SUP Hottie

I tried SUP (Stand Up Paddleboarding) for the first time today. I also wore a mid-drift bearing swim suit for the first time. It was an exciting day.

I saw SUP somewhere this summer and thought, huh, that looks like it could be fun, and way easier to do solo than canoeing. It's just standing on a surfboard and propelling yourself with a long paddle. It can be as easy or as challenging as you like. So I Googled and found a guy who gives lessons here in Winnipeg. Hopper, the instructor, was trying to coordinate it so I could join a lesson with another woman, but she was from Edmonton and she flew back home today, so the class was down to just me.

Me and my little swim suit. On the August long weekend up at the cottage I stopped in at the Hula Hut, a beachy apparel shop beside the ice cream store. For kicks I tried on some suits. I grabbed tankini tops, boy short bottoms and, feeling adventurous after my 2 hour bike ride, a bikini top and regular bottoms.

I have sported the tankini ensemble since they became in vogue 10 years ago. I would never go back to a full tank suit. It's a pain in the butt when you have to strip down a wet suit to your knees so you can go pee, which you end up doing naked, and that just feels weird in a public washroom.

The draw back about the modest tankini is that when you're laying on the beach soaking up the sun, it gets hot. But it was the modesty and general body type that kept my torso under wraps for as long as I can remember.

Maybe the running, cycling and better monitoring of my nutrition over the summer has done something, or maybe the suit is just magical, but when I put the two lesser-covering pieces on and looked in the mirror, I didn't frown. (Thank you, Running Room Online Training Clinic, Map My Run and My Fitness Pal. Great tools on the cheap that WORK if you do.)

Here is a picture of a professional wearing the Next by Athena brand suit (not me).

Shown here: the Next Good Karma underwire sports bra and Good Karma banded retro bottom

Very flattering from the back as well! No "granny panty" look here!

The magic of the suit, for me, is the fold-over band on the bottoms. No elastic waistband to cinch you in and cause unwanted bulging or bumps, and you can decide where the fold sits--ride it low, ride it high or in between. It's genius.

The top is a lovely racer back, sports bra style that has no ties or clips to come undone or dig in. It just does what it's supposed to.

I opted to get the suit in the city, as I found it cheaper there. I'm a gal who typically buys the $25, end of season sale at JC Penny suit, so when I found it for 40% off, AND the skinny sales girl said it looked good (in a non, I-need-this-sale-or-I-don't-get-my-commission-cheque-this month manner) I was sold. Bathing suits are final sales, so there would be no chickening out with this purchase after taking it home.

So today it was all coming together. I had my sassy new outfit and I was going to get private lessons from some surfer dude I'd found on the Internet. Suddenly I was kind of nervous.

I came home from work, put on the suit and drew up all my confidence to not go back to the tankini. Then I ate comfort food for dinner, which consisted of two carrot cake pancakes with a teaspoon or so of Mara Natha Caramel Almond Spread (sin in a jar, available at Wal-Mart). Why not a light salad or some kind of vegetarian, figure-friendly dish? Because healthy stuff gives you gas, and no girl sporting her first bikini and going for her first paddleboard lesson wants to be farting all night. No, no, no.

My lesson started with dry land instruction and a general introduction to the anatomy of  the board. For this, I kept all my clothes on. Just before we got into the water, Hopper noted that I had to wear a life jacket, government rules. As soon as you put a paddle in your hands on the water, you're basically operating a craft, which means you need to at least have a life jacket on board, if not wear it. On a surfboard you don't really have a place to stow the life jacket (you can apparently tie it down to the nose though) so you may as well wear it. Off came the t-shirt, the mid-drift saw the light of day for a nanosecond and then it was buckled into an oh-so-attractive blue and yellow life jacket. Oh well, it was a coolish evening, so the thing kept me warm.

Using the paddleboard was fun and easy. I had no issues with balance and had a good practice with the paddle strokes. I wobbled a couple of times when I was trying different things but I never felt like I was going to fall off. The water was smooth as the sun sunk low onto the horizon and Hopper and I paddled in circles around the small lake we had to ourselves at the wake boarding facility. I was so delighted that I was able to pick up the technique with ease. At the end of the night all I could think of was when I could go paddling next. It's a simple way to enjoy the water and get some exercise--good core challenger, which one needs if one wants to continue wearing less-modest bathing suits.

If you are in the Winnipeg/Southern Manitoba area and want to try SUP, I recommend you give Hopper a call to set something up. He's a laid back guy who is passionate about the sport and sharing it with anyone who wants to learn. His company, The Hardcore Surf & Paddleboard Company, does lessons, rentals and makes their own boards.