A few years back, I'm a very spontaneous person. I'm still am now but not as much before when my friend Ar-ar is still here in the Philippines. Aside from the fact that she is my designated driver, we have the same cravings for travel and experiencing new things. Back when she was still in Dumaguete, if I'm not visiting her, she'll be the one to visit me. Fortunately, she has a car and she can drive, unlike me.
Most of the time she will just message me "Just arrived in Cebu, let's go to (insert name of the place), and sometimes I'll reply, "Okay" or "I'm so sorry, I have work. Let's eat out instead after work." She got lucky during one of her trips to Cebu, I was available so we went South! She actually used to live in Oslob because she and her fiance that time opened a restaurant near the place where whale watching is located but they sold it when they decided to move to Dumaguete.
Antoine, her fiance has a close friend named Ludwig who owns several properties in Oslob and we visited their house. They have a huge property that was facing the ocean and they happened to have a paddleboard, a kayak, and a little boat. Ar-ar and I were so keen to try the paddleboard. She personally tried paddleboarding before when she went to Siargao with our friends and at that time I was also booked to go to Siargao. She was a pro while I was a meeeeeh!
I started sitting on the board and paddled away from the shore. There was a rope attached to my foot so that incase i fell off, I would be that away from my board.
Started standing on my knees just to slowly feel the balance of standing.
My one of many attempts to stand up. Ar-ar captured a photo before I almost drown in the water.
I never stopped trying to balance myself on the board. I fell so many times and almost lost my baseball cap in the water but I kept going. I tried several techniques to keep my balance then I finally figured it out. Aside from focusing on one thing while paddling, I should micro bend my knees. I was so happy when I was able to stand and balance on the board.
I was so proud of myself so was Ar-ar because I was able to stand up and kept my balance for a long time. It requires so much patience just to be standing in the paddleboard.
We did it in the afternoon, as you can see, I'm burnt! But I didn't mind because I like having a dark complexion. (So weird for a Filipino).
After our paddleboarding, we decided to go back to Ludwig's house and his mom prepared some snacks. Ar-ar and I sat in front of the wide blue ocean and watch the sky change its colors. It was a beautiful afternoon and learned something new with the best person I know. Have you tried paddleboarding? How's the experience?
Asa Si Klause blogs about his travels, vegan lifestyle, yoga practice, his fur babies and anything that gives joy to him.
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