Learning to stand up paddle: One Woman's Perspective... and a new Blog

Do you remember the magic of your first few stand up sessions? Can you recall figuring out how to launch through a punchy beach break? There was a time when you could barely even catch a wave- remember the frustration? Honestly, some of us don't even want to think back on those "flat-part-of-the-learning-curve" moments, then there are people like my friend Liza who savor climbing each little stand up paddle mountain that rises in front of them. The kind of folks who think the race is more important than the finish.

 Photo: Liza calls her new 11'0 Takayama her "baby"... here she is locked and loaded.

Liza is I.B's newest stand up paddler (we're claiming her) and she just launched her journal of the stand up paddle learning experience. Her blog is called "Surf: Zero to Sixty" and it's a woman's perspective on everything about stand up paddling. Her idea was to lay down a record or her experience to share with her friends and family, something that she could look back on years from now and laugh about.

Photo: Liza passes the dedication litmus test, 6:45am- fired up to fight the beachbreak.

I like Liza's blog because it brings me back to those first few stand up paddle moments that have slipped my mind. Things like: how it feels to go backwards over the falls (chased by an eleven foot stando board) or even little things like figuring out that carrying the board on your head with the pad down feels a lot better than getting your dome piece reshaped by the board's hard fiberglass bottom. It's a cool blog (she told me she's shooting photos and posting new content almost daily) and a worthwhile stop on your daily internet walk around the block- let's help her out and send her some traffic.

Check it out at: surfzerotosixty.blogspot.com