Wow, well who would have thought a global pandemic would shut down many of Australia’s largest employers from Hospitality, Retail, Events, Tourism, Travel across the board our lives were changed forever earlier this year, not to mention the state of our economy.
Whilst the timeline suggests that China advised the World Health Organisation 31 December 2019, Corona virus really did not impact many of us living here in Australia until 17 March 2020 when the Morrison government declared a Human