Ros Lindsey (01:02)
Good morning Yvonne. Welcome to the Wellness Nurse podcast. Thank you for coming and telling us all about why you love paddle boarding. What initially drew you to paddle boarding? you're welcome. Mental health, doing something I thought I could never do. Never thought I could go in the water scared of it.
never thought I could just do it and I gave it a go. and I never looked back. how long have you been doing it for? Six years. Is that right? Yeah. And what keeps you coming back? What do you love about it? you step on the water everything disappears. Yeah, and you leave everything behind. You relax and calm down and you meet great people out in the water and
you know, you just meet people on the beach, you make friends and you find out things about your community and people it helps with loneliness
Better than any tablet I think. That's It helps you forget about things and just focus on paddling and seeing turtles and stingrays and see what way the water's moving today or what the clouds are doing. It's everything. it's quite meditative, isn't it? Every day is different. You know, and sometimes you're out there and there's rain coming.
you didn't realize was coming. It's exhilarating when you feel the rain on your skin. You just feel amazing, you know, that's the thing. There's lots of different avenues with it, but it's finding something to do that makes you really feel good about yourself. And you don't have a struggle getting up in the morning. It changes your whole lifestyle because all of a sudden, you know, you're getting up in the morning at five o'clock and you're going paddling. And 10 years ago, somebody said that to me, I think they were dreaming.
I've never seen myself doing that. You're in bed early at night, you read a book and you go to bed and you just can't wait for the morning to get out in the water again. So it makes you feel good. It gets those good, feel good adrenaline things going in your brain, which I think helps to counteract the depression or the loneliness because it's something to look forward to. It's a really important thing in life. Yeah, that's right. Having something to look forward to is so important. And when it's something that moves you,
body physically as well. yeah. It's so beneficial. So what sort of benefits physically I guess have you also? Well the funny thing about the physical thing is because I do it that's a bonus. You know the exercising and you you you find that your body changes because all of a sudden different things happen to your body they change because you're now exercising or moving different muscles in your body but you also find doing it that you know it's
Thank
You don't really care sometimes. I don't even look at that aspect of it because I'm too busy looking at the colour of the sky or enjoying the water. know, exercising and the fitness part is just a bonus. But it's not the be end and end all of what's really important about the whole thing. It's more important, as I said, is the colour of the sky, the water, how it changes, watching clouds move, the sun coming up. You know, it's all those things that I find that things you never notice.
you go for a walk and you just walk you walk past it all or you say hello to somebody but you're actually out in the water you start to take more notice yeah of these things and you hi Sue I'm just on a podcast
you're okay and so yeah so it's it's it's great it's wonderful yes and you meet as I said beautiful people that just want to talk as well tell them how their day is going so it's an all-rounder so it is something that sometimes you go out solo and sometimes you go with other people you never know what's gonna happen you never know something more to go and I try my hardest to get people to come with me because I know what's given me
So it's important to help people when you find that they're in situations where they are lonely, fed up or don't feel great and you say come with me, give it a go, and see how how you feel about it. And after a while all of a sudden you turn people around and they love it and the next thing you do they're excited because they're buying a board.
So doing something you never thought you could do. Do you think for people who are considering maybe giving paddle boarding a go, could they hire a board first? Yeah, there's a great guy called Daniel here on the peninsula, he hires them and he'll drop them down and pick them up for you. His website he's a local Scarborough gentleman and he's an amazing man and if you ring Daniel he'll definitely bring down some boards and kayaks so you can have a family day.
and he'll collect them when you call him. Yeah, what was the name of that website? I think it's Daniel's SUP-Rental. I think if anybody's in other areas of Australia, they could look up, you know, if you just put in Scarborough and rent him paddle boarding as a kayak, he'll definitely come on because he's the only person who does it. Is there anything else that you could say to somebody who is looking for an activity this year and who hadn't thought of paddle boarding but just doesn't really
know how to start. It's really important because some people say they can't have balance or things like that. Well, they can, but they just have to make sure that the board is right. The board has to be correct for the height and their weight.
And it's really important that they are very safe about going on the water. They can swim or if you can't swim bring a life jacket. But just relax and enjoy and take it easy. But go with somebody that's got experience of the area and know what they're doing. It's really important because something you could love and really enjoy can turn to hurting yourself or
having a fright. Always go with somebody when you first go because you are on water and as beautiful as it looks it can also be dangerous you know you've just got to be careful but as long as you're with people while you first get your experience and you learn where the reefs are how the water works and the weather and we are it's great now because we have
apps Willy Weather is a wonderful thing so it can tell you about tides, wind, you get to learn about that side of it as well as learning to board so that's really important is learning the weather the tides and people think I wouldn't have a clue well that's what we're here for we're to help guide you and teach you and if anyone wants to do it we don't want any money we're quite happy to see one enjoying it like we do and getting the
happiness that we get out of it. As I said, it's not for everybody, but it's good to give it a go because I know what it's given me back.
Definitely. So for those living on the peninsula they can come down to any of the local beaches here and just ask a local. I think that's really good advice. Always consider the safety aspect of it. Safety is number one. Safety and you know because you're on water if you fall off and hurt yourself you're on water and it's dangerous. Yeah. You it's not like you walk along a footpath if you pass out somebody will come over. You're out there so you really need to first stay close to
beaches, paddle with us people can see you, just things like that. And for somebody who hasn't exercised for a long time, would paddle boarding be good, yeah. Great. And you can also do some stretches like, you know, lots of different stretches, you know, just pull your arms back like that, you know, things like that, reaching up like that, arms flat down, waving around, just get your arms moving a little
bit get the muscles warmed up but yeah yeah it's great it's fine it'd be good as I said anyone that has a paddleboard if you want to do it find somebody with a board on the beach and ask them questions and we're always willing to help if someone's got a board we can bring one down for someone to give it a go yeah definitely fantastic well thank you Yvonne for telling us about your love of paddleboarding you're welcome it's been lovely to chat with you it's pleasure and we hope that more people will will give it a go
Yeah and that's the word, give it a go, don't be fear because sometimes the fear of doing anything stops us from moving forward.
And when you can find out that, oh my god, I never thought I could do this, you'll never look back. Because I think that once you've done something like that, next things that happen to you in life, all the different challenges you come, you can remember that, god, I thought I could never do that, and I did it. So maybe I should give this a go too. Yeah, that's absolutely fabulous. Not to be scared. That's it. Thank you so much. Facing fears are good. Oh, you're welcome, Ros. Thank you.
