Whitewater Paddleboarding

Some of you know that we've been checking out the paddleboarding craze that's going on here in the Gorge. We looked at some Hobie and Tahoe paddleboards at Outdoor Retailer and our Stohlquist rep, Ethan, just brought out a bunch of Tahoe boards for John to try (thanks, Ethan!).

We might bite our tongues in the future for saying this, but while the workout benefits of paddling around the Columbia seem great, it's hard to see how you'd work up much adrenaline. The Gorge has some of the best whitewater on the planet, it seems a shame to just paddle around on flat water, right...?

Of course you knew that the paddleboard wasn't going to stay on flatwater for long. Local legend, Dan Gavere, has been spearheading the whitewater paddleboard movement, winning the 2009 SUP Nationals and taking many SUP 1st D's, but when this came into my inbox this morning, it definitely made me sit up and take notice.

Photo courtesy of Immersion Research

This is Luke Hopkins, founder of Stride River Boards. What are your thoughts? We're thinking this paddleboarding thing is getting more interesting and it might definitely be worth a demo or two.

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