As I approach my 41st birthday, still recovering from being hit on a vintage Vespa. I can accurately reflect on how long the road to this point has taken me. I recently picked up long-boarding and added a paddle to up the "work out" part of my daily sessions.
Relatively inexpensive
A quick search on Amazon will yield a plethora of choices, choose a drop deck board for added stability. You can find a selection of drop deck boards in the 40" range for around $100 new. Upgrade your bearings to ceramic, you will thank me later. Adding a paddle to the mix is really simple. Hit your local skate shop and any one of these x3 brands will give you a low, mid, and high end choice of paddles.
On the low end you can choose skatn.com bamboo paddle. It's a bamboo stick with recycled rubber on the ends for around $100. But beware of the availability. Though a great beginner paddle the recycled pads wear our rather quickly and since changing them was such a mission. I ended up just cutting off the end and adding a Big kahuna replacement rubber foot instead. Also, word on the street is manufacturing is fractured available easily and then a drought!
Skatn.com Youtube video: http://youtu.be/N7ZvGuxM7pQ
In the mid range you can choose a Kahuna big stick either wood or their new adjustable paddles for $100-$150 range. The advantage of the Big Kahuna sticks that I can see (I have not actually used one yet, hint hint Big K) are the replacement pads. On some of the older models the pads actually are reversible doughnuts. If you created a flat spot you could pop it off, spin it and bam, back in business. The adjustable sticks (also another hint Big K) is the ease of use for a couple. I'm 6' even and my wife is all of 5'3" an obvious height difference. The adjustable would work well because she could adjust for her height and on an "easy day" workout for me. I could adjust it to my specs.
Big Kahuna YouTube video: http://youtu.be/Xr8ExBKoQ5o
If your maxing out your "big boy toys" credibility then I would suggest dadipstick as the paddle of choice (I use the Skatn & Dip stick as my alternating paddles) for a heavy core/arms/chest workout! A quick search on YouTube will yield x3 videos of this relatively new paddle coming to market. Mine was randomly given to me while paddling on the Venetian one day by one of the founders. He flagged me down and handed me a fresh paddle straight from its factory packaging. He was carrying it in his truck and was compelled to hand me this amazing paddle.
Dadipstick YouTube video: http://youtu.be/9vsk2TXed8I
I am not one for endorsements but after dropping 10-12lbs in a month and actually having to adjust my shirts cause my arms are getting bigger. Or having my wife commenting daily on how good I am looking everyday!! I have to say this paddle is worth the early paddling pain!!! 👍
Like I said you don't have to have deep pockets or spend 3hrs daily to see results. Paddling daily is a great way to loose weight, trim down, bulk up (with a heavy paddle) and if your married, a great way to get your wife to stare at you like she used to when you guys were younger....
Off to sleep because I have to paddle in the morning. It's a new year and one of my goals this year is to paddle 1,000 miles this year... Also to all you "stick manufacturers" I am constantly looking to tweak my daily workouts. When I find something I like I rave about it. That's how I built our family business "word-of-mouth." Email me for my address and send your product for review. I may be a small blog but oh do I have reach....
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