LISTEN now as Drolet experiences SUP-ing for the first time, and first-time, on-air.

The adventure began at Two Rivers Park in Glenwood Springs and ended in South Canyon or in Shaine’s words, “the great, giant, MAMMOTH South Canyon Class 3whitewater rapids.” This is where Elizabeth would later take a swim.

KSNO is The Mammoth, so it is only appropriate that we SUP through mammoth-sized waves, sorry Elizabeth.

“…as we drop into that, (the first set of rapids) we are going to make sure to square up to every wave as we ride through the rapid and it’s going to be an epic adventure today,” Ebrahimi said.

“This is actually my first time, river paddle-boarding, so I don’t know what to expect, ” Drolet said.

Apparently paddle-boarding, is a lot like dancing; only the river is your partner.

“I wish you could see Elizabeth right now because she is standing, doing the interview, as we enter into rapids…under us is the vehicle; the vessel, and the stuff that we are standing on, is beginning to dance underfoot and what it compels you to do, is start to do a dance with it,” Ebrahimi said.

“Right now, if you could see Elizabeth, she is starting to sway to the flow of the river,” he continued.

“We are actually passing Iron Mountain Hot Springs right now. It is a beautiful view, we are waving to those soaking as we pass on by,” Drolet said. 

“Shaine, we have a little whitewater coming up, how am I going to navigate through this?” she asked.

“As we drop into this rapid, you can see up at the very top of it, there’s a little bit of whitewater, we are going to to go just to the left of it.”

“For you specifically, what you are going to do, is be at the front of the board, facing forward with your knees bent down bent low, in a Chair Yoga position and enjoy the ride,” Ebrahimi said.

“Balance is going to be a key issue here, as you said, I can drop down to my knees,” Drolet said.

“How long does it take to develop a good sense of balance?” she asked.

“When you are learning to balance a board on the river all it takes, is that muscle memory, and what I am going to do right now is paddle us to the left because I can feel the river is getting shallow below us and I don’t want us to bump into something and have us go tumbling.”

“OK, to answer your question, it takes generally three to five times running a river to get that sense of balance,” Ebrahimi said.

“So, are you ready Shaine?” Drolet asked, as the two headed into the first set of large rapids.

“YES TO ADVENTURE, here we go” Ebrahimi yelled back.

“Alright there is a big rapid right there,” Ebrahimi said, as sounds of the river rapids envelop the audio. “ENTERING THE WHITEWATER,” he yells. LISTEN NOW.

“We are now in the middle of the rapid, Elizabeth has stood back up, she is taking her first paddle strokes,”

“Oh, she dropped back down again, (rapids in the background) in the middle of the rapid, (rapids in the background) hanging in there, keeping the nose pointed downstream, WOOHOO, LOVING LIFE,” Ebrahimi continues.

“So, Elizabeth, you just it made it through your first whitewater rapid on a paddleboard, how did it feel?”

“What is really the best part is how close you are to the river rapids,” Elizabeth said.

“(When I first got on the board) I felt like Bambi, first learning to walk, I didn’t know what to expect on the river, especially with the rapids,  so this was definitely an adventure for me,” she continued.

It wasn’t always smooth sailing, or boarding in this case. Elizabeth took a swim at the start of the South Canyon rapids. It was unfortunately the worst set of rapids of the trip, however, Drolet is a river-warrior.

Despite losing a pair of sunglasses, it was a smooth fall and swim. She kept her cool and her feet downstream until she was able to make it to a safely to the board.

Ebrahimi echoed this sentiment.

“The great thing was was just seeing how you took care of yourself through that experience. You stayed calm, you kept your body positioned well, you kept your head above water and you aware of what was going on around you and the moment you got to the point where you were out of the rapid, you swam right to the board and boom, you are back in your vessel.”

For more information on how you can start your own fall or winter SUP adventure, contact Shaine Ebrahimi at Shaboomee SUP here.