Muscovy/Mallard hybrid
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills: #Float with Me

Back in the summer of 2021, Natalie offered to host Sunday Stills for me while I took a blogging break. The funny thing is she is now on a blogging break, and I will begin one next week. Short breaks help bloggers stay afloat in the blogging world. 😉

“Float through life, just take it easy, not too much stress, just float.” – Freja Beha Frischen

Floating on the Lake

I thought it would be fun to re-explore the theme AFLOAT or FLOAT this week, three years later. I have countless photos depicting board sports and aquatic activities, so I went back in time to see what was afloat in my archives.

Sacramento Aquatics

My 20+ years as Aquatic Director for 15 public swimming pools made me hyper-aware of water safety. We hired over 150 lifeguards each summer to keep the pools safe during recreational swimming, teach swimming lessons to people of all abilities and ages, and promote safety in and around the water.

“I could float in the pool for hours, just letting the water carry me.” – Jill Scott

Swimming lessons for youth are inexpensive and necessary!
Teaching Swim lessons
people floating in water
Using Lift to Assist Disabled Swimmers
Lifguard at public pool
Recreational swim Image by freelancerphotos4u.wordpress.com, used with permission

We partnered with the fire department and Sacramento County’s beachfronts to offer the free Life Vest Loan Program.

lifejackets for kids

The Sacramento State University Aquatic Center

Kayaks Ready for Use

The university-operated aquatic center provides students and visitors with safe water experiences on Lake Natoma. Not only did I play here, but my classroom curriculum for Parks and Recreation Management courses included field trips to the center, complete with immersive activities.

Kayaking at Sac State Aquatic Center
Students engage in dual kayaking for a leisure lifestyle class.
Kayak-Kids-Kamp
Students enjoying water sports at the Aquatic Center
adults playing on water floats
College Students getting a well-rounded education

“You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.” — Mark Twain

Weather and seasons permitting, once the students left, I toured the lake using my instructor discount.

SUP transportation
Paddling Lake Natoma

Delta Summer Days

After meeting my husband in 2009, his avid windsurfing hobby and summer weekends spent on the water inspired me to try windsurfing and stand-up paddling (SUP) for myself.

Hans teaching windsurfing
Hans teaches windsurfing, beer in hand, to a friend’s son.

When I first learned to windsurf at age 50, I spent more time IN the water than ON it. I’m grateful I am a good swimmer.

Woman with windsurf board

“To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.” ~ Alan Watts

Dog watching woman with windsurf gear
Aero watching me head out on my giant Windsurf board (2011)

Mid-summer light wind days at the delta meant putting aside the wind sports gear and going kayaking or stand-up paddling, as well as playing in the water to keep cool. In this image, my two windsurfer friends LOVED the water, and my friends would do anything to enjoy it. Behind them is my younger daughter with her dog Gideon.

Three women on paddleboards

My older daughter trying her hand at windsurfing on a light wind day

Young woman on windsurf board

Plenty o’ Paddling in Other Places

By the end of 2019, I had decided I preferred stand-up paddling over windsurfing. After years of bruises, frustration, and twisted knees, SUP-ing was my float of choice. Here, I am able to sit down on my paddleboard and use my kayak paddles to propel myself through the water.

Modified SUP with Kayak paddle
Sit-down paddling after foot surgery in 2019

Stand-up paddling is an excellent form of exercise. At the delta, I purposely paddled against the current for a workout, then reversed direction and floated/paddled with the tide. Note that I’m wearing a life vest.

SUP session at the delta
Stand-Up Paddling is the Best

Moving to Washington’s Inland Northwest meant hubby giving up four months of windsurfing. It’s his fault we moved here because most of his family lives in the Spokane area. 😁 As most of you know, we moved here in late 2020 once we both retired.

When he wants to windsurf, he can sail in Hood River’s Columbia River Gorge, a 5-hour drive to northern Oregon.

Leisure Connects Us
A visitor perhaps longing to float

So far, he enjoys paddling the local lakes close to home.

Stand Up Paddler

Two summers ago, we visited Prescott, Arizona, as part of a long road trip that took us from Spokane to the Sacramento Delta, to San Diego, over to Arizona, and then back to Northern California to celebrate my dad’s birthday. We had our RV and paddleboards. We traveled with two inflatable SUPs, which worked out extremely well.

Sitting on a SUP
Hans on SUP
Stand Up Paddling
Morning stand-up paddle session in Mission Beach, San Diego.
SUPPING Mammoth Lakes
Mammoth Lakes
Paddling in sit-down position
Marsha and I at Watson Lake

Since 2009, I’ve been AFLOAT at the delta, San Diego’s Mission Bay, California’s Mammoth Lakes and Lake Tahoe, Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, Watson Lake with Marsha in Prescott, and kayaked in the Spokane area’s rivers and lakes,

August Kayaking with Friends
Kayaking with Friends
Kayaking on Little Spokane River
Kayaking on Little Spokane River

“Always be like water. Float in the times of pain or dance like waves along the wind which touches its surface.” – Santosh Kalwar

blue swatch

Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders

The Sunday Stills weekly-themed photo challenge is easy to join. You have all week to share and link your post. Please use your own original images, whether new or from your archives.

  • Remember to title your blog post a little differently than mine.
  • Please create a new post for the theme or link a recent one.
  • Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
  • Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
  • Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
  • I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.

Sharing for Johnbo’s CellPic Sunday and Marsha’s Wednesday Quotes.

I hope you will enjoy your summer months around the water. For those living in the Southern Hemisphere, what you do look forward to when summer comes?

I can’t wait to see how you interpret this week’s theme! Creativity is encouraged, so please share your own photographs (old or new), poems, original short stories, and music inspired by the theme.

Reminder: I will be on blog break mid-week (there will be no challenge on August 4th). This Thursday, I’m traveling to California to meet up with my family, where we’ll scatter Mom’s ashes in Yosemite National Park.

graphic stand up paddleboarder

Please join me on August 11 for the monthly color challenge, yellow and gold.

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107 comments

  4. You are definitely water lovers, Terri. I just can’t seem to adjust to this cold west coast water and it takes an act of God to get me in there. But give me a warm lake or ocean, and I’m good to go. Great pictures of water fun everywhere. That’s what summer is about. 🙂

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  6. Loved the photos, and your journey to surfing and paddling on water! You guys loved it and still love it despite the challenges…I was so moved when you still chose SUP after surgery…keep doing what you love

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  10. You and the water are twins, Terri. I can tell from the photos (and this post) just how much you love being on or in the water. I didn’t know that’s how Hans and you met, although I seem to recall you saying that you were both at high school together? Good job he’s also a lover of the water.

    Can these paddle-boards ever sink? I’d be more likely to loose my balance and fall off. But, as you know, as a non-swimmer, I’ll be keeping my feet firmly on the earth. Maybe just a paddle up to my ankles?

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    • Thank you, Hugh! I’m a zodiac fire sign buy water is my playground. My mom took us to the San Diego beaches as kids.

      Hans and I met in high school then re-met through Facebook in 2009. On our first date then, while he stayed at a friend’s home in Sacramento, we watched some videos of Hans and others windsurfing. I told him then I would like to try it. Both his friend and Hans fell in love with me that night 😆😆
      Paddleboard don’t sink. You could go out in shallow water and knee paddle. You would do fine, Hugh. I’ve paddled in two feet of water. 😁

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      • How amazing to have two guys fall in love with you, Terri. Thanks for the history of how Hans and you met.

        Paddleboarding in two feet of water? That’s still too deep for me. A dip in my Great Niece’s paddling pool is enough for me.

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  12. It’s great to see how much you enjoy your water sports and even better that you can share your enthusiasm with your husband! I’m doubling up with Monochrome Madness this week: https://www.toonsarah-travels.blog/gallery-seeing-boats-in-black-and-white/

    I hope you refresh nicely during your break and the scattering of your Mum’s ashes goes well. We’ll be at Yosemite ourselves later this year so I’ll be thinking of you there 🤗

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    • Growing up in San Diego started my love for water, Sarah. If you haven’t been to Yosemite yet, you’ll love it. I imagine you’re visiting the Valley, as the Tioga Road will likely be closed by the time of your trip. I’m sure your photography will do Yosemite proud!

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      • We visited Yosemite back in 1991, both Valley and the Tioga Pass, and were blown away by both. This time we plan to revisit Tioga (it should still be open in early October from what I’ve read – and hope!) and may venture into the Valley too, depending on time and how crowded it is. But our main aim is to get to some parks we missed that time – Kings’ Canyon and Sequoia, and Death Valley. The latter is the reason we’re going so late in the season as we want to avoid the very worst of the heat.

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      • Oh good! That’s a good time of year to see Tuolumne and nearby Mono Lake, too! I’ve never been to Yosemite in fall or winter. That time of year won’t be as busy for those parks. I will look forward to seeing those pics!

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      • Lee Vining is where me and my family are staying starting Friday. It’s a great place for glamping. 30 minute drive to Tioga Pass then 15 more to Tuolumne. Fun to talk about this with you. You can tell I’ve been there a few times. 😁

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  23. Such fun water pictures, Terri. Wind surfing had to be thrilling but I imagine also challenging. To start at age 50 had to take a lot of courage but when you have a passion for something, it’s hard not to go for it. 💕

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  31. I enjoyed your post, Terri. I can’t swim. I’ve tried to learn but simply am not able to. The quote you shared on not grabbing the water makes me want to try again. Lovely pics and memories.

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  32. Wonderful Terri. I deliberately didn’t look at your poat until after I had done mine

    There are many ways (floating memories)

    I didn’t want get any more ideas and your post made me think of a few I could have posted.
    It’s a pity of Hans didn’t go onto more starting with “Hold my beer” then doing the dumbest thing but uninjured, all caught on camera.
    Resisting the urge to say “Hey Terri ‘sup?” 😁

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  34. Wonderful photos, Terri, and you certainly do make staying afloat look fun! My husband isn’t much of a swimmer so we haven’t done much of that together. But he did take swimming lessons before we went to Hawaii a few years ago, so we could at least try a bit of snorkeling. I’m so glad we did! Enjoy your blogging break, I’m thinking I need one soon myself!

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  35. Terri, I do wish I had learned to swim at some point in my life. I spend a lot of time near the water, but walking and taking photos only. When I was younger and traveled, I never thought anything about being out in boats and the fact I didn’t swim and I don’t remember wearing any type of PFD … perhaps they weren’t as commonplace then in the late 70s/early 80s?

    We have a lot of drownings in Michigan – just had another one yesterday, the fourth in three weeks. One swimmer was in excellent health and attempting to swim across a lake for exercise – he was very athletic, only he got tired, struggled and drowned. His buddy was nearby but could not save him. The authorities give PSAs about being careful, but people are all about fun in the sun and on the water and are not prudent. But then, neither was I to be honest.

    I hope your trip to scatter your mom’s ashes won’t be too sad for you. My mom’s ashes are scattered in Canada, her homeland, per her wishes.

    My post is about freighters and geese on the water … both float very well. 🙂

    Freighters and a flotilla.

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    • Being raised in San Diego, I couldn’t avoid beaches and backyard swimming pools. At age 12, I ventured into the deep end of my neighbor’s pool and realized the water wouldn’t drag me under. I sculled afloat in place, got brave and swam across the pool. Very liberating. Later that summer I dutifully watched Mark Spitz swim during the 1972 Olympics and copied his strokes. Two years later I joined my high school swim team. Guess I was destined to be waterfowl 😉
      Very sad to read about drownings that could have been prevented.

      I’m excited to say the final goodbye to mom. She created an incredible leisure legacy within my family which has been received by the next generations. I may get emotional but not sad.

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      • That makes sense Terri – with California’s great weather, you may not swim 365 days a year, but you have significantly more warm weather days for any type of water activity than we do in Michigan.

        My now-former boss is currently 77 1/2 and he swims one mile daily. He books pool time when school is in session with the high school swim team and that is around 6:00 a.m. five days a week. He has a community pool in his neighborhood and swims there from Memorial Day thru Labor Day at the same time. Like you, he was on his high school swim team and I recall he told me he won a college scholarship through his swimming efforts.

        We have a lot of drownings and boating accidents, some of the latter not the fault of the operator. Two people lost their lives from jet skis that were not operated properly and crashed into them – yikes!

        That’s good the final goodbye will not be sad for you. Because I could not cross into Canada (no valid passport), a friend spread my mom’s ashes by a duck pond. I will write about this on her 100th birthday in 2026. Mom loved ducks and we often stopped there over the years.

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  44. Terri, thank you so much for your years as an aquatic director! I’ve always enjoyed swimming and other water activities and have been taking water aerobics through our local YMCA for over 25 years. I enjoyed seeing all your images of people having fun in the water.

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    • Aww, thank you, Beth! I kept my sanity during the fall and winter months when pools were closed but we were always prepping and planning for the following year. I wish we had a YMCA closer to us. In our rural town there are NO public pools. But the nearby lake does call me 😉

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  46. I take blogging breaks, but write and schedule in advance so it appears I am always traveling. It’s fun to hear people tell me, “I thought you were in the Caribbean” or somewhere else when I run into them on the street. Truth is, I have had but one break so far this summer, and I have another scheduled for next weekend. 🙂

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  53. That aquatic center job must have kept you busy, Terri. I was a lifeguard for several years and love being around water. I liked your photos of the field trips you went on.

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