Pulse Management: Our Pulse: August 30, 2009

Check what Stacey Eastman was able to do! Cross over long boarding to high fashion baby! Wait to see what we do with our new and even more amazing partner Losse long boards and Stacey Eastman going to hit it big time in high fashion and land surfing!!! Stay tuned!

Land Paddling is Coming to a Bicycle Lane Near You

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It’s a sunny Tuesday and I am outside the Vogue offices on the car-free stretch of Broadway in Times Square learning how to land paddle on a Kahuna Creations longboard. Had I known I’d be executing a balancing act on wheels for a bunch of midtown tourists I might have worn a cigarette jean, but this is a very last-minute lesson, so I am faced with the added challenge of athleticism in a knee-length dress. With me is Steve McBride, the board’s designer and the man who invented land paddling, which can best be described as a street/skate version of paddleboarding. (You’ve likely seen pictures of Kate Hudson and Jennifer Aniston in action off the coasts of Malibu and Kauai; it looks like a cross between surfing and steering a gondola). Using my feet to make the turns downhill, and the signature Big Stick—a five-foot long wood poll with a rubber stopper at its base— to push me uphill, I’m grateful for having yoga-honed balance to keep me onboard. “You’d be surprised how quickly you’ll get good at it,” McBride tells me. “Just think of the Big Stick as a shoulder to lean on. Let it help you stay in control.”

Launched as a leisure activity, land paddling has quickly become an alternative exercise tool among elite athletes. “You get an upper-body workout,” says McBride. “Plus, you’re engaging your stabilizer muscles, your quads, and your core to balance.” That said, if it weren’t for the effort that it takes to paddle uphill, you might not know you’re burning calories at all. In fact, the biggest draw might be the grace one feels when in motion. Says McBride, “The Big Stick really makes riding easier, especially for women, and that’s what we want, everyone to ride, because it’s so therapeutic, because it’s fun, because it’s a great way to travel.” Look out peddlers: The paddlers could very well be making a break for your lane.

—Jane Herman

Photo: Liam Goodman (board, stick)
tags: Jane Herman