Author Topic: San Diego SUP with Mike Pollard and John Ashley  (Read 4741 times)

iwaterman

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San Diego SUP with Mike Pollard and John Ashley
« on: July 21, 2007, 04:51:19 PM »
Today was one of the best sessions I've had in the last six months of doing SUP surfing.  Not because the waves were phenominal, but because I made one of my standard trips from La Jolla Shores up to Blacks with a great guy and fellow SUP'er, John Ashley, who has a blog site dedicated to SUP at www.paddlesurf.net

I had just launched and paddled down to the Marine room for a warm up and to see all of the Leopard sharks that congregate there every year.  The sea life there was tremendous and something only an SUP'er could see and appreciate.  There were Garabaldi, hundreds of Guitar fish, calico bass, and the beautiful leopard sharks, all just a few feet below my board and almost oblivious to my presence.  After my short stay at the marine room, I paddled back up the coast towards the Shores and saw John getting ready to paddle out.  I stopped and waited for him to introduce myself and by complete coincidence we had already communicated via email after he saw my web site - International Waterman.

John and I spoke for a few minutes and then I asked him if he was interested in making the paddle up to Blacks with me, which he said " heck yea" to.  We started the 20 minute paddle and talked the entire way about our recent SUP experiences, which were all  - oddly enough - very similar.  We caught some nice waves - both rights and lefts -  for about and hour and a half, met a guy and his son that came down from San Clemente, all the while with ear-to-ear grins and having a blast.

John is a great guy to paddle with and an avid waterman.  It seems that the attitude and demeanor of SUP'ers is different than your average surfer.  I haven't figured it out yet, but maybe its the  freedom that SUP allows us.  Freedom from the constraints of surfing in one spot as opposed to and 'area'.  Freedom from the crowds and freedom to stop and enjoy the ocean and not just the waves.

John is absolutley stoked on SUP and has some great ideas to promote the sport.  When you get a chance, go to his web site and check out his pictures and stories from Baja, Mx.

Mahalos and aloha,

Mike Pollard
Founder - International Waterman

paddlesurf.net

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Re: San Diego SUP with Mike Pollard and John Ashley
« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2007, 09:09:59 AM »
Howdy!

Mike: that was a great day- beautiful water, clean, fun, Black's beach wedges! Thanks for the kind words- can't wait to do that down winder. Probably the best part was seeing how stoked that kid was on grabbing the "wave of the day" on his little thruster- couldn't wipe the smile off his (and his dad's) face- it was cool to see two SUP guys (us) and two shortboarders getting along, laughing and sharing waves. I think I saw Mike pull into a little tube too but he's too modest to claim it- a good guy. Safe to say that like the Terminator, "I'll be back"!

A bunch of locals from IB with at least three different paddle boards and assorted water toys are meeting at Grand Caribe park in the Coronado Cays today (7-22) between 1 and 2pm if any local paddlers are interested in hanging out and chatting. We call it "family fun day" so there'll probably be little guys, dogs and such- it's a fun spot for some flatwater back bay paddling too.

See you in the water!

John Ashley



 


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