First Flat Water Paddle Session Of The Year: March 30, 2019

[Night Wing]

A little history.

During the third week of September of 2018, I severely injured my left knee. To make a long story short, I had a "trifecta" as the saying goes. I twisted my left knee which produced a partial tear of my meniscus. I also twisted the tendons and ligaments in the knee. And to top it off, when my left knee hit the ground, under some leaves, my left knee hit an exposed sweetgum tree root. These roots are as hard as concrete and it gave my left knee a bone bruise.

My orthopedic surgeon had an MRI done and it showed the partial tear of my meniscus. A partial tear of the meniscus is not the same thing as a torn meniscus. The two are different animals although closely related. My surgeon told me the partial tear may never tear to the outside of the edge of the meniscus so there would be no surgery. He also said many people have partial tears of the meniscus in one of their knees and they don't even know it because these types of tears are so small, they don't produce any pain for many people. Partial tears never heal either. And they may never tear any further to become a full blown torn meniscus. My discomfort back then was due the stretched ligaments, tendons in the knee and the bone bruise on the side of the patella.

My surgeon gave me some exercises for the knee over the Fall and Winter months. Eventually, the ligaments and tendons healed up and the bone bruise went away. The last thing my surgeon said to me was, "When the ligaments, tendons heal up and the bone bruise goes away, don't baby the knee". He told me to do what ever I wanted to do outdoor activity wise.

Fast forward to yesterday (Saturday). Before Saturday, the preceding 6 days prior to Saturday, the weather had been quite warm. We had one day where the high temperature at my home was 86 degrees F. This warm weather has made the water temperature in the two lakes in our subdivision where I live, get up to 71 degrees F. But Saturday was going to bring a cold front to our area where the daytime highs will be in the 50's and 60's with the night time lows in the mid 30's to low 40's. This cold front was forecasted to arrive at my home around 3:00 pm.

So I decided to take my 11'1" sup, by walking about 150 yards, to the largest of our two lakes in the subdivision to beat the incoming cold front. I got down to the largest lake at 11:15 am, I was feeling a little hesitant because of my left knee. So I decided to see if I could sit "indian style" (Apache) with crossed legs on my board. I could and there was no discomfort. Then I gave my left knee the acid test. I wanted to see if I could sit my rear end onto the calves and backs of my thighs. I could and again there was no pain in my left knee.

With that said, I placed both of my feet on the sweet spot of my board and stood straight up. Put my paddle blade and the water and starting to paddle. I paddled the length of the lake and back again. I did this many times during the time I was down at the lake with some short breaks inbetween to keep my legs from feeling "tired".

But I kept my eye on the northwest part of the sky. Later, I could see the clouds in the northwest part of the sky getting dark looking. I knew the front was fast approaching. Returning to my launching spot, I walked back to my house with my board. Just as reached my home, the rain starting coming down in sheets. So I cleaned my board and paddle in my garage, towel dried them both and went inside. The time when I went inside my house said 2:35 pm.

I enjoyed my first paddle session of the year on the lake. I saw lots of sunfish and small largemouth black bass in the shallows. Our two lakes are very clean and you can see down about 3'. The red eared slider turtles were out in abundance too along with a few soft shell turtles. And the spring peeper frogs were calling also. Saw a few blue herons trying to catch a few sunfish to make a meal for themselves.

When I got back into the house, my left knee felt fine. When I awoke this Sunday morning, again my left knee felt fine. By this mid week, the daytime air temperature will be back in the mid 70's which should find me back on the lake again for "Round 2". 

[deepmud]

Hurray for your first trip out! I'm wishing I had gone today - the lakes are iced over but my favorite stream is open enough for a 1/2 mile paddle. I actually got to go paddling a few months ago on a work trip to Texas last December - first test of my new fake 1/2 knee (stryker) .  Standing was suprisingly "ok" considering I still needed a cane some of the time.

Glad to hear you are on the water. Keep on Keeping on

[Night Wing]

My first trip out on the largest lake in our subdivision this year was basically a test for my left knee with it's partial tear in the meniscus. Since no surgery was required, I was wondering how my left knee would react. And I must say, when one knows there is a partial tear in the meniscus and the surgeon says surgery isn't required, there is always a little skepticism on the one's (me) part. Especially when my surgeon said, "don't baby the left knee".

