{"id":19341,"date":"2015-05-26T20:33:41","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T19:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/?p=19341"},"modified":"2015-05-26T20:33:41","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T19:33:41","slug":"stand-up-paddle-boarding-on-the-leri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2015\/05\/stand-up-paddle-boarding-on-the-leri\/","title":{"rendered":"Stand Up Paddle-Boarding on the Leri"},"content":{"rendered":"

I finally had the chance to take Morgan out for a Stand-up-Paddleboard session today. The conditions weren’t ideal as it was actually quite breezy, but we’d planned a session on the afternoon so that’s what we did. I went for an early morning swim, then did some work at home, followed by a mowing of the lawn and some work in the garden. We then had a quick lunch and popped up to inspect the bees. It was only a quick inspection though as it was quite cold and windy in the apiary so I\u00a0didn’t want to keep the hive open for too long.<\/p>\n

We then climbed into our wetsuits and headed down to the estuary. After slip-sliding our way across the mud flats we popped the SUP in the water. Morgan jumped on the front and sat on the deck there, while I stood behind him manning the paddle. We had planned to go up into the Leri as it’s quite a nice little route. We had timed it so that we’d have an incoming tide for a while, but the tide would turn and we’d have the tide with us on the way back as well. The wind however wasn’t quite so accommodating as it was a nice tailwind there, but would be an ever increasing headwind for the trip back. We therefore made good progress out around the sandback and into the channel and then off into the mouth of the Leri. We saw some curlew and lapwing on the mud flats as we glided past, and then\u00a0and the sights of the boatyard and the various moored boats as we entered the River Leri, first under the road bridge and then under the railway bridge.<\/p>\n

Once into the\u00a0Leri we were sheltered from the wind a little and the water was fairly calm in places. To make things a little more interesting I was doing 100m easy, followed by 100m hard. Strangely though despite the extra efforts on the hard stints, our time for the 100m wasn’t any quicker. Slow and steady seems to be just as good as hard and strong -unless of course it’s a workout that you are after. With the wind and tide on our sides we were doing 100m in around 53 seconds.<\/p>\n

After a while we turned around and started to head back, this time against the wind. Our 10m pace immediately dropped to around 1 min 30 secs but we were still making good progress. We stopped to chat and mess around here and there and \u00a0I asked Morgan\u00a0to take some photos. This was all that seems to be on the camera though – not quite what I was after, but it’ll have to do.<\/p>\n

\"Leri\"<\/a>

Leri<\/p><\/div>\n

Back under the bridges and then out into yet more wind. As we came out of the Leri we passed a few fisherman on the banks and even saw one of them catch a fish. We have still be unsuccessful with the fishing, but will have to try again soon. The wind was now increasing and as we turned west our of the Leri we were heading directly into it. The chop was getting bigger and progress slowed at time to a painful 2 mins 30 secs per 100m. We were still going in the direction we wanted though rather than backwards so we pushed on back to the beach where the car was parked. Morgan had a quick go and standing up and paddling, but he was quite cold by now and the wind wasn’t helping so we’ll save the proper SUPing for another day.<\/p>\n

Not a bad way to spend an hour or so of a half term day. I had a bit of a workout and Morgan had fun too. I wonder where we can explore on the SUP next?<\/p>\n