First Love

Hundreds of Nautical Miles Were Paddled On the Hi-Fly

After returning from Kauai in 2008, where I first tried stand up paddling, I was lucky enough to have my friend, Tim, take me out in the Sound on one of his boards. At the time, I think there may have been four of us paddling in the South Sound, and all of us at that time began stand up paddling on old, reused windsurfers. Mine was the HiFly Corona 500. It was an inexpensive investment, like $25 from Craigslist cheap, and a lot of fun. I added deck pads and a leash attachment and paddled that thing everywhere for a good year before my first 'real' board. It's nice to have the newest gear, or the latest and greatest whatever, but it's not always necessary. In the end, it's whatever enables you to do what you enjoy doing. I still have a lot of love for the HiFly and the adventures we went on together. Sure it felt like I was paddling a log, but at the time, just being out, plying the Puget Sound's waters was enough. And it still is, and that's what I always remind myself.