Uber Paddling

If you have an inflatable SUP and an Uber app on your phone, then I have a mission for you.  I have completed this mission on several occasions from Newport Beach Harbor to Laguna Beach, and this is seriously fun. 

When you’re done, I guarantee you will walk into work feeling freekin’ fantastic. 

Here’s what you do:

You wake up before the sun. 

(Some of you are out already.  Stay with me now!)

In the dark, you throw your inflatable SUP in your car along with your sheathed paddle.  Drive to your closest launch spot and park.  Get to the water, stab your paddle in the sand, and get in a ten-minute warmup while you inflate your paddleboard. 

Stash your boardbag (which should double as a backpack) underneath the bungees on the back of your board, and stuff the paddle sheath on top.  On the front of the board, you put your small drybag where you keep your towel and a change of clothes.  You’ve got a PFD on, and you’ve got your phone in your pocket. 

Get on the water and paddle somewhere far, preferably somewhere downwind, and take advantage of this opportunity to not have to paddle back to where you started.  Paddle for an hour, maybe two, and while you do so, take in and enjoy the epic beauty of a sunrise over the open water.  Breathe in that silence and peace.  Keep your eyes and ears open and don’t miss the dolphins. 

Land somewhere with a protected beach so you do not have to get blown up in the surf.  Preferably, you can land somewhere where there is some grass and you can get off the sand to clean up. 

Once on shore, you deflate your board.  You roll it back up and stuff it in the backpack boardbag.  You put your paddle in its sheath, and you dry off the saltwater and the sweat.  You change your clothes, put on some deodorant, and hey, you don’t look half bad.

Now you’re just a person with a backpack and a paddle that needs a ride home.  Get a Starbucks, and then hail an Uber.  The board goes in the trunk, and the paddle may have to rest on the dashboard and extend into the backseat. 

You take a ride back to your car.  The Uber driver finally understands what you are doing.

“Wait, did you paddle that whole way?” he’ll ask.

“Sure did,” you’ll say with a smile.

“Dude, that’s awesome.”

Then you go home, kiss the family, and go to work.  You find yourself at work at the usual time, content with the knowledge that you have already had a truly epic day, and it’s 9am.  You are killin’ it!

And if any of you do this, please let me know how it went. 

Or even better, let me know ahead of time, and I’ll come with you!