I was introduced to Paddle boarding on the shores of Lake Garda, Italy. A truly lovely place to fall in love with anything or anyone. It happened in the middle of the pandemic, in 2020. A few weeks into my job with Hilti, I got invited by my friend Patrick to go spend a long weekend with him and his girlfriend, Lara. When Patrick approached me and said “Hey, my girlfriend and I are going to her parents’ house in Italy. Do you want to come?” I was like “Heck yeah!” So we packed our bags, got in the car and drove four hours from Liechtenstein to Sud Tirol. 

An Unexpected Trip To Lake Garda

Lara’s parents’ house is perched on a west facing cliff, high above the vineyards and orchards of grapes and apples of the Alto Adige, one of the largest wine producing regions in the world. From the valley, the rocks of the cliffs look pink with tufts of green on top. After driving alongside the river surrounded by these cliffs and vineyards, we climbed up a narrow and curvy road to a small village nestled in the side of the cliff. On the outskirts of the village, just past some more fields of grapevines and apples, was a 5 story building. Their house was the whole top floor complete with a balcony from which one could see the entire valley below. All around us were some phenomenal hiking trails and via ferratas to explore. 

On the second day, though, Patrick and Lara informed me that we were going to Lake Garda. Since we had spent the first day doing hikes and going out to eat, I assumed that we’d be doing more of the same, except near the water. This whole area of the world was new to me, I didn’t know what we were doing, and I was just along for the ride. Well imagine my surprise when we got the first glimpses of Lake Garda. The deep aquamarine colors contrasting with the pink cliffs and the bright blue sky and the cute Mediterranean buildings was the stuff of movies. Queue the 007 theme song!

We came to the town of Malcesine, a very beautiful medieval town right on the shore of the lake. We parked on the street and we got off. I assumed we were just going to just walk around and explore, but then I followed Patrick across the street to a place that rented out paddle boards. I used to work at an outdoors store, so I knew what the sport was, but I’d never tried it before. Patrick and Lara handled the interaction, they paid the rental money, and then the clerk came over to hand us our boards. Then he told us to just walk across the street to the public beach where we could put in, and then to just come back in 2 hours. That was it. No further instructions. 

The Best First Impression 

Unbeknownst to me, Patrick and Lara had also never been paddle boarding before. None of us knew what we were doing. The rental company just kind of assumed that we did, and I assumed that we did, too. I remember we carried the boards awkwardly over to the shore, put them down and we all took a second just to admire the beauty all around us. I was amazed by the beauty of the water. These kinds of alpine lakes in the north of Italy, like the ones in Switzerland, Austria, or Germany are so deep, but the water is so crystal clear and pristine. You can see all the way through it. The rocks underwater never seem to grow any algae or seaweed on them. It’s just so clean. And, because it’s all snow-melt water, it’s also cold. 

We got in the water about knee high and we slid our boards in. We didn’t know how to mount our boards, so we awkwardly climbed on them full of wobbles and shakes trying to avoid taking a full plunge in the chilly water. We ended up figuring it out and eventually we paddled standing up, but for the first bit we were all kind of riding sitting criss-cross apple sauce. Apparently, the wind in this northern shore of Lake Garda is produced like clockwork. It flares in the mornings until about 10 am and then it dies down and then it flares up again in the evening. Which is perfect for kite surfers and windsurfers and it was perfect for us. When we got on the water, around 11am, there was no wind. We were out paddle boarding and conditions were simply perfect. 

Here we were floating on the water of one of the most beautiful lakes I’ve ever been to, surrounded by the warm pink and yellow cliffs on every side, Cerulean blue water below, and perfectly bright blue skies. On the shore there were people sunbathing with their colorful outfits laying on the white pebble beaches, there were bikers riding by and I could hear the occasional supercar driving by to add drama. All of that, plus, I was paddling next to some really good friends. We went a little bit towards the middle of the lake, and from there we saw a castle just jutting out of a rock over the water. It was not too far, so obviously we started paddling towards it.

Just then we started seeing these beautiful, colorful dots circling above us. Well, guess what? A bunch of paragliders were jumping off some 3,000 feet above us, and slowly making their way down flying all around us. It turned out the landing area was somewhere near where we put in, so the whole time that we were paddling towards the castle, and on the way back, we were surrounded by all these paragliders. I imagined that heaven must be at least a little bit like this. All the colors, all the warmth, all the fun, and all the beauty. This was the first time I went paddle boarding, and that was the day I fell in love with the sport. 

Paddle Boarding During the Pandemic

Fast forward to summer of 2021. The whole time I had lived in Liechtenstein I had heard people talking about a certain river In Switzerland. It was supposed to be a gorgeous river with turquoise waters that one can float from one city to another. I really wanted to see it, so I asked around with the people of my church to get information on what I needed to be able to make that happen. Then, I pitched the idea to a group of friends, and then eventually I was able to convince three of them, Jasmin, Spencer and his wife, Liz, to come with me to do this float. And that’s how we started our adventure to float the Aare river. 

One cool July morning we all got up super early. We all lived in different places, so we met in Zurich, and rode in Spencer’s car to the city of Bern. Then we took a train to Thun, some 15 minutes away. When we got to Thun we got off the train carrying all of our gear and we started walking towards the put in spot. Of course, July 2021 was in the middle of the pandemic, and group events were restricted, but, because floating on rivers was an outside activity, and there was a theoretical 6ft of distance between everyone, we were allowed to do it. That meant there were a ton of people who had the same idea of floating down the river with us. 

