Angulo Sea Shaka Fin & NB/Point RT Paddle

Wednesday June 29, 2011
I bagged one of the last of the first run Angulo Sea Shaka fins the day before the Jay Race. It seems that people bought up the first run batch of Sea Shaka's in a hurry and I felt fortunate to have gotten one of the last ones. But a new batch of fins is coming hot outta the RFC Factory in short order and should be available very soon if not now. For more on the Sea Shaka Fin or any Angulo products, contact Andy or Ed here.

The video has my review of the Angulo Sea Shaka fin and a brief summary of my round trip paddle from New Brighton to The Point. Again my tracking app, Every Trail, failed to track the entire trip. I suspect that is because part of that route is notorious for dropping cell phone reception. Once that connection is lost, the GPS goes down too. It's only happened twice, but both times in that location.

Today's round trip from New Brighton to The Point took about an hour and twenty minutes. Total distance as measured on the Google map was a shade over five miles. This averaged out to about 3.7 miles per hour which I consider good for me as there was a brisk head wind for the "uphill" 2.5 mile paddle from NB to the point. According to the Wunderground personal weather station located at the point, the wind was southwest at 6-13 mph with gusts only slightly greater than max wind. The wind never let up and neither did I. It was a damn good cardio and physical workout. But still, it felt really good to rest at the point, then let the wind turn me around and stroke downwind for New Brighton. My paddle felt like a hot knife cutting through butter for those first couple hundred downwind yards.

I'm really excited about how beneficial fitness stand up paddling is, much more productive than I originally speculated. Not only physically in strength, cardio and overall endurance, but spiritually as well. Being on the ocean is being in a wild and untamed place. Fifty yards from shore is the wilderness. Even more so a mile from shore on a small human powered vessel. It is a working, dynamic meditation. It is being closer to the power that created it, and us. The vastness of place, and the insignificance of person is real. The experience can order and/or re-order our thought processes and priorities. It's as close as we'll ever come to walking on water. The result is humbling.