First attempt at paddle boarding

We borrowed a paddle board and hit the beach on day one of the summer holidays. TL;DR - yes I did fall off, no I didn't manage to stand up but Zac loved it and enjoyed it so it looks like I am buying a board of our own now.

Our original plan was to take the board out on the Saturday before as some friends visiting from Bristol with theirs, but the weather was so hit and miss that we just couldn't organise ourselves properly (trying to get two young kids sorted, picnic packed and all the kit we could possibly need for the beach ready at the last minute while the weather goes from scorching to thunderstorms...) so we just sat and had a picnic and watched our friends try theirs out instead.

The weather looked good for a few days so I decided to take it out on the Monday. While the weather was way better, the sea was quite a bit more choppy than the Saturday although that could well have been down to the location. We went to Porthpean on the Saturday and it was dead calm. Pentewan is a bit more exposed than Porthpean and while the waves were not exactly enormous breakers, they were enough to tip me over while trying to get on the board for the first time.

After an initial venture out on my own, Zac wanted a go so we sat him on the board and let him sit on it in the shallows while we held each end, and he loved it! I'd picked up a life jacket (more of a buoyancy aid than a full jacket) from the water sports shop in Pentewan just to be on the safe side as although he is confident in the water, he is not a strong swimmer and some of that confidence is misplaced!

After a few outings on the board we packed up and went to the pub and I am now sat scouring Amazon for our own board as I think Zac will request this every time we suggest the beach now.