What’s SUP?

Fun on Stand Up Boards

Stand Up Paddle (SUP) boarding is an outdoor water adventure that delivers excitement, balance, ease and confidence. Not much equipment is needed, and what’s needed can easily fit in a car: an inflatable paddle board, a paddle, a helmet (for river riding), a personal floatation device and “gripe” water shoes.

SUP started taking off in 2005. By 2013, it was the outdoor sporting activity that tallied the most first-time participants of any in the United States! Take look down any local river or lake and you’ll see people using SUPs to surf, for yoga and to ride the river.

The first dedicated SUP store opened in California in 2007, and now, we have own local store in Carbondale.

Shaboomee, owned by Shaine Ebrahimi, designs and manufactures SUPs, rents SUPs, provides SUP
yoga and fitness classes, and organizes clinics and retreats. Shaine runs the company with the love of his life, Mary. Both are SUP instructors and guides who have been teaching and guiding SUP enthusiasts on our local rivers and lakes for more than seven years.

The Roaring Fork Valley is full of great whitewater spots, perfect for your SUP. One favorite place for local fun is the Glenwood Springs Whitewater Park. It’s the first man-made whitewater feature built anywhere on the Colorado River, and it provides year-round enjoyment for river enthusiasts. Depending on river flows, there is the G-wave and also a “hole”. Most popular from May through September, it offers a great terraced spectator area where you can watch seasoned kayakers, surfers, rafters and SUP’s all performing their tricks.

For a recent SUP trip, a group of six of us took off from the Satank Bridge near Carbondale, planning to end our trip at the “take-out” near Westbank Bridge. Locals call this stretch “pink to black” and based on the water flow, 4500 cubic feet per second on this day, the trip should take approximately an hour. It was beautiful and sunny, with majestic Mt. Sopris creating an amazing backdrop for our float.

For my trip, I grabbed my pair of Sperry Point Breeze Sneakers. Water shoes are a key part of SUP equipment. You need something that will allow your feet to grip the board. The better traction you have, the better balance and oneness you will feel with the board.

The Sperry Point Breeze Sneakers are super lightweight, offer a secure fit and have great arch support. Perfect and stylish! Asked about them during the adventure, I described how they gripped the board and was told that traction is exactly what you need for optimal board-riding performance. The shoes’ Adaptive Wave-Siping design disperses water and makes for improved traction on both wet and dry surfaces.

During my trip, I was lucky to be riding a new 2015 Shamboomee SplitSUP. This board, designed and patented by Ebrahimi, takes a conventional paddleboard design and splits it into two narrower surfaces attached to an inside rail. This design allows for natural body mechanics and enables each leg to move independently. The result is increased mobility, stability and balance. The SlipSUP was great for riding rapids as it truly provided suspension.

During the trip, I also checked out the all-around versatile HydroCruiser SUP board. It’s 11’ long, 35” wide and 6” thick.

Both boards were super fun and I wish I had them both!

Wish you could have joined us? Stop wishing and jump in. It’s time to live life as there is no other
time to be living. I guarantee you’ll smile.

Hut Trippin' - Markley with Big Agnes

Hut Trippin' - Markley with Big Agnes

I’ve lived in Colorado for 18 years, been quite adventurous to most standards that live here and yet hadn’t been on a hut trip until March 2015.  It’s like one of those rights of passage if you are a Coloradoan. (Another being hiking a 14er, which I haven’t done either. What?! Don’t worry – it’s on the bucket list.)  Thank goodness for the people in my life being veteran hut trippers, ski patrollers, and such. This trip was booked months in advance and a group of friends easily came together that was insured to be a blast. Being my first hut trip - Markley Hut - was one that was a good for a virgin run.

Markley Hut is located at 10,400’, outside Ashcroft at the foot of Green Mountain. It is 2 ½ miles from the parking lot with an 1000’ elevation gain. I had used the recommended packing list from the 10^th Mountain Division Hut Trip site to help me with my preparedness of the trip and some coaching from fellow hut tripper friends. I looked at what gear I had and what gear I didn’t have and figure out I would need to either borrow or get. I did borrow a good backpack and beacon. I also was in need of a sleeping bag, which I got my hands on a Big Ages Boot Jack 24.  This sleeping bag is lightweight, super easy to pack, high quality down, and constructed with Insoltect Flow patented technology. I was ready and super stoked! Loved that the sleeping back is from Steamboat Springs, CO! Not only do they have sleeping bags. They also have outdoor award winning products such as tents, sleeping pads, apparel, camp chairs, and accessories. 

Everything was great. The group got to the parking lot on time, didn’t forget anything, and the laughing had already started while we were putting on packs and clicking into equipment for the skin up around noon. With the spring sun shining down on us we started the accent. I’ve skinned many times before with daypacks that just held a couple snacks, water and an extra layer – never had I had a 40+ pounder on my back for this kind of adventure. Within 15 minutes of the slight climb I was already heating up – feeling great, took a minute breather and a drink of water. “OK – I got this – it’s not that much gain” I kept telling myself. Another 5 minutes and I was stopping again looking for shade. I needed to take off layers and the pack was now making an impact that I didn’t realize. “You got this!” was my next mantra.

