Day on the Lake

Today was a special day. It stated at 5am in the 7-11 parking lot at Squaw. I met up with some guys there, and we set out on our mission to Paddle Board across Lake Tahoe in honor of people who have suffered from Traumatic Brain Injuries. We drove down to Camp Richardson on the South Shore where we were going to start the journey. After waiting for the safety boats to come we decided that this was turning out to be a pretty gnarly mission we had ahead of us. We took a group conscious and decide, since we had people who had never been on Paddle Boards before(me), that we would drive up the lake and try to find an easier spot to start from. We found ourselves at Meeks Bay with a better feeling about it. After taking a group photo, with no hesitation, everyone was on there way. No long than 10 mins. had gone by I found myself, with all my clothes on, gracefully doing the back stroke in the water. Those things aren't the easiest things to stand on. Once I struggled my way back up on the board, I proceeded with caution, looking ahead of me just to see a couple of other people doing the back stroke as well, I laughed and took a look around me and realized I was standing in Lake Tahoe, it doesn't get much better than that.


At this point there was about 7 of us scattered out way behind the rest of the pack. the 7 of us once again made a group conscious that we were going to hug the shore and watched the others shoot straight across the lake. No longer than an hour later the 7 of us, Tag, Charles, Rob, Dave, Jay, Chris and myself, found ourselves in the middle of this beautiful rain storm. I mean, it was raining, but it was raining on us in the lake. This is where I learned my lesson of the day. In action sports I have always admired the athletes that put themselves in a situation and then stand up for themselves and say this is not the time for this to go down and back out. It takes a real person and a real professional to do that. And that is what we did. We approached Obaxters and pulled out, this trip would have to be continued on another day. After I admired these peoples for their decision we stripped off our wet clothes, put some warm ones on, and set out to Sunnyside to get some food in our bellies. We checked in with other group of guys that went for it up the middle to find that they were all safe and sound also. So in all everyone got together for a good cause and gave it hell. To me it was a very successful adventure. Thanks for letting me share that with you all.