Author Topic: Urban SUPing in Fort Lauderdale  (Read 1291 times)

Weeble

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Urban SUPing in Fort Lauderdale
« on: March 19, 2012, 04:06:04 PM »
Had a fun adventure on St. Patrick’s Day.  My girl and I decided to paddle a full loop that we found on the map of the New River system.  Part of that loop is close to where we put in by our house and we have paddled it a few times and have enjoyed it because it’s a quiet little canal that is usually full of manatees.  So, we checked our map and figured, what the hell, we’ll take the main part of the New River out thru the downtown area before the holiday boat traffic heated up, catch the loop, and come back the quiet and safe way…

We almost got out of the big waterway without incident…until two party boats came thru, going opposite directions and the surge shoved me way over as I was trying to get around one last piling.  I knew it was going to be bad, so I dropped to my knees for balance and ALMOST made it…and then bam, right into the piling.  However, it had plastic barrier on it, and somehow, my board came away without any damage. 

Anyway, we made it to the fork we needed to take just has the boats really began pouring into downtown.  So, off we go on a nice and easy paddle thru the Rio Vista area which is just full of beautiful properties, beautiful boats, and just overall a very relaxing paddle…until we came to Andrews Avenue just south of Davie Blvd.

The Maps show the waterway flowing thru the entire loop.  What it doesn’t show, is that the bridge at Andrews Avenue is a solid bridge, with a few of the big tubes that go thru it for the water to pass.  We usually just lay flat on our boards and hand paddle under the many low bridges in the area, but this wasn’t the case.  The tide was going out, so it was getting a little stinky as well.  So, we paddle to the edge, hop off and carry the boards up the muddy bank, up around the embankment and out onto Andrews Avenue.  We got some funny looks as we crossed 6 lanes of traffic covered in mud and carrying 11ft boards to the other side of the bridge so that we could dump back in again.  Some crazy broad on a scooter shouted something at us, but I answered with my finger.

So, we drop back in and keep paddling for another hundred yards or so until we hit the FEC train trestle bridge.  Again, low tide and nothing but big rocks.  So we hopped off and I grabbed the nose and my girl grabbed the tail and we walked bent over with our backs against the bottom of the trestle as we worked slowly over the furry, slippery rocks until we got thru.  Then we doubled back for the other board.

From then on it was smooth paddling and we had to laugh, and pat our own backs for not giving up.  With the traffic that we saw heading down the main river, there was no going back anyway!
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supthecreek

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Re: Urban SUPing in Fort Lauderdale
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2012, 10:30:07 PM »
NSP
I lived on my boat in the islands for 7 months...made the trip from New England to the Bahamas and back.

The absolute WORST wave conditions we saw during our voyage was...
                  Ft Lauderdale... Saturday afternoon... when a bridge reopened and it was off to the races... huge boats everywhere... putting up BIG wakes that rebounded back and forth off the bulkheads... Yikes :'(
       
I wouldn't want to be caught in that maelstrom on a Paddle Board :o

The freeway crossing was the right choice.

 


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