So my first trip was also a confidence builder for me. Since I knew I had the partial tear, I thought my left knee would have some limitations and this is why my first trip out was primarily all about since I injured the left knee last September of 2018.

Since the left knee felt strong and with no discomfort of any kind, I tried out a few modified surf stances with both of my feet planted on different places around the middle length of my board. In other words, placing my left foot forward of my grip handle with the right foot behind the grip handle depending on how far in inches my left and right feet were from the handle grip.

This modified surf stance on flat water also gave me an unexpected twist on paddle length. With a parallel foot stance on the sweet spot of my 11'1" x 30" width board, with my adjustable length paddle with it's 75 square inch blade, I liked the 71" length. But with a modified surf stance, the 71" length didn't "feel right". It felt short. By changing paddle lengths, what "felt right" was a 75" paddle length. More experimentation is in order for me on flat water since a 4" difference from 71" for a parallel stance to 75" for a modified surf stance is quite large.

Since I live about 90 miles north/northwest from Galveston, Texas; this Tuesday's morning low temperature at my home will be around 36 degrees F, but next Saturday's morning temperature will be around 64 degrees F. At this time of the year in southeast Texas, there are wide temperature swings. And I don't wear a wetsuit either. Just water shoes, old socks to keep my water shoes from chafing my bare feet, my old long quick drying fishing pants, long sleeve quick drying fishing shirt, a flats hat with a long 5" bill with floating sunglasses when I'm flat water paddling. The lowest water tempeature I can stand to keep me from shivering, dressed like this, is 66 degrees F.

So this coming Saturday or Sunday, barring another cold front, I hope to be back on the lake for more experimentation with modified surf stances in conjunction with different paddle lengths. Most of my flat water paddle sessions are usually 2 hours long, but last Saturday's session was 3 hours long. At least I now know my left knee can stand a long 3 hour flat water paddling session.

 

[Badger]

How many times did you fall off the board?   

[Night Wing]

@ Badger

I didn't fall into the water on my Saturday's flat water paddling session. If I was going to fall, I figured it would happen within the first 15 minutes of riding the board and something in my left knee would give way (collapse) or feeling a sudden sharp pain in the left knee would cause me to lose my balance and I'd fall into the water.

With my physical weight of 146 lbs (right now) and my board's 11'1" length, 30" width (at it's widest width) and 173 liters of volume, my board does "not" feel corky to me. Even though I had not been on the water since later September of 2018, getting on the board for the very first time knowing my left knee was suspect, my mind was looking for that stable feeling I had when I didn't have any left knee problems and this board gives me a "stable feeling", not tippy.

This is why I custom ordered my board at 173 liters instead of the normal production made board which is 200 liters. For some reason my physical weight varies from 144 lbs (in Summer months) to 146 lbs (during Winter months). So my body likes relatively low volume boards for my physical weight and with my cranky lower back (which hasn't acted up in over the last 18 months), I don't like to go with really low performance volume liter boards like some of you do and I don't tempt fate by going under 30" in width. With my weight and parameters of this board, I get a "stable feeling".

So with the parameters of my board and my own personal physical preferences for standup paddle boarding, my mind remembered this "stable feeling" from last year's (2018) flat water paddling sessions and this is why I didn't fall during this flat water paddling session....is the best way I can describe it. Sort of like when one learns how to swim as an analogy. Once you learn how to swim, even if you haven't been swimming for 15 years, you don't forget how to swim. The mind remembers how to swim.

My 11'1" board was specifically ordered by me for my flat water paddling sessions and at 173 liters and with my 146 lbs (at the moment), I also knew it would be able to handle the types of waves (tiny, small, medium or large as in over head high) that I would encounter where I sup surf on the upper Texas coast (Bolivar Peninsula, Galveston Island, Surfside ((Texas)) and last but not least, bow tanker wave sup surfing). This is also why I had my board custom built with 5 fin boxes instead of the production made board which comes standard with 3 fin boxes.

If I'm going to fall off this board, it always happens when I'm sup surfing due to a variety of reasons (my own mistakes or Mother Nature's curve balls it throws at me wave wise which I can't handle quick enough) and is a separate topic for another day since this topic thread is not about sup surfing.

[surfercook]

Nice recount of your first paddle. Glad to hear your back in the game. nothing like paddling to clear one's mind and rejuvenate the body.