Hopefully this post will coherent as I am not at this point. Started the day at 7:00am riding the 48 mile Cup and Cone Tour for the MS Society. The route included Col de Lystra and Damascus that totally kick butt for climbs and considering the temp was already in the 90's when we started, I was ready to SAG in from the 24 mile turn around. But I persevered up until a wasp, bee or hornet landed on my lip and stung me right inside my mouth. Luckily I am not allergic, but I did SAG the last six miles. From there it was a mad dash home to shower and head over to the Durham REI store for their paddle sale today. I guess I should elaborate on my previous SUP efforts first. About a week and half ago another outdoor store held a boat demo and I tried a Surftech Randy French 11. Compared to my old Hobie Alhpa 230a, it was like standing on a padded carpet floor compared to a Reebok unstable exercise platform. So I was pretty sure if I could find the right board at the right price, I would buy one. So back to REI, when I was over there a couple of weeks ago they were handing out flyers for the paddle event today and the deal was 15% off any canoe, Kayak or SUP board. Now the really interesting thing was they had an Ocean Kayak Nalu hybrid SUP in stock. This was weird as the REI web site said web only and the site has been out of stock on the Nalu for at least the past week. So I figured I would show up several hours into the event and find the Nalu sold, but it was my lucky day, front row parking, Nalu in stock, and 15% off plus the dividend I built up when I bought my Bic Jungle Paddle a couple of months ago. Hopefully I will get some time to try it out this week before the weekend, but it's so dang hot here right now. Even water sports are not appealing at the moment. Hopefully a good night's sleep will get me rejuvenated for Sunday. I will try and review the Nalu after few outings.
