As a novice surfer and ocean enthusiast, the waves are not always suitable for me to surf in every locale. In Wai ao, Yilan where I rented a beach house, conditions were sometimes less than ideal. Short beach breaks are not suitable for novices as they require a quick snap, so when I wasn't practicing that, I'd hulk my 10.5 foot long SUP onto the train and to the beach. As a "waigoren" or foriegner I received several stares and often jovial conversations and chants of "chong long" which means surfboard, but could be mispronounced to mean cockroach. Some days the waves were simply too small to surf at all and that might breaking out the SUP all the more enticing.
Flash forward to summer of 2017 where I held a more lucrative teaching post in China and disposable income for a toy/exercise equipment. I purchased an ISLE all-around SUP and SUPed it all around! From the beaches of Florida and New Jersey all the way to the rivers of Shaoxing, China, where nine months out of the year I call home.
my brother, who works in Hollywood, made a fantastically edited video of it here:
Here's my brother attempting to get over the learning curve:
Finally, I hulked my inflatable SUP all the way back to China (the inflatables fit in a backpack and function nearly identically) and "dropped in" in the river by my university. Again, to a series of curious onlookers and smiling supporters.
After a year of talking about doing it while drinking with my coworkers, I finally put my paddle where my mouth is!
Jerome, I told you I would do it one day!