The group had stopped past the half waypoint to shed some layers, repack, rehydrate and make the final trudge. (A blessing in disguise.) It ended up taking just over an hour to reach the hut, although it was a very different skinning experience than I had had ever before – because of the heat and weight of the pack. As the hut was in site the reward was all I could think of which would include sitting on the deck, looking at the gorgeous view, hanging with friends and soaking in the Colorado sun.

Sleeping at 10,400 – I was told would be difficult. I didn’t even think twice about it before we left or while I was getting ready for my first night sleep. We had been burning a fire in the wood-burning stove so we were quite content and the temperature was perfect. I had my hut slippers on (one of the "must have" for hutting.) I was ready to slip into the Big Agnes Boot Jack 24, which is a mummy style sleeping bag. I couldn't spread out but I was certainly snuggled up in the form-fitting bag and was quite cozy with the uniform heat distribution. Ahhh…sleep. Well, the sleeping didn’t go as planned regardless of how comfortable I was. (The Boot Jack gets a big thumbs up! Perfect for packing and hutting. Can't wait to use it again camping this summer!) Your body acclimatizes at an average of 1,000 feet per 24 hours. So in other words, I wasn’t acclimated coming from my normal 5,600’ elevation, which did create some sleeping challenges. Who knew?  Well – I do now. 

The stars were breathtaking, the hut amazing, the friendship priceless and having the right gear – always a huge advantage to any adventure.

Femmes on Fatties - Twenty2 Bully

Femmes on Fatties - Twenty2 Bully

It’s sunny, brisk, and a comfortable 28 degrees as 3 of my friends meet at the bottom of Babbish Gulch near Sunlight Mountain Resort. Excitement fills the air, freshies lie on the ground, and laughter, hugs, and a unique camaraderie ties us fat biking ladies together.

It’s time for a morning spin—and what will be spinning is, oddly enough, our fatties! 

We have been riding fat bikes for three years together, about one-quarter of the sport’s lifetime. Fat biking, the fastest-growing segment of the bicycle industry, was probably invented in Alaska by a fellow named Mark Gronewald, who won the human-powered counterpart of an Iditarod dogsled race on a bike fitted with tires two or three times as wide as those on a summer road bike.

Fat bikes typically range in weight from 30 to 40 pounds, and more when you add the accessories and gear carried on the rides. Their snow-worthy tires are (pardon the phrase) broad, ranging from a knob shoulder width of 88 to 119 millimeters wide.

Two summers ago, Amy Butowicz joined most of today’s group to ride the infamous Monarch Crest Trail near Salida on their fat bikes. On this ride, the three riders— Rebecca Murray, Alison Birkenfeld and Andrea Palm-Porter—are joined by Emily Murray. They are riding a custom-painted peacock Surly Pugsly, two Salsa Mukluks and a custom, powder-painted, purple Twenty2 Bully.

The Bully comes from Twenty2 Cycles, a shop that custom-builds bikes in Glenwood Springs. The shop thrives on personalization of the bike and on customer relationships. The Twenty2 Cycles Bully features an aluminum frame and carbon components that make it a featherweight in the fat bike world.

The Bully, being ridden by me, is lighter than most and weighs a total of 24 pounds. It’s a sweet ride. Smooth shifting of the gears and the bike’s lightweight make climbing easier. What’s so crazy is the air pressure for the big fat tires; it’s typically set at around four to five pounds per square inch (psi) for riding on the snow. The wide tires and low pressure create the suspension and traction needed to ride in style and get the performance needed from the bike.

One of the favorite rides of local fat bikers is to climb up Grizzly at Sunlight Mountain Resort after the lifts close or during a “dawn patrol”, before the resort opens and sometimes after they close. It’s not easy riding a bike weighing more than 30 pounds up 2,000 feet, but it is rewarding and fantastic exercise.

We always encourages newbies and nobody is ever left behind. After the climb, as endorphins from the effort kick in, everyone meets in the warming hut for some silliness and for a shared feeling of accomplishment.The energy runs high in preparation for the descent as we will gear up with helmets, headlamps and extra layers. The descent on Ute has lots of rollers and dips that only make us giggle more. The smiles are bigger than you can imagine, and whoops loud with joy, as the group stops to ensure that everyone is safe and having fun. 

If you are looking for something new to do, try fat biking. It’s biking with a little bit of attitude, and it has fun and inspiration written all over it. The local bike stores are great at connecting you with fat bike events, riders and will even let you demo a fat bike. There’s even a Facebook group called “Fat Bike Gurlz”—it’s a perfect place to follow femmes on fat bikes.

Why Ride a Fat Bike?

Emily Murray: “I don’t really ski and this is a way to get out in the winter and in shape for mountain biking season.”

Rebecca Murray: “Fat biking is another form of staying healthy in the winter. It keeps my legs strong, and the women I bike with are motivating and inspiring.”

Alison Rene: “I want to ride bikes all year long and fat biking gives me that opportunity during the snowy months.”

Andrea Palm-Porter: “It’s fun, keeps me active and gives me different options to play in the snow.”

Article also published in Roaring Fork Lifestyle: http://www.roaringforklifestyle.com/