It was about a 10 minute walk to the river, and the closer we got, the more that we started to see people wearing swimsuits and carrying coolers, floaties, kayaks, paddle boards, rafts and so on. I remember when we got to the actual put in spot we saw that the line had thousands of people queued up wanting to get in. It was a sea of cheap brightly colored plastics, textiles and inflatables. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. There were people already popping beer bottles at 9:30 am. 

Paddle Boarding Down the Aare River

We got in line and we started inflating our stuff. Spencer and Liz brought the round donut floaties, but Jasmin brought two paddle boards, one for herself and one for me. There were so many people wanting to get in that I remember we had to get in line, and then we had to inflate the paddle boards as the line was moving. Spencer and Liz Brough their own little pump, but Jasmin and I had to share only one pump. So we pulled one board out of the bag, we would inflate, we would push the board along, and then we would inflate again. Inflate and push, inflate and drag, and so on until the board was finished. Then the next one. We had just enough time to inflate both of the boards before we had to get in. 

Just then, though, a few meters before we got in, I discovered that I only had half a paddle. Jasmin had borrowed the second paddle board, the one I was going to use, and we didn’t realize that one half of the stem was gone. So just a few minutes before having to get in with the current of the river pulling people away, and with the current of the thousands of people getting in pushing us towards the water I had to improvise. I sprinted to some bushes nearby and I looked for a sturdy stick that I could, you know, stick into my half paddle just in time to get in with my friends. I ended up looking like the Hunchback for Notre Dame the rest of the way, but it did not matter. The ride was so worth it. 

Floating down the Aare was 3 hours of pure beauty floating over freezing turquoise water and past scenic Swiss fields. The vibes were just as good as anywhere where the water is good: people drinking beers, people singing, laughing, people swimming and people who were happy to be there. People were finally able to enjoy time outside and who were finally able to enjoy time together.  

The apex of it all is, of course, when you are arriving into Bern. The trees and the fields give way to farm houses and then tall buildings and bridges and then suddenly you take a turn and you can see the majestic city of sandstone rising on the cliff. Getting that first look at the Parliament building rising above the river is pure fantasy. Something straight out of Arcane’s Piltover. It is just such a gorgeous view. When we got out of the water we went to get ice cream. This was a really good day and I was very glad to have gone there with Spencer, Liz, and Jasmin. Nevermind the broken paddle. On this trip I learned that floating a river on a board is the way to go. 

Paddle boarding in The Czech Republic 

Which leads me to my last truly great and unique experience that made me fall in love with paddle boarding. This one was in Český Krumlov. Fast forward to the month of August 2021. My time at Hilti was coming to an end and I needed to use up my vacation days. I decided to take a tour of the Czech Republic and I ended up visiting Brno, Prague, Pisek, and, lastly, Český Krumlov.

I will make a full post about that whole trip at a later time, but my time in Český Krumlov was quite impressive for a few reasons. One of those was just how unexpected all of this town was. The town had been recommended to me by a mentor when I was 19. Here I was 27 years old and I finally got to be there and see the gorgeous medieval town. 

It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site nestled in a valley and surrounded by a complex of castles and gates all built of gothic and renaissance era architecture. The Vltava river snakes right through the middle creating a triple S shape to it. Immediately upon arriving and walking past all the bridges I knew that I wanted to go paddle boarding on it. 

Sure enough I found 2 services that offered rentals. I picked one of them and they took me to the put-in spot somewhere just on the edge of town where there are not so many people and the river moves slowly. By this time I was an expert at mounting on the board and standing on it. The put-in spot was covered by a canopy of trees and I was going slowly along passing all these ancient medieval houses and buildings, and with all these cute little docks sticking out onto the water.

As I started getting closer to the middle of the city, I saw all these buildings and castles and everything just looked so impressive and so tall sticking out of the water. It must have been such an imposing city back in the day.

A Magical Perspective 

As I started passing all of these restaurants, and shops people started waving at me and shouting Ahoj! Ahoj!  As I continued, people just kept waving at me, saying Ahoj! while they were having their breakfast, and I could see people on other rafts saying Ahoj! There were also people on boats also saying, Ahoj! Ahoj! People on the bridges would look at me and wave. Even the people on the balconies way up above were waving and saying hello.

The whole ride through the city took only about the first 10 minutes of a 2 and a half hour float. But I didn’t care. It was beautiful. I loved getting to paddle board, and to see the city, which was already pretty magical, from a magically new perspective. 

And I think that’s why I love paddle boarding. Without my knowing, through my friends, I was introduced to a sport and activity I truly love. And falling in love with something, is a very good thing. When I came back to the USA I bought my first inflatable paddle board. And then I discovered that I wanted to bring multiple people along, so I got two more. I’ve since taught multiple people how to paddle board and I go out on them pretty much any chance I get. I get to enjoy a new perspective of a place, I get to spend time on the water with people that I care about, and I get to teach people how to do something that they themselves might really enjoy. 

I hope this story is encouraging to you. If you know somebody that you think this might be encouraging to as well, go ahead and share it with them!