Paddleboard racing - Deep Creek Lake Blog

Paddlin for PAWS… Paddleboard Race… Wisp Resort

Rain and foul weather could not keep the diehard Paddleboarders from making the trip up to DeepCreekLake this weekend to brave the 3 mile or 6 mile race courses right off the DeepCreekLakeState Park. Friday afternoon I took a trip out there to participate in the group paddle. The winds and rain were in high gear so there was only a few of us that tried to navigate the three mile course. On the home stretch to the state park the tail wind/cross chop put me (falling) in the lake for the first time of the season. To be honest, it was not super cold, just a mild chill.

Paddlin for PAWS… Paddleboard Race… Wisp Resort. Wisp Resort event organizer, Mike Valach, who is an avid paddler and my paddle partner is hell bent on promoting a sport that he has a deep passion for. He and co-worker John McCracken rolled out the red carpet for the locals and out-of-towners bringing in some 1st class racers. The crew from Stand Up Paddle Annapolis came up and raced world class times in fair, drizzling conditions. They brought with them top of the line/state of the art racer gear. Carbon Fiber boards and paddles with different design elements. Remember, paddleboarding although having roots back to Tom Blake in the early 30’s, is evolving into many different hybrids ranging from surfing, racing ,cruising, fishing…you name it. And with this, evolution of the design is still being tweaked to maximize speed and performance. I noticed the displacement hulls are the norm with bottom contours ranging from flat, to having vee/concave with various tail and nose rocker, and carbon fiber paddles that only weigh 14 ounces.

I missed the beginning of the race as I had swim lessons for my 5-month old but was lucky enough to round State Park Road right as the leaders were dueling it out halfway through the race. It was interesting to see all the different stroking and turning techniques that separate the competitors although there is no right or wrong. Board and paddle technology, paddling and turning techniques, and physical conditioning all come into play, but like any sport, mental endurance separates the top racers from the rest. Let’s not forget that winning is definitely not everything! Just to spend time on a paddlboard is spiritual and healthy as I have preached in the past. You also have the opportunity to meet a lot of great new friends.

It was exciting seeing the camaraderie at the finish line as all the racers cheered and congratulated each and every contestant as they made their way on shore. Chances are that whatever town you live in you will have the enthusiastic paddlers stoked on promoting and enjoying a sport that has taken over the world. If you can’t join us here at Deep Creek Lake then look around your own community and get revved up on a fantastic life-changing sport. If you want to keep up with local group paddle sessions, check out our newly formed Stand Up Paddle Group Facebook page. I will try to organize some sunrise/sunset paddles when the lake is glass as we transition into the season. Also, if you want real time information about the lake visit our page Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. See you on the Lake!

Greeting from Deep Creek Lake-Paddleboard for PAW-Wisp Real Estate

Greeting from Deep Creek Lake-Paddleboarding PAW-Wisp Real Estate. I’ve been blown away by the wind this week, literally. The lake has rivaled the ocean this week as whitecaps slammed the shoreline for the last 10 or so days. I am itching to get out on some patented DCL glass on my paddleboard sessions early in the morning before too long. But on a positive note, the ramps have ripened perfectly over the last few days and I had the opportunity to fry some up in beer batter and tried fusing them into a scalloped potatoes recipe. They turned out excellent.

Here’s a cell phone photo I snapped while hunting for ramps…

I am very excited to bring you news about the Paddling for Paws Paddleboard Race at Deep Creek Lake State Park this weekend. Get up to Deep Creek Lake this weekend and come participate in the Paddling for Paws Paddleboard Race at the Deep Creek State Park. Bring the wife, kiddos and friends and get stoked on paddleboarding while helping a great cause.

Racing this weekend!

Paddleboarding is the hottest sport worldwide at the moment and the great thing about it is that you don’t have to be a world class athlete to enjoy and compete. It all gets started on Friday afternoon (May 10^th) with a local paddle from 3pm – 5pm. This is your chance if you have never been on a stand up paddle board (SUP) to experience a chill paddle around the lake with locals and out-of-towners. You don’t have a paddle board you say? No problem! Wisp will be renting boards for the local paddle and for the race for a mere $10! Here is much more information.

