A Trinity River Experience: Paddle Board Yoga

             It had yet to dawn on me until I was paddling down the river away from civilization, that I have never paddleboarded in my life, nor had I ever participated in yoga… Why would I sign up for a paddleboard yoga class? Beats me…

Paddleboard yoga is a unique class provided by the Yoga Project in Fort Worth. We met out on the Trinity River near the courthouse, and rushed to take off our shoes and begin paddle boarding. This part started out to be rather relaxing. We paddled away from the noise pollution to our final location of being underneath the N Main St. bridge. Although we were still in the midst of the city, it did not feel this way. Looking around, there were no buildings or people in sight. Here we began to start downward dog, eagle and the many warrior poses. As our instructor calls these out to us, I was forced to look around. My only experience with yoga was Bikram Yoga, which I quickly found out is a very different form with different poses! Stressing to figure out how to hold my weight steady and copy my peers, I start laughing to myself. This was not the relaxing experience I had in mind.

Water experiences can vary much more than I had previously imagined. Before yesterday, when I thought about a water experience, I imagined casually cooling off in the ocean, or floating on a raft in a lake, or maybe even spinning round and round a lazy river in a water park. Water experiences in my mind, were full of pure enjoyment, no stress and lots of leisure. Yesterday’s paddleboard yoga class really caused me to think. To think about all of the other experiences involving water that are stressful and even scary. With every pose I had to plant my feet in the perfect way, and focus on my body weight. I feared falling over and humiliating myself in front of the class of people who definitely knew what they were doing. This was when the thought occurred to me that stressful water experiences are always occurring.  Natural disasters such as flash floods or hurricanes have devastating results. Water, stress, sadness and worry rush onto the people living in those areas. A white water rafting trip also brings tension, as there is always the small chance of falling into freezing cold water, flipping over the raft or being carried by the undertow created by the rocks. Water was also the biggest enemy of those aboard the Titanic in 1912. In these cases, water is no longer a constant wave of relaxation. Water has the capability to bring about many emotions, and is constantly be a means of transportation for a new experience.

It is not only Huckleberry Finn who has the capability to acquire a new life through the use of water. The activities that water provides allow this to be the case for so many. Paddleboard yoga was a new experience to me; one where I had to learn the names and body figures of yoga poses, how to maneuver a paddle board, how to relax and not care what others are thinking of my inability to keep balance and so much more. For many years, boat travel across a huge body of water, the ocean, was how people were carried to another country where a completely different lifestyle would begin. The theme of adapting to a new life style persists when water brings about natural disasters as well; citizens affected must quickly learn to change their current lifestyles for survival. As water travels all over the world, it generates a multitude of learning opportunities. Huge bodies of water allow for the mastering of countless recreational activities, such as scuba diving, fishing, wake boarding, surfing, etc. An experience with water is more than what meets the eye. The flow of water has the capability to bring about a since of calm, but this is not always the only emotion that remains.