By Kim Lathrop, Administrative Assistant, CFILC

Those who know me know I am not too adventurous when it comes to the great outdoors.

Of course, being born without any arms or legs, it goes without saying that being “adventurous” comes with some extra challenges.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I enjoy swimming in our local rivers and exploring the accessible bike trails here in Sacramento, but that is about as far as my  adventurism goes. That is, until three weeks ago.

I recently took a vacation to Hawaii, to the island of Oahu to be exact.

On my second day in Oahu, I was laying out in the sand just working on my tan and simply minding my own business.  All of a sudden, this guy paddled right up to me and said, “Hey, do you want to go for a ride?”

I looked and realized that he was standing behind a fold-out lawn chair that was tied with rope to his paddle board. I was super stoked because I had never had the opportunity to paddle-board in my life.

I did not hesitate and enthusiastically said “Yes!” right away.

Ron – the guy with the chair on the paddle board – took me all over the island.  We even went to look for sea turtles and found like three or four of them.  It was awesome!

After that ride, my friends and I decided to make our own ride using a friend’s paddle board, a stadium chair from Costco, and some rope.

From that day on I wanted to paddle board pretty much every single day.

My balance was really good, and we never had a spill. I would be far from shore with my friend and we’d pass by other paddle boarders and in that moment I just felt a part of something. All of us out there were paddle boarders. Even though I wasn’t paddling personally, I still felt like I was participating in every way.

I would encourage all of our readers out there to try something new every once in awhile.  You just might be surprised at what you find out about yourself.

I would also like to give a shout out and a big THANK YOU to Uncle Bryan’s Sunset Surratt Surf School….. Ask for Ron!! He is the best!!