SUP Yoga Friday 5/20/13 @ 6pm

Real Estate/Wisp/Lot information talk on the streets is that National Land Partners is possibly planning to staff their new office during the Olympic Time Trials in May or the middle to end of June. Word is they are going to slash prices on interior lots and there may be some fabulous deals to be had. We will do our best to keep you informed as we hear more and feel free to call us; we can help!

Our featured listing of the week is a lovely home in the gated community of Deep Creek Highlands where the amenities include an outdoor pool, clubhouse, tennis court, lakeside pavilion and lake access area, trails, playground and more. This contemporary is an established rental property and is beautifully decorated. http://vt.realbiz360.com/Listing-778743.html

Enjoy your week! www.DeepCreekLakeProperty.com

Paddling for Paws Paddleboard Race Deep Creek State Park

Paddling for Paws Paddleboard Race Deep Creek State Park. Get up to Deep Creek Lake this weekend and come participate in the Paddling for Paws Paddleboard Race at the Deep Creek State Park. Bring the wife, kiddos and friends and get stoked on paddleboarding while helping a great cause. Paddleboarding is the hottest sport worldwide at the moment and the great thing about it is that you don’t have to be a world class athlete to enjoy and compete. It all gets started on Friday afternoon (May 10^th) with a local paddle from 3pm – 5pm. This is your chance if you have never been on a stand up paddle board (SUP) to experience a chill paddle around the lake with locals and out-of-towners. You don’t have a paddle board you say? No problem! Wisp will be renting boards for the local paddle and for the race for a mere $10!

Then, at 6pm on Friday, there will be a sunset paddleboard yoga class. This sport incorporates SUP’s water, balance, stretching, and of course yoga. Let go of your stress and find peace and calm with DCL’s serene mountains as your backdrop! Are you curious to learn more about SUP Yoga? Check out this video. After you have down shifted your mind, finish up with a peaceful sunset paddle.

Saturday is race day and will have many different class and distances to race. Don’t let your inexperience keep you from participating. Jump in head first and get racin’!

Classes & Fees
Children’s Race – Free Admission
5K or 10K – $45 event fee (pre-registration)
– Onsite day of event- $55 event fee –
5 K race – under 12.6’ board
5 K race – 12.6’ board
5 K race 14’ board
10K race under 12.6’board
10K race 12.6’ board
10K race 14’ board
10K race legends(50+) open

Event Schedule
Friday, May 10
3pm – 5pm – Local paddle
6pm – Sunset Paddleboard Yoga Class
6pm – 7:30pn – Sunset Paddle (ride the course)
– Location – Deep Creek Lake State Park (beach area)

7:30pm – 9:30pm Packet pick up and welcome party/bonfire
– Location – Wisp Resort Adventure Park

Saturday May 11
8:30am – Prerace meeting
9am – 3 mile and 6 mile race on Deep Creek Lake
11am – Kids Race – Free
– Location – Deep creek Lake State Park (beach area)

12pm – Cookout and Awards
– Location – Wisp Resort Adventure Park

Check out Deep Creek Times description…

“The May 11th, 2013 event at Deep Creek Lake is a grassroots Stand Up Paddleboard race event to promote SUP racing to the Deep Creek Lake area and to bring awareness to the SUP community the great opportunities to enjoy paddleboarding in the mountains of Western Maryland on Deep Creek Lake and other nearby lakes. This event will also donate a portion of the race entry fee to HART for Animals charity for pets located in the McHenry area. The race course is a three mile loop with three buoy turns, the event will have a recreational class ( 1 lap) and elite class (2 laps) and a fun race for kids. The race is expected to attract SUP racers from the mid-Atlantic area and is part of Mid Atlantic Stand Up Race Association Point Series 10 race location series in the mid-Atlantic area. This event is a nice start to the spring paddleboard session and has something for the first time to elite paddleboard racer, various paddleboard companies will be on hand for the event, there also will be some demo boards to test and first time paddleboard clinics to let people try the sport of paddleboarding.”

