Strawberry Moon Blossoms On San Rafael Paddle Tour
This past Saturday, an amazing group of intrepid paddlers rallied together to make our 101 Surf Sports Strawberry Moon paddle one for the ages! (Photos by Prismic Photography)
The group of roughly 30 paddlers joined us for yet another spectacular evening under the stars and full moon for another nighttime paddle. Some brought their own boards and about half rented kayaks or stand up paddleboards. In fact, we have almost every style of watercraft out that night, kayaks, paddleboards, sea kayaks along with a canoe!
We assembled at twilight for the typical Skippers Meeting prior to our departure from 101 Surf Sports. The weather was at a tipping point of 80 degrees Fahrenheit, the smiles were plentiful as I detailed the order and process of our celestial endeavors to hunt down the upcoming Strawberry Moon as the sun slowly dropped from the sky, adding a cool chill to our backs as we paddled towards San Pablo Bay.
Legend has it that the Algonquin Indians have long revered this particular moon-rise as the calling of the upcoming strawberry blossoms that shortly awaited them.
As the group of both young and older paddled away from the docks of 101 Surf Sports in San Rafael, the bright and warm sunlight cast a shadow on our backs as we ventured toward the direction of the moon-rise. Our kayaks and stand-up paddleboards cut through the glassy waters with little effort.
Along the way, one of our night-time explorers noticed a ball getting launched into the canal for an apartment on the edge of the water so Matt paddled over to the shore and handed the wayward ball back to the little boy in the Canal. Once again filling the karma bank. Speaking of Matt, he’s one of the group who submitted their photos of the evening! Thanks Matt!
Several of our paddlers were pushing new boundaries by venturing out into the Bay at dusk with a guaranteed paddle back to the shop in the darkness. A few are new to paddle sports. One of the newest members of our paddle brethren that joined us is Cameron. She had an amazing time on the water on her new inflatable SUP.
Once we made our way to the opening of San Francisco Bay the water seemed to turn into a velvety blue as the sky started to cast shadows on the faces of our group of paddlers. It was now the perfect time to snap on our glowsticks and let the warmth of their glow shine brightly as the sky started to turn black.
While we were loitering at the mouth of the Bay, one of our adventurers had the find of a lifetime, a message in a bottle! The fortunate discovery was made by a sweet young little girl named Zelda. She was over the moon with her unique find. Pun intended ;)
Prior to returning to the store, I rallied everyone to raft up at the 7 marker (below) and read them a poem by Mary Oliver to give thanks to the Moon God’s for such a dramatically beautiful evening…
"It's full tonight. So we go and the moon rises, so beautiful it makes me shudder, makes me think about time and space, makes me take measure of myself: one iota pondering heaven. Thus we sit, myself thinking how grateful I am for the moon's perfect beauty and also, oh! how rich it is to love the world."
-Mary Oliver
Next up for our celestial event paddle tours is the Super Moon aka Sturgeon Moon on August 1st. Make sure that you hit the Book Now button because these events fill up FAST.
