So, a few weeks back we’d booked our 10 year old and her 9 and 12 year old cousins into a “Learn SUP” session at the excellent Pinkston Watersports Centre. The weather was shit, way too cold to be falling in to some murky canal water, so we re-arranged for the last weekend in April. Good move.
It was decided it would be a bit of a family affair so we all gathered to watch the lesson. I’d just got my new RED board from Loch Lomond Wakeboard so decided I’d take it with me in case there was an opportunity to give it another bash up there. Glad I’d chucked it in the boot.
There’s a Wakeboarding cable just a few minutes’ walk from Pinkston. (Did you know Glasgow has it’s own Wakepark?) And as we’re still pre-26th, nobody was there. Great spot to have a paddle about. Bit breezy though. I’m still very much practising going from kneeling to standing and was getting fairly gallus at it. I’d increased the stakes somewhat by not bothering with a wetsuit. Turned out I didn’t need it. Now, I’m not saying I’ll never fall in when trying to stand up but I do feel I’m getting it!
Didn’t spend too long on the water and also found that the unsheltered bits made it really tricky to paddle into (when I stand up, all I’m doing is creating a massive sail) but I’m sure there are techniques I can master to counter this….”tacking” I believe it’s called?
Feeling a bit lucky I got to paddle in there as once the Wakepark opens properly there will be no chance. There may be other places to paddle around here but some of it looked like it was set up for canoes or that you’d die if you came into direct contact with the water/algae. Defnitely loads of other (cleaner looking) stretches of the canal to explore though!