1st Paddleboard of 2013-4/11/13

1st Paddleboard of 2013-4/11/13. The last few days have been unusually warm and have been teasing and tempting me to brave the chilly waters of Deep Creek Lake for the first paddleboard session of the season. It was only a few days ago that the lake was covered in ice and the town was grumbling about the long winter.

As I stare out my Long & Foster office window my mind wanders. Contract sent…Check! Follow up emails and phone calls complete…Check! Check to make sure Betsy and lil’ Griffin are good…Check! So, I text my paddleboard partner to see if he can meet me late afternoon to christen the lake with our first trip out in 2013. He has a new Yolo paddleboard which is supposed to be THE state of the art racing board. We agree to meet at 5pm and I worry the air temps may plummet as the day starts to ease closer to dusk. I bring 3mm booties, under armor, sweat shirts and a beanie as I have no clue what to expect with real time conditions. The light wind gusts of early afternoon seem to calm as we both pull in to park at our go-to put-in area at the lake. A last minute breeze covers the lake with a maze of ripples that blankets McHenry Cove and then bleeds into the pure coveted glass that we have wished for all winter.

The warm afternoon has seduced me into foregoing all the warming gear I have brought with me and decide to go out in a pair of shorts. The docks are out so we wade in to ease our boards into deeper water navigating our fins over the damaging rock and gravel subsurface of the lake. I only get a temporary ping of cold on my feet before hopping to my knees and breaking free of the shoreline in a smooth and quiet glide toward the icy center of the lake. Lonely and empty McHenry Cove welcomes our presence as we slip into a season starting rhythm in deep water parallel to both shorelines. The snowy slopes of Wisp frame up the back drop around us and exhilaration sets in knowing we are the first ones to get on the lake in 2013. We wonder if anyone has paddled this early in the season while there is still snow left on the mountain. The light spring time chatter of bird plays through the cove and a warm glow covers me as we pass the L&F office. My feet are wet but feel very comfortable as I wonder why the water can feel so tolerable when a few days ago it was covered in ice. Adrenaline and fantastic weather numb any feeling of cold.

I look over at my friends new Yolo and the water peels off the bow, streams down the rail line and releases cleanly off the tail which equates to a smooth, fast glide. We make our turn toward home as the sun barely glazes through the clouds descending toward the mountain peaks over Wisp Resort. My mind skips from my family, dinner, and how lucky I am to live in an area so diverse in activities and so light in population. Our shoulder season in between winter and summer can be about as tranquil and peaceful as anytime or any place in this great country. As the trip comes to a finish I already begin to anticipate the many paddles in my future with my family and friends and hope I can put together a paddleboard group to explore beautiful Deep Creek Lake in the early dawn hours when the glass is plentiful and the sunrise is gorgeous.

Deep Creek Lake Paddleboarding/Photography in the Fall

Deep Creek Lake Paddleboarding/Photography in the Fall. I know I have been preaching the gospel of SUP-IN or paddleboarding over the summer. That passion has steamrolled into fall and has opened up limitless opportunities and experiences for me as of late. I pride myself as a passionate, amateur photographer who enjoys capturing moments that are special to me in my daily life. My camera is never more than an arm’s length from me at all times so I don’t miss any special moments. I have been itching to take my camera with me on my SUP trips but had this nightmare image of it falling in slow motion, splashing into the water forever to be lost in the depths ofDeepCreekLake. But…the problem was solved when I was cleaning out my closet and found my old go-to camera that at one time was close to state-of-the-art. This camera has now become my SUP camera. I enclosed it in a zip lock freezer bag and off I go to try and capture these wonderful experiences on the water. What I realized after a few shoots is that paddleboarding is an amazing and unique way to photograph this wonderful lake. I always go very early before work or very late after work and I can tell you that during this time of the year I almost always have the lake to myself.

