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With pleasure, it's time to highlight Southern California stand up paddle surf girl, Shannon Cook. Shannon sent us the 411 on her experience with stand up paddling. Thanks for taking the time to share the stoke with us. Peace.
Name: Shannon Cook (Fullerton, CA)
When I first heard about stand up paddling: I think it was in a magazine and from the moment I saw it I knew I had to do it and went out and bought a whole set up from Danai without ever having dipped a paddle in the water.
What the sport means to me: I absolutely love it. I love being on the water, in the water and how it makes you feel physically and spiritually. I wish I could do it more and get really jealous when I see cool pics of people doing it places like Tahiti, some day!
My Story: Now this is absolutely amazing. Imagine a week of paddle surfing all around Maui (favorite SUPin beach is Launiupoko) and on our last night we decide to take a sunset paddle so we can have one last uninterrupted view of the setting sun. We take our boards down to
Ali'i Kahekili Nui Ahumanu Beach Park in Kaanapali about 30 minutes before sunset with a six pack of Primo on ice in a soft cooler. We put the cooler on the front of one of the boards, hopped on and paddled out to sea a bit. . .
While waiting for the sun to set, we sat on our boards, enjoyed a few bottles, saw the tikis being lit onshore and could faintly hear ukulele Hawaiian music from one of the resorts. After the sun set and as we were headed back to shore we saw a group of people gathering on the beach and it seemed they were waiting for us. This happens quite often when we paddleboard, people are always stopping us to ask questions about the sport and we're more than happy to tell them it's the best thing ever!
We've even let people give the boards a try and most are hooked instantly. So we get off the boards feeling just great and these people all walk up and say "did you see them, did you know they were there?". And we didn't know what they were talking about. A little confused, we asked them to explain and they said it was the most beautiful sight. The sun had set, the sky was keep purple orange and there we were paddling silhouetted against this backdrop and behind us, unbeknownst to us, was a group of 3 or 4 dolphins that were frolicking and swimming behind us and were following us back to shore! One of the people thought we were part of some tourist show and that the dolphins were trained! We had to laugh, and said that we had no idea, we never saw the dolphins ourselves. Though no one got a photo of the special experience, it was something they said they will never forget and it is certainly something we will never forget!
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