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Waking up to a big dawn, orange full moon in my face and a sudden “ouch” at the first moves of the day. Upper back, ribs, and upper abs screamed resistance at my walk to the kitchen for morning coffee. And guess what – I am one HAPPY person.

After getting more knee and low back fatigue during longer and stronger paddles over the years I reached out for some advice on technique. Fortunately, Karen Wrenn (super inspiring) shared some insights (you can follow her on Twitter) and with some practice I am creating a more effective technique. I found this artistically beautiful video on the HangerFox Youtube channel that allows us to observe the technique that creates that highly effective paddle stroke that serves Karen so well.

With Vimeo, YouTube, blogs by pros and all sorts of social media links, we can “meet up” with SUP professionals we admire. SKYPE is another way we can get great training tips from our favorite pros. Suzie Cooney, CPT of SuzieTrainsMaui encourages SKYPE training and has had great success with that medium.

Robby Naish (happy birthday this week) and Kai Lenny in Alaska

Recently I watched a short video of Kai Lenny and Robby Naish paddling around icebergs and basically “chilling” in Alaska. It’s good to study their stance, paddle placement, reach, posture and recovery during racing sequences as well as more recreational paddling. Sometimes it’s tough to assimilate exactly what is making their performance so efficient and powerful.

This very short video by Dave Kalama posted on the Distressed Mullet YouTube channel gives direct and easy to implement advice on how to protect your lower back. Hinging rather than bending is a habit that is not too difficult to hone – give the video a few, or maybe a couple of views then try the movement on your next paddle.

Dave Kalama provides a more advice in his blog article I found to be easy to put into practice. “Don’t rush.”

He explains that even if your technique is effective, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are utilizing it properly. If you rush through all the phases of your stroke and don’t take the time to execute each phase correctly, then you are not using your level of technique in an efficient way.

For me, one of the pieces I took away was to take the time to really drive the paddle down into the water. Create a complete stretch of your reach. According to Dave, ” it only costs you a little patience and time to completely extend your arm forward. Also, rushing through the recovery phase will break the flow of a smooth rhythm, which is where real efficiency resides. If you rush into getting your hips all the way back under you to the neutral position, then you miss out on all the potential momentum you can generate through the hips.

During yesterday’s training that resulted in muscle fatigue and “good workout” soreness, it might have been that fully extended reach, getting my hips back to neutral and rotating the upper body appropriately that made all the difference. There’s nothing like practice, exploration and observation to add even more fun to this sport we love so much!

We’d love to hear from you – what blogs, videos or images have been useful as you improve your technique?

Serenity of the Paddle (SOP) could be an acronym we’ve all experienced but haven’t exactly named. It came to me during a paddle in early October. During the week before and after the 2012 Battle of the Paddle the Facebook and Twitter buzz was both cool and amazing. Even for those of us not at the beach at Doheny State Beach the energy was electric. From photos to videos, from elite racers and sponsors to the enthusiastic SUP athlete with a camera or a buddy on shore we got a full perspective story. One such video from Surftech SUP is such an example.

There’s tons of press, flash and splash around the incredible stories, talent and accomplishments generated by events of that magnitude. No wonder we all want to be a part of the energy. Perhaps the draw of standup paddling is its simple diversity of personality. Without warning, a completely different type of SUP experience can capture us with an equal, yet opposite, energy. Serenity.

The Saturday after BOP I went with my husband Ed and two good friends up to one of the clearest Cascade Lakes you’ll ever see – Hosmer Lake. Sitting in an embrace of South Sister and Mt. Bachelor, just behind Elk Lake, Hosmer is a spring-fed lake is actually two small lakes connected by a short channel. In the crystal clear waters, you can easily see the trout and stocked Atlantic salmon that are the quarry of catch-and-release anglers here. We paddled across the first, wide section of Hosmer. Even though we’ve paddled here hundreds of times we could help but comment on the beauty, the wonder and how amazing it is to have this lake so close to home.

Clear Hosmer Lake in the Central Oregon Cascades

SOP – Serenity of the Paddle

Even though we were a group of four paddlers, for a good part of the paddle we were together – but alone in our immersion in the color of the sky (cloudless and blue) the texture of the water (gently breeze rippled) and the play of light and shadow on the white sandy bottom below gin clear water.

There is a narrow stream in the far westerly corner of the lake that winds upstream toward a rushing waterfall that seems to deliver last year’s Mt. Bachelor snow toward our summer bare feet. Usually in the quarter mile meandering up that stream it’s required to stand almost in a hang-ten stance in order to get the skeg up out of the water enough to clear the logs, rocks and shallow spots. On this day the depth of the stream added even more serene observations to our journey.

River teeth, a treasure I love to find after reading Oregon author, David James Duncan’s book by the same name, were everywhere. It was a photographer’s dream – light on rocks, shadows on logs, sculpted sand playing in the light and shaping around currents and the brilliant greens of the shoreline grasses. From the SUP Perspective it’s an endless adventure in serenity if that’s what we’re looking for on any given day. Where do you find your SOP?