As the leaves start to ripen up I have found some superb angles and vantage points around the lake to witness the fall foliage spectacle. This morning I woke up and noticed the glassy lake immediately and rushed down to launch before my shift started at Long and Foster. I had a good hour and a half pulling slowly through the calm lake literally in awe of the colors around me reflecting off this wonderful lake. I think it’s safe to safe to say that today, October 5^th, 2012, is THE PEAK of the fall foliage spectacle. I missed the opportunity to go out this morning but have many amazing memories and photographs taken from my SUP to keep me buzzing on the fall season. I wonder when the first snow fall will be and how I can utilize my wetsuit, camera and paddleboard before the lake freezes!

Deep Creek Lake-Paddleboarding-The Sport-The Lifestyle-The History

Betsy Spiker Holcomb Deep Creek Lakes Favorite Realtor

Deep Creek Lake-Paddleboarding-The Sport-The Lifestyle-The History. I know that you know that this up and coming sport of Stand Up Paddleboarding (or SUP for short) is picking up steam among the masses, but unless you have tried it you will never know how simple it is to have a Zen like experience and keep your body in fantastic shape. Entry level folks need not be discouraged. You do not have to be a triathlon athlete to start your way toward bliss in a sport that discreetly sneaks in fitness while putting emphasis on FUN!

There is a movement happening worldwide involving people who are pushing the limits to the many different activities this sport can touch. You’ll see SUP’s cruising lakes, bays, sounds and oceans, as well as surfing mighty to mild surf breaks. There are racing Sup’s, fishing SUP’s, River Sup’s, and thankfully for you beginners, rental SUP’s!

Experience the QUIET GILDE in this video…

Stop! Let’s look at the history of the paddleboard..,.

Thomas Edward Blake is credited as the pioneer in paddleboard construction in the early 1930s.

While restoring historic Hawaiian boards in 1926 for the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Blake built a replica of the previously ignored olo surfboard ridden by ancient Hawaiian aliʻi (kings). He lightened his redwood replica (olo were traditionally made from wiliwili wood) by drilling it full of holes, which he then covered, thus creating the first hollow board, which led to creation of the modern paddleboard. Two years later, using this same 16 ft (4.9 m), 120 lb (54 kg) board, Blake won the Pacific Coast Surfriding Championship, first Mainland event integrating both surfing and paddling. Blake then returned to Hawaii to break virtually every established paddling record available, setting half-mile and 100-yard records that stood until 1955.

In 1932, using his drastically modified chambered hollow board (now weighing roughly 60 lbs), which over the next decade he would tirelessly promote as a lifeguarding rescue tool, Blake out-paddled top California watermen Pete Peterson and Wally Burton in the first Mainland to Catalina crossing race (29 miles in 5 hours, 53 minutes). During the 1930s, Blake-influenced hollow boards (called “cigar boards” by reporters and later “kook boxes” by surfers) would be used in roughly equal proportion to solid plank boards for both paddling and surfing until the new Hot Curl boards led wave-riding in a new direction. For paddleboarding, however, the basic principles of Blake’s 1926 design remain relevant even today.

Information by Wikipedia

Shaper: Tom Blake

Length: 11-8

Width: 23

Year Manufactured:

Mid 1930s

Construction:

Marine Plywood – Unknown Wood

Now that you know more about the history of paddleboarding, lets gets back to how it can relate to you here at Deep Creek Lake. Go to Deep Creek Marina Rentals and rent a 12’0” (which is the largest) Doyle paddleboard and launch the board by getting on your knees and slowly paddling a few strokes on the left then the right side. Get comfortable in balancing and paddling around the quiet coves nearby the rental docks until you feel confident enough to stand up. There is a handle to pick up the board directly in the center that can serve as a guide point as to where you stand. Stand up dead center on the board and slowly pull the paddle easily through the water until you gain a little glide through the water. As you gain speed, you will also gain control just as you do as you start peddling a bike. Now you are all set to start to begin to follow a new road in life that may become a passionate addition.

Slow down and GET PADDLING short video.

This morning before work I got out on the lake at 6am sharp and was rewarded with a windless, glassy lake which makes for optimum conditions for many water sports. A friend and I paddled the length of McHenry Cove to the 219 bridge and then turned up toward the direction of the DCL Dam. The sun was peeking through the clouds and there was not a boat on the lake to interrupt our morning therapy. On the way back in, we saw a magnificent Bald Eagle gliding over us in search of his morning snack. I can only think of one other time that I saw a Bald Eagle here at the lake. Take some time out of your busy life before or after work to discover and submerge yourself into a sport that may have you hooked for a lifetime.

Locals Cup Sunset Paddleboard Race Deep Creek Lake

Locals Cup Sunset Paddleboard Race Deep Creek Lake. Tonight on July 24, 2010 is the Locals Cup Sunset Paddleboard Race #2 at Deep Creek Lake State Park sponsored by Wisp Resort. There will be time trials around four different buoys and you can select from different classes to participate in. There is a $10 per person entry fee. The fun starts at 7:00 pm and will continue on until close to midnight. Come out and join the fun and watch the sunset with friends and locals and show your skills stroking to paddle board victory. Call Mike Valach from Wisp Resort at 301-387-4911 ext-0 for entry details.

Wisp Resort Little Tahoe

Deep Creek Lake Beach Hut

Deep Creek Lake Beach Hut

Wisp Resort has set up shop at Deep Creek Lake State Park with their new Beach Hut. The Deep Creek Beach Hut has a bunch of different recreational equipment to rent while visiting DCL. Take a 1-2 hour course learning the basics about sailing then rent a Hobie Cat. Enjoy renting by the hour or if you really have a knack for sailing, rent one for the week. They also have kayaks, canoes, tubes, and paddleboards for rent. Don’t hassle your family and yourself trying to haul bulky equipment around on your vacation. Just show up with a picnic basket and your favorite cool drinks and relax at the beach and enjoy your favorite lake activity.

They also offer guided paddleboard, kayak tours if you want to explore the lake with trained professionals. The weather is perfect at the moment, so pack up the family and come de-compress here with us at Maryland’s favorite vacation destination.

Paddleboarding Deep Creek Lake

Paddleboarding Deep Creek Lake

Paddleboarding Deep Creek Lake. My passion for surfboard construction tipped me off to paddleboarding many years ago, as builders looked for new ways to experience the soulful glide of surf crafts. Basically, the boards were stretched out a bit longer than their modern longboard cousins and widened by about a foot around center. The curve in the bottom of the board or “rocker” dictates if it’s going to be good for paddling/speed or performance and ability to turn. At my favorite surf break at my second home in the OBX, high performance paddleboards are the norm and have been in the line-up for many years. The surfers there are taking the sport to extreme levels surfing waves in excess of 10 feet. This sport is constantly evolving and being refined by the board builders and wave-riding community.

This year paddleboarding has made its way to Deep Creek Lake. Both Deep Creek Marina and Wisp Resort rent an array of different paddleboards to suit your taste. I had my first attempt at it last night and can tell you that it is a blast. Being very tall does offer a disadvantage for balancing as you can be a little top heavy but it doesn’t take long to master it and be off on your way. I suggest starting off on both of your knees facing the front of the board until you get stabilized, then stand up at about the center of the board. I found it easier to keep your eyes on the horizon as opposed to looking down at the board, to maintain your optimum balance. Start sweeping your paddle through the water gently and you’re on your way to a peaceful glide across beautiful Deep Creek Lake. A word of warning, you are required by law to wear a life vest at all times when on a paddleboard; you can be ticketed and fined for not wearing one. Be safe and have a fun time this summer enjoying DCL’s newest craze.

Tag: Paddleboard racing