Girlfriend tries the board

[JohnnyMaya]

My Gf is also a SUPer and she has a Starboard Tiki 8'0"x 26" as her first board.

First time she tried it all went so well that I could only get to one explanation:
Women's paddling skills are immense because of long practice with the broomstick.

LOL

As you all may guess, she isn't a huge fan of this theory ...

[Glider]

Brings back memories of my first windsurfing lesson with 3 women and 1 guy in Long beach CA 1982.  5 hour lesson with a land simulator then in the water,  all 3 women took off with very little issues.  Myself and the other know it all, because we both were long time surfers, stuggled.  After and hr of pure frustration, and more coaching from the instuctor.  We still were fighting it.  I think we were more pissed off at the fact we were being put to shame by our female companions.  At the end of it all we were educated to the fact we were man-handing things, trying to control & force things with our limited knowledge of the sport.  Where as the women had paid better attention to detail and let the equipment do the work.  Going with the flow and guiding things as it were.  They went home less tired and I'm sure they had more fun.  Now it's standup, in 4 yrs I have helped a few friends, men and women get started.  Same as 82, the women don't force the issue and the do listen better, and off they go exclaiming this is fun !I don't know, maybe they are smarter than we.  Cheer up guys they still need us for the tough stuff like, board cady and straping the boards on top of the van. 

Keep paddlin !

[headmount]

I'll ditto what everyone says about the girls and especially what Glider says about lifting the boards on and off the truck.  My job, mostly because I don't trust anyone else anymore to do it right, especially if it's my board.  I learned the hard way and had my board almost blow off my truck once and caught it.  The girl who was supposed to be holding it down said, "my boyfriend always does this for me." It took awhile but I digested that.  But aside from the lifting I also do towing.  Shirley weighs 100 and used to be a champion one-design wndsrfr.  These days she gets a run on the beach and maybe a swim but not much more than that.  So I take her out to Maliko.  Everything is fine paddling out the calm bay, her stroke is crap but she's moving.  Then we hit the wind line and the board does a hard left... no angle whatsoever.  The rocks were looming.  So I towed her out to the line.  Then she stood up and flew downwind.  I actually had to put steam on to keep up.  Blew my mind.  Opened my mind up to the strength to weight ratio thing.  Weight is the bigger factor in the equation cuz she has no power.  So yeah, I'm a crane and a tug boat.  My recommendation is don't turn your girlfriend on to any SUP unless you want to be one or both of these functions.

[Weasels wake]

This thread is funny and so true in so many ways.

1) Women are better at finesse, that's why they pick up finesse type sports so much better than us slugs do, SUP, windsurfing, skiing, all being finesse sports.
2) I used to be married to a windsurfer, she was good at it, but it didn't matter, I was her crane and tug boat more often than not.
3) Be careful what you wish for, having a sweet babe as being your water partner does have it's limitations, as Harry Calahan once said, "A man's got to know his limitations", and it does have a way of expressing itself when having a sig. other that goes into the water with you, I'll just let you think about the details, they're are many.

All that being said, I'm a sucker for a pretty face, that face belonging to my longtime, live-in girlfriend.
I'm facing a longtime physical therapy session, I'm having both hands operated on for "severe" Carpel Tunnel Syndrome, been out of the water for over a month, and won't be back into the water for another two months at least.
But when I go back in, I've got a lot of muscle rebuilding to do, I can see my arms shrinking already, it so sucks.
Anyway the best therapy I can think of is flat water paddling, and lots of it.
So she says, "lots of flatwater paddling, so if I wanted, I could join you, right?"
She has no interest in surf or sharks, she won't go there, but flatwater in bays?  No problem.

So now I'm going to have a paddling partner for my therapy, I've only got one board, but here is an opportunity.
I've been wanting a shorter more strictly wave oriented board, so now I'm going to get one 'for her', yeah, right, but I am.  But if she wants to use my JL 10-4, she can, no prob.
I'm just wonderig how long it will take her to figure it out.  Whenever I go SUPing in the surf by myself, it will be 'her' board that I'll be using mostly.

Theoretically, life has a way of working out, but it's all in the way you set it up.

[headmount]

WW... SO summer has come and gone and I have one question for you (no, its not, do you feel lucky... but maybe)... how's that working out for you?

[Shark]

Never thought I'd be contributing to this thread, but my wife (who usually never goes near the water) decided she wanted to try SUP so I took her out on Green Lake in Seattle.  The start was a little shakey but she never fell in and on the way home all she could talk about was wanting to do it again!  Maybe we've found something we can do together which is important now that we're "empty nesters".

[Weasels wake]

WW... SO summer has come and gone and I have one question for you (no, its not, do you feel lucky... but maybe)... how's that working out for you?

Excellent, I picked up an 8-10 Star-board Wide Point, easy for girls to learn on, like my daughter, took to it right off, never SUPed before, then she wanted to try my longer board, she loved it ("it goes straighter and faster dad"), so I'm in business with her anyway.
Now as soon as my girlfriend gets back into town (in a couple of days), I'll see if I can hit a home run again,,,,,,,, I can see it going over the fence right now.  

[Glider]

Use some of your political prowess and buy a third board for her, one every one could use.     

If you play it right you can a 3 board quiver, a board for all conditions !

[cole gnar]

My mpm and girlfriend both like sup, my moms in love with it like i am but my dads the stubborn one. wont have anything to do with it so me and my mom are working him hard. hes missing out! big time!