't just boards. They're more like a canoe, kayak, surfboard, paddleboard, snorkle platform, fishing vessel and sleeping perch all molded into one. 

SUP = Surreal, Unequaled Possibilities