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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (July 26, 2017)
Sports B1 Appeal Tribune, www.silvertonappeal.com Wednesday, July 26, 2017 ZACH URNESS / STATESMAN JOURNAL Kelsie Lechleiter, 9, navigates a stand-up paddleboard around Detroit Lake. What’s SUP? On your next trip to Detroit Lake, or any lake, bring a stand-up paddleboard ADVENTURES ZACH URNESS They’re called stand- up paddleboards. But after bringing one to Detroit Lake last week, I decided the increasingly popular aquatic convey- ance is woefully misnamed. You can do a lot more with a SUP than just stand up. Here’s a short list of things we did on our SUP during a trip to the reservoir east of Salem last week: We stood up, sat down, kneeled on it, jumped off it, climbed back on it, laid in the sun on it and tried to surf motorboat wake. I even tried SUP yoga — which is apparently popular — and fell into the water. My point is this: The boards offer a lot more than the novelty of walking on wa- ter. There are obvious reasons not to em- brace the SUP phenomenon, of course. Maybe you already have a shed full of kayaks and float toys. Maybe you don’t want to shell out hundreds of dollars. Rent a SUP What: Rent a stand-up paddleboard Where: Woodward Surf Co., West Salem Cost: $35 per weekday, $45 per weekend day Rental: Rent them at woodwardsurfco.com Contact info: (503) 910-2619; woodwardsurfco@gmail.com But the beauty of a good SUP is that it works for so many different purposes. It provides the fun of a touring kayak and float toy in one piece of inflatable equip- ment. Given the cost, I tested a SUP with a rental from Woodward Surf Co. in Salem. It cost $35 per day or $45 per weekend day. For two days midweek, I spent $70. This was where we spent the majority of our time with a crew that included two kids, ages 9 and 3, and three adults. We brought an inflatable kayak and float toy along with the SUP to see which device proved most popular. It was a blowout. The kids and adults overwhelmingly chose the SUP as the most fun. The SUP entertained the two kids be- cause of that combination of uses I men- tioned above. They used it as a defacto floating dock, but the 9-year-old was eas- ily able to navigate it around the cove. Unlike a kayak — where you’re basi- cally stuck in the sitting position — the SUP allows more freedom of movement but is also fairly stable once you get used to it. It’s also a lot more maneuverable than the large, hulking float toy. It’s sort of an all-in-one float toy. Going on adventure Great float toy at Detroit Lake From our campsite at Southshore Campground — on the south shore of De- troit Lake — we had easy access to a rocky beach and swimming cove. What makes kayaks fun is traveling and exploring. But you can do the same thing on a SUP. From our little beach and campsite, I took the SUP out to explore inlets and coves around Detroit Lake. When you’re standing up, it’s a bit of a challenge and takes some getting used to, but it’s also fun. I sought out motor- boat wake and tried to surf on it. If I got tired of standing up, I’d just sit down on the board, and from this posi- tion, it was actually easier to travel with speed. There were a number of interesting places to visit on Detroit Lake, despite its reputation as a giant reservoir inhabited only by motorboats. From Southshore, I paddled up Sauers Creek, a lush and forested little canyon. Later, I checked out Blowout Creek and paddled below a huge suspen- sion bridge. It wasn’t the most scenic paddling in Oregon, of course, but it gave me a sense of touring with a SUP. Overall, it was pretty fantastic. Zach Urness has been an outdoors writer, photographer and videographer in Oregon for nine years. He is the author of the book “Hiking Southern Oregon” and can be reached at zurness@States- manJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors. Silverton’s Maggie Buckholz named to two All-American teams BILL POEHLER STATESMAN JOURNAL Maggie Buckholz is often honored for her play on softball fields. This time she got two. Following her junior season as the starting shortstop at Silverton High School, Buckholz has been named to the 2017 MaxPreps Medium Schools Softball All-American Team and to the MaxPreps Underclass All-American Team. In her junior season, she batted .734 with 64 RBI, 29 stolen bases and had a slugging percentage of 1.430. She also was named the Mid-Willamette Confer- ence co-player of the year. This was the third year in a row that Buckholz has been named All-American. After her freshman year of 2015, Buckholz was named to the Freshman All-American team by MaxPreps and in 2016 she was named to the MaxPreps All- American team. Buckholz has verbally committed to play softball at Oregon. bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler MOLLY J. SMITH / STATESMAN JOURNAL Silverton softball’s Maggie Buckholz has made a verbal commitment to play at Oregon. She has another season to play at Silverton.