Our Next Adventure- 100-Mile SUP Adventure

What do you usually do after a race? Bask in the glory of a goal achieved? Wallow in the pain brought on by that long race? Or get right on to preparing for your next race? Before I finished the Swim Around Key West, I knew I would need my next challenge on the books to avoid those post-race doldrums. I have been tossing around a few ideas of my next adventure, but it was time to commit to one of them for next summer. I was sick of burying my head under the water for hours on end and wanted to look up at the horizon once in a while. I have tossed around the idea of doing an ultralight running/backpacking trip with just a credit card and some sugars, running a huge distance over several days, stopping at hotels and friends' couches along the way. Kind of like fast backpacking without the backpack. But I just hate running, so I wasn't sure that was the way to go for this year. A Stand Up Paddle board might be a better vehicle for the trip. Whenever I am getting into a new adventure that I don't feel like I know enough about, I go to the experts for advice. And I just happen to know one of those experts here in town. Wade Wiliford is a WPA Certified Instructor and is also PaddleFit Certified. He has been racing SUPs and outrigger paddling for 5 years and has quickly become a racing phenom. Wade and I sat down at Jamba Juice in La Jolla last Saturday morning before he headed out to give a SUP lesson in Mission Bay. I have some experience in SUP'ing, but I am still at the point where I don't even know what I don't know. And Wade is perfect for this. We sat down and he began talking. The first thing I learned was that I vastly underestimated the speed of an average SUP'er. He said that the average speed of a beginner was 3.5-4 mph. (He can probably also tell you the average airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow, if you wanted to know.)

I had estimated only 2 mph. Like I said, I am on a huge learning curve. So that turns my little 50-mile paddle into a 100-mile paddle over three or four days, which for some reason makes my head spin.

Wade gave me info on boards and paddles and media people and people who have paddle adventured the Carolina's and paddling technique. There was so much info that as I left I began to doubt if I could, in fact, pull this off.

And that is a good thing. If the adventure is too small, and I am 100% sure I can pull it off, it won't be big enough to inspire me to make the sacrifices needed to make it a success.

After a few days of letting the data sink in, I am ready to start planning. And ready for the challenge to spark the diabete fires. I can't wait to see how the new Untethered Regimen stands up to eight-hour days paddling, how my body handles huge training volumes in a new sport, and I can't wait to see who will end up joining me on this journey.

Stay tuned...

Someday-I-Will

I see a white sail,

Skipping cross a blue bay,

And I say Someday I Will.

Don't need to know who,

May help you make it come true,

Just say Someday I Will.

Don't have to work it all out,

Don't have to tear it all apart,

All you need's a place to start.

--"Someday I Will" Jimmy Buffett

Some people have a bucket list. I have a Someday-I-Will list, my list of future projects that I am not currently in the process of making happen. And one by one I hope to take them off this list and put them on the Current Goal List, just like I have recently done with the Swim Around Key West and previously with the Long Distance Solo Sail.

I have been reading The Power of Less, which suggests that you become very public with your goals. So I am going to do just that and post my Someday-I-Will list. I may add to it and change it from time to time, but I hope to complete it all, someday.

1. TRANSPAC- a sailing race from Long Beach, CA to Honolulu, HI.

2. Run or bike the coast of an entire state (Probably a small one)

3. Take my family on a one or more month-long cruise on a sailboat

4. Take a long-distance, multi-day SUP/camping trip on the Intercoastal Waterway

5. Write a full-length screenplay

6. Make a short movie

7. Travel- Eastern seaboard of US, Ireland, New Zealand, US Virgin Islands, Southern Pacific Islands, Costa Rica

8. See Jimmy Buffett in a spontaneous show in a small bar, Flogging molly in an Irish Pub ….9. Finish converting Come Monday, my 12’ wooden boat built from scratch, into a sailboat.

So what is on your Someday-I-Will list? Maybe I can steal some ideas to add to my list.

Take a Peak Inside My Writers Studio

TuDiabetes is a terrific site for social networking amongst diabetics. They also run several outreach projects including the Big Blue Test coming up in November. Emily Coles also does live interview with some pretty cool people in the diabetes community.

I had the great opportunity to sit down with her (me in my studio, her in her office) and chat a little about my background in sailing and the beginnings of my book, Islands and Insulin.