Board? Don’t be.
Paddleboarding adventures await, in Manzanita
By Gretchen Ammerman
Oregon Coast TODAY
I have tried many things over the years for stories in the Oregon Coast TODAY, including strapping on a pair of roller skates and practicing for a few months with a roller derby team, getting into a tiny plane and looking down on our beautiful coastline from miles above, and even trying a pole dancing workout when that was the next big thing. But in general, once the ink is dry on the story, I move on.
Not so with stand-up paddle boarding, which I liked enough to incorporate into my outdoor fitness routines. Though I could soon get around without falling into the water I suspected I could still use some tips to improve my technique, so I enlisted the help of certified instructor and overall badass Janice Gaines-Ehlen of SUP Manzanita, who, at 60, is fitter than most people half her age.
Janice and her husband and business partner, Michael Ehlen, teach SUPing on the relatively safe and undeniably lovely Nehalem River.
“It’s as simple to learn as a walk in the park,” Janice said. “It’s way easier to learn than how to ride a bike. Only about one in every 10 of my students even fall into the water during a lesson, and that’s usually because they get distracted by something like a bald eagle flying overhead so stop focusing on their balance.”
After having done it on my own three whole times, I was secretly hoping Janice would compliment me on my technique, but let’s just say, she had notes. I was apparently holding my paddle in such a way that I was missing a great deal of the possible power in my stroke. Once I went out on my own after our lesson and used my improved paddling prowess, I was noticeably sore in my triceps and back muscles, which is a good thing.
“One thing that’s great about SUPing is that you can make it anything you want,” Janice said. “You can meditate on the board, pull over and take a nap, even do yoga. But it can also give you a killer workout.”
One of the questions Janice often gets is if students need to be in good physical shape to take a lesson with her.
“We welcome all ages and all levels of fitness,” she said. “You don’t even have to know how to swim. You do need to be able to kneel, stand and paddle, but there is no pressure to do anything you are not comfortable with.”
The versatility of the sport also makes it the perfect recreation for people with extra physical challenges.
“I’ve had people with all varieties of physical disabilities,” Janice said. “I even taught a blind woman and she did an amazing job and had a fantastic time.”
Harder, but not impossible to work with are mental challenges.
“I don’t recommend trying it if you are truly terrified of water,” Janice said. “But if you are ready to face that fear this is a great way to do it. I’ve definitely worked with people on this issue and it can be very rewarding. I had a girl recently who had some breakthrough moments on overcoming her fear during a lesson and the looks on her face were priceless.”
Trusting the equipment helps, and according to Janice one seemingly small thing makes a big impact.
“The most important thing if you are in conditions that could change is that you should always be wearing a leash that’s attached to the board,” she said. “That is your most effective floatation device, and being attached to it can give you that extra level of confidence.”
Janice has been a trainer for more than half her life and has professionally taught swimming, skiing and competitive cycling. She has also been a sports massage therapist for more than 20 years, focusing on injury rehabilitation and chronic pain injury.
Her personal sports resume includes cycling with a gold medal-winning team representing the USA in the Olympics, alpine skiing at the professional level and winning an Oregon state body-building championship.
And though she gets a great deal of joy from putting more people on SUPs on flat water, her happy place is on the waves.
“I absolutely love surfing on a SUP,” she said. “It gives you a whole different feeling and vantage point than regular surfing or river SUPing. All of our beginner lessons are on the river, but if people are ready to progress to the next level and want to do a private lesson in the ocean, I’m open to it.”
All required equipment is provided in the lesson. For more information or to sign up for a lesson on the North Coast, go to www.supmanzanita.com.
Further south in Lincoln City, SUP lessons and equipment rental are available at Safari Town Surf Shop, which just recently celebrated 30 years in business. Tony and Jeanne Gile’s family-owned-and-operated business now offers a growing list of services, including a skateboarding department, kayak tours and fat-tire bike rentals. Safari Town is still a family business, with two of the three Gile kids, Kevin and Kendal, working in the shop or outdoors as instructors.
“We actually call we do tours instead of lessons,” Jeanne said. “We take people out on Devils Lake, so it’s kind of a combination lesson and guided experience of the lake.”
The tour lasts about one and a half hours but the equipment rental is for 24 hours, so you can play around on your own and perfect your technique before returning the board. For more information, go to safaritownsurf.com.
The other morning, I SUPed on the Siletz River and was the only person around for the entire hour of my session. Swallows flitted and swooped like little sky clowns over my head and, every once in a while, a fish would jump out of the water and complete an arc before plunging back into the river. The light was soft and the moss-covered rocks and thick stands of mixed evergreen and deciduous trees lining the route reflected in an almost perfect mirror image on the still water.
Though I have yet to train Scout to be an onboard dog, with a thermos of hot coffee strapped to the deck and some ’70s one-hit wonders pumping through my headphones, it made for an almost perfect morning.