MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Summer 2019

66 The stiff crosswind wasn’t a concern. Nor the rolling swells, buffeting me port side and pushing me off course. The problem I encountered the first time I went stand-up paddleboarding in eastern Newfoundland—a five-kilometre crossing to Bell Island on Conception Bay—arose before I left dry land. I wanted to be on the water all afternoon, but the sun was blazing, and I had forgotten to bring sunscreen. Luckily, just back from jigging cod and curious about my inflatable SUP, a retired fisherman moseyed over from his house across the street from my put-in, a rocky beach in the village of St. Phillips, about halfway up the west side of the Avalon Peninsula. “There’s some in the boat,” he said, nodding toward his driveway, when our conversation about the glorious weather turned to my predicament. “Mind calling the coast guard if my van is here after dark?” I asked a minute later, slathering my face in sunscreen. “I could,” he replied, “but first I’ll go out and look for you b’y.” TRAVEL SUP the Rock Towering cliffs, sea tunnels, and secret beach breaks are just the beginning of eastern Newfoundland’s unsung SUP possibilities words :: Dan Rubinstein I battled for an hour toward the mesa-like red sandstone cliffs of Bell Island, Two-thirds of the way across, wary of the wind shifting and making my return just as challenging, I pivoted and rode the swells back to the Avalon, making landfall in Portugal Cove. Recharged by a snack and a (very short) swim, I paddled hard into a headwind for a couple hours in the late-afternoon sun, through a flotilla of small fishing boats and reached my van before dark. The next day, aboard a Zodiac piloted by Rick Stanley, the owner of Ocean Quest Adventures, accompanied by my wife and twin daughters, I made it to Bell Island. We pulled onto a beach, where guides Dan Noseworthy and Sandy Walsh unloaded two SUPs and two tandem kayaks. Walsh and I took the SUPs, and, donning helmets, we all headed toward the northeastern tip of the 10-kilometre-long island on uncannily calm waters.