Stand out!

 

 

My stare is fixated on the water in front of me as I wonder if this is what an LSD induced trance feels like. I am mesmerized by the kaleidoscope of patterns appearing on the surface, constantly changing and distracting me from my task. The silence was deafening and I found myself for a brief moment, lost inside my inner cortex, deep within a complex web of electrical pathways and synapses. The patterns were continually morphing into yet another “trip” inducing screen-saver right in front of my very eyes.

 

All of a sudden, I caught myself and regained my balance just before I fell off my paddleboard to get another soaking!

 

I am on Okanagan Lake, and this is the penultimate day of my latest adventure, the first one in Canada for a long time. Typically I travel overseas to climb mountains, scare myself racing motorbikes or cars through deserts or generally have a lot of fun doing what some people deem to be slightly crazy.

 

This time however, I was in my own back yard. I have lived in Peachland with my family for 12 years now. It is a place I love to come back to as I travel the globe in search of more donors for our charity. We have a “lazy” acreage in the hills above the lake, it is a quiet respite for me to be able to recover from the most recent adventure. It never takes very long before I turn the whole house into mayhem again, planning the next adventure.

 

I had explored some of the local lakeshore in the past but to my knowledge nobody had paddled around the entire perimeter of the lake before on a paddleboard. It never was my plan either, but now I find myself here, somewhere between Naramata and Peachland heading for the ominously titled Rattle Snake Island. The steep cliffs on the east shore tower above me as I admire the reflection in the mirror calm water today. Even more ominously, Rattle Snake Island is rumoured to host the underground home of the rather shy but reportedly large Ogopogo, our domestic equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster. Thankfully, there has been no sign of the Ogopogo for the past few days on our trip.

 

This adventure started about a year ago. I met Peter Dodenhoff, a local Paddleboard instructor and enthusiast. I introduced myself and asked if he knew any paddleboarders who would like to accompany me on a swim around the lake (nobody had done that either)! I needed some “outriders” to keep boats away from me as I attempted to be the first person to swim around the lake. I had never tried paddleboarding before and so Peter suggested I come out and give it a try before I commit to swimming. 

 

My first real paddleboard experience was an unexpected downwind run in a Force 6 wind from Peachland to Kelowna. I have no idea how many times I fell in. The freak winds came out of nowhere at the same time as some idiot had dropped a cigarette but in a parking lot 500m from my house and sparking the biggest fire Peachland has seen in many years. As I looked back and saw vast amounts of smoke spewing onto the lake in a fiercely strong Katabatic flow, I could only wonder if my family was okay and hope that when I finally got to Kelowna, I would be able to contact them somehow... for now I had to focus on surviving the next 13 kilometres in what appeared to me to be gigantic waves!

 

Interestingly after that slightly epic paddle, I was hooked. Out of that experience was borne, the SUP4Life. A charitable paddle adventure around Okanagan Lake together with my new friend, Peter Dodenhoff.

 

For the rest of the article, follow this link http://markjenningsbates.com/stand-out/