When in doubt, paddle out! This was our mantra for our first paddle boarding adventure. Ella bear was a little nervous about this new experience, as would anyone who was on a wobbly board in the middle of a lake but as soon as she got the hang of it, she began to really enjoy the ride.
Paddle boarding had been on my bucket list of things to do with Ella, so this was an adventure I was very excited about. We knew we wanted to get to the lake before sunrise to beat the heat, so we rented a blow up paddle board from a local shop and picked it up the day before. That way we could just wake up and head out.
Once we found a good launch spot at Saguaro Lake, we started pumping and filling the paddle board with air. It took some effort but it was easier than I expected. We filled it to the suggested 15 ISP. And then came the interesting part – getting Ella on the board. She was not at all interested in getting on this strange floating device. We thought the best way was to try and get her on the board to see what she thought. She ended up jumping off and swimming to shore – TWICE! Third time’s a charm, right? Well it definitely helped to have another person there because we decided I should get on the board first and once I was seated comfortably with my legs hanging off each side, Josh would pass her to me. This was the strategy that worked! And as we paddled out, I could tell Ella was still nervous because she was glued to me and just laid her head on my leg as she came to terms with her fate.
Soon Ella realized there was nothing to be afraid of. She stood on her four legs a couple times but didn’t move around too much. For the majority she laid right in front of me, making sure some part of her was in constant contact with me.
I decided to stay seated for most of our paddling so Ella could get used to the rocking and balancing act of it all. But by the end of it, I wanted to try and stand – after all it is “stand up” paddle boarding. By then Ella was much more relaxed. You can see her back leg comfortably hanging off the board and her yawning. I must not have been going fast enough for her! 😂
Returning to shore was bittersweet. We weren’t ready to leave but it was getting too hot. We had tried to paddle alongside the mountains for shade but the sun found us. So we paddled back. We hopped off and started to pack up.
I gotta say this was definitely one of my favorite activities I’ve gotten to do with Ella. It felt so good to be out on the water, to see her beautiful fluffy face smelling the light breeze, and to also get some exercise cause paddling is a nice work out. I hope to buy a paddle board one day because I can see this being something we do quite often.
A few things we packed for our trip:
- Dog life jacket (Ella is wearing one from RuffWear – color: Blue Atoll)
- Long leash (We brought a 14ft leash to tie her to the paddle board)
- Water proof bag/box to store any valuables that you don’t want to fall into the water (For us that was our cell phones, car keys and an extra battery for the GoPro)
- Snacks (we brought treats for Ella and Fig bars for the humans)
MY PUPVENTURES 