A close friend and I had an awesome realisation that we have joined the crazy people that get hooked on the endorphin rush of extreme sports…well extreme in our naive dewy eyes
We joined the prestige Sisterhood SA group and embarked on our first challenge…a 15km Stand Up Paddle (SUP) to Robben Island and back. About 15 girls trained with SUP champion, Greg Bertish, with the aim to complete the challenge to raise money for the Shark Spotters and Development Through Sport.
And the training begins…we committed to as much SUP time as possible and threw ourselves into the deep end (the choppy, sharky, murky depths of the Atlantic Ocean to be exact) and paddled our little hearts out. We paddled Muizies – Kalk Bay with a huge school of dolphins, under the skillful eye of Tyran from Xpressions on the Beach. After this a group of four considered ourselves pro’s (oh what a mistake) and hopped on our boards at Muizies. Chop and a swell of about 2ft (haha) crushed our newly inflated egos and tossed us head first into the shore break. Paddles to the left, boards to the right and hysterical laughter (cries from me) as we crawled onto the beach. Damn I thought we were goners, and shark breakfast that day. So we decided a peaceful paddle along Zandvlei would cure the battle wounds. Going there was such a gem – calm and gentle with stunning views of the mountains. Our return, however, was not as relaxed. The wind had picked up twenty-fold and was head on. Achey arms and exhausted bodies encouraged us to pull out all the stops, from creating a little “peloton” paddle pair to dragging our massive eleven ft boards along the thorny, bird poo covered river bank. We made it back after 2 hours. Hilarious….but not at the time.
Anyway all of this put us in great stead for the challenge which was perfect…minimal swell and wind, glorious day complete with dolphins, curious seals and a little penguin. We set off, enthusiastic and wide-eyed and paddled solidly for a good 3.5 hours, admiring our gorgeous Seventh Wonder and chatting and laughing along. We all high-fived (cos you have to after a challenge, dah) and patted ourselves on the back for raising 20 grand for our cause.
And now…we are hooked.
There are loads of events coming up and we are superrrrrrr keeeeeeeen! If you want to get involved check out Ocean Love and Xpressions on the Beach on Facebook.
You will love it…
Thank you to all the Sisterhood girls, Greg and Coreban, Tyran, Justin, Karina Figl, all the supporters on the day and behind the scenes and a huge and very special thanks to Kirsty who made this all happen.