LOCAL OBSERVATION

SUP?!!!

BY CHRISTINA OXENBERG

KONK LIFE COLUMNIST

I’ve watched punters standing, or sometimes sitting, on “paddle boards,” and honestly, I have always suspected this was not quite a “sport.”

Until I tried it, and I loved it! Everything was contrary to my expectations. It is not boring! It is not difficult!

After my few years here, the notches I count on my belt are sightings of eagle rays, of manatees, of dolphins and miniature deer and sunsets.

The paddle boards, for anyone not familiar, are as big as your average house, essentially a surfboard for a giant. My guide told me that I could expect to fall off the board and not to panic, but above all else, not to lose my paddle.

I got all suited up in one hundred layers of sunscreen.

Of course I fell right in. After rebooting, I followed my guide across a channel with houseboats and egrets and pelicans and on the way we saw a nurse shark sleeping, only a few feet below, and then the manatees. They filled up the space beneath my board, and then some. My guide recommended we sit quietly and watch over the side as these paved roads silently passed beneath, elephants ending in a wall of tail, like an exaggerated bumper. A tail so strong these peaceable sea cows, with one flick, can move from zero to invisibility.

Next, we entered a tangle of mangroves, and here the world changes. Narrow passageways too tight to paddle, so that you pull yourself along by the imploring fingers of the mangrove trees. And where the limbs cross low over the path, you lie back on the board and allow the woven works to pass above your eyes, and an ethereal peacefulness infiltrates. Light dapples and shadows contort, and from deep within you quieten. An interior peace I’ve heard of, but seldom experienced.

My well-informed guide pointed out the strangest of sea life from purple starfish to white snowflake-shaped jellyfish and tiny balls of silver hair pulsating to beats of their own.

For a good time on the water, I recommend Stand Up Paddle at SUP!

Check them out www.supkeywest.com or call 305-240-1426.

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]