Sports With A Board – Hop On It!

Another gateway to the good vibes that my life experience has demonstrated to me is in the form of sports with a board. From the vast mountain tops of British Columbia, Canada to the vast deep seas of Southern Mexico my most profound moments of self discovery have occurred while indulging in sports on a board.

From taking my (once) 3 year old on the bunny hill with a snowboard attached to his little feet to teaching a retiree of 70 years old the mechanics of paddle boarding, the benefits of board sports in terms of harnessing a good vibe in mind and body are exponential!

Here is an overview of the options available to you should you want to expand your repertoire of physical activity in the great outdoors and/or just step out of your comfort zone and see what you and your body are really capable of achieving in terms of a good and high energetic vibration.

(Note: Further details posts on each option will be published soon)

SUPBoarding

So this title isn’t me being all slang with my verbiage. When I first read SUP and said it out loud, it sounded to me like I was saying a super short form of “what’s up” to someone….but alas, no. “SUP” stands for “Stand Up Paddle” and you add the word Boarding to the end of it and voila! You have stand up paddle boarding!! Let me tell you, I tried this for the first time in the beautiful backdrop of Huatulco, Mexico at 35 and it was phenomenal. It takes balance and strength and really allows

you to understand the relationship you have with your own sense of stability, balance, self-assurance and confidence in your body. These reasons alone, for me, were super empowering for developing and expanding my own esteem once I figured out how to dial it in and balance on the board and get moving. On the knees and sitting down are an option with this board sport so even if you lean to a vertigo kind of balance (been there, yikes!) the gateway is still open to you!

Snowboarding

I once was bamboozled on the top of Blackcomb Mountain after an unexpected and crazy windstorm descended. The onset of this powerful storm made visibility next to none and forced the chair lifts to come to a halt. I suppose starting a post to encourage you to get on a snowboard should perhaps not begin with such a tale, but the point of me telling you this is that the ride down on my board was exhilarating and so worth it even these conditions. The good people of Whistler/Blackcomb sent a crew of individuals to guide the trapped snowboarders and skiers down the mountain safely

and we really learned what our individual selves were made of. When nature expresses her power, we must succumb. As much as us humans would like to think we have power over the earth, that is pure ego. Our earth will do as she please, when she pleases. Her mountain ranges are vast, elevated and powerful. When you get on a snowboard and ride down a mountain face there is a connectivity and experience that I, myself, have only found paralleled when riding a wave. Snowboarding takes balance, strength, resilience and fortitude and boy oh boy, is it ever fun. Whether you want to try it and stick to a bunny hill just to see what the feels are or if you are mad talented and going into the trees for deep powder, this recreational activity will teach you how to be in your body, how to control your balance and most of all, how to harness a feeling of freedom, empowerment and all around good vibrations.

Surf, Skim, Wake and Boogie Boarding

As it turns out, seventy-one percent of the earth’s surface is covered with water and are represented in the form of our oceans. That works out to three quarters of what makes up our earth, so this little nugget of information yields itself to several opportunities to engage in sports on a board. I have tried surfboarding, skim boarding, boogie and wake boarding and all are individually their own undertaking and all four of them are extremely fun and can invigorate your system

immensely. Surfing involves riding waves on a surfboard, big or small and if you can get up and ride a wave, no matter the size, it can garner some of the best feels in the world. Skim boarding is super fun as you glide across the surface of the water to meet an incoming breaking wave. This is hilarious and so fun and I have seen a variety of people ranging from young to old participate in this activity and it always garners some good laughs. The third activity is wake boarding which is again riding the surface of the ocean on a board, but usually towed behind a motor boat or other means of transportation. And then there is the get on down with your boogie. New to board sports? Boogie boarding would be the easiest sports with a board that I would recommend you try. You can ride the break of a wave, the crest of the wave or the curl of the wave and it will coast you into shore beautifully without you having to focus so much on the balance as you would a surfboard. Try it!

Skateboarding

A board with 4 wheels that can be used as a mode of transport and as an action sport. Netflix has a great show called “Off Camera with Sam Jones” and he has an interview on there with Stacy Peralta which is very insightful and interesting about the old school-days in the 70s when the culture in the California started to take off in the likes of celebrity swimming pools. Skateparks abound and I bought a skateboard at 37 years old in an effort to try it, but also engage in some fun recreation with my son. The culture can be somewhat controversial when skaters use public spaces to ride and do tricks in which

there may cause damage to the city but in my opinion, the overall feels are one of community and belonging with this board sport. You can learn tricks and test your agility or even just buy a long board and tour around a city. My friend who is almost 60 just bought his first long board and he loves it. He figures, why not, right? The attitude you take with any endeavour will determine your success in it. I am not a hard core skater girl, but I can ride one and it’s fun. My whole thing is, if you are having fun, it doesn’t matter what you look like or how talented you are. The essence of all these sports is to harness a gateway to the good vibes, and skateboarding does just that!

Sand Boarding

This is considered an extreme sport, but I think the only thing that is extreme about this sport is the magnitude of good feels indulging in it will provide you. It is similar to snowboarding except instead of snow you are touring down sand dunes on a board. It can be done standing, sitting, on your belly or on your back. Sounds like a winner to me!

Kite Boarding

When you take a combo of wake, snow, surf and skate boarding and throw in a little sailing and paragliding vibe it results in the experience of kite boarding. I have sailed, surfed, skated, snowboarded and even sky dived, but I have yet to try kite boarding. It is, however, still on my list of board sports to try. If you have read some of my recent posts, you will know that I only tend to like to speak on my experiences but I have witnessed many a kite boarder and each time it always satisfies. From my research it proves to be the most economical and convenient sail sports out there to try. It harnesses the powerful energy of the wind and at an atmospheric level that supersedes a traditional sail. I speak of the power of nature and the benefits of harnessing that power. I am confidant that kite boarding does exactly that.

So as you can see my fellow adventurers and seekers of the good vibe life, there are myriads of board sports, more than the several listed here however these are the main ones I have had the most knowledge of. Indulging in board sports doesn’t mean you have to be some top athlete with mad physical skills. If you have a working and healthy body, then it really just relies on your willingness to have confidence and faith in your own abilities and a little stoutheartedness to give it a try!

Good luck and have fun!!