As many of you may already know, I have been living in a Surf Ashram for the last month or so. I've been here because the city of Pune does not have much going on in general, let alone a location for me to get on the water and do some training paddles.
So, here I am, trying to find new places to paddle! The river is beautiful, and the surf is good (some days). One day, Kishore here at the Ashram says, "There are some big rocks off shore, you could probably paddle to..."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, only 3 miles off shore if we drive North"
"How far if I paddle from here?"
"Check Google Earth."
It was only approximately 10 miles out from my roughly drawn line, so I figured I would do it to change up the scenery.
At first, it was just me going for a paddle. Then the guys were like, "there may be boats," and "last time we were *some nearby location* cops came and started beating us..."
That was all I needed to hear to hire a chase boat! Finding a chase boat was an adventure in itself... If I didn't have the guys to help, I would have been out of luck. I guess that's why they are Surfing India!!
Once I had a boat, everyone at the Ashram wanted to go to the rocks! Then their friends wanted to go, and their friend's friends.. You get the point.
Then, as the day of paddling drew closer and closer Kiran said, "It would be really cool if we (Kiran, Sham, and Druva) did the paddle with you!"
There was no talking them out of it, not that I tried. I mentioned that it would be hard considering I had the only displacement hull board over 11 feet long, and they would venture out on 2 NSP all-arounds and my 8'6" Hobie Torque. These guys don't know the meaning of the word hard, they made it ALL THE WAY to the rocks, which ended up being 12 miles, without stopping!
Let me repeat that. Twelve miles. Nineteen kilometers. Kiran on an 8 foot 6 inch board. Sham on a 10 foot NSP all-around, and an incredibly heavy fiberglass adjustable paddle. Druva on an 11 foot NSP all-around, and the same extremely heavy paddle.
These guys ROCK!!!
We had a blast, then Corey and I paddled back the 12 miles. I logged 25 miles for the day, and some awesome snorkeling and cliff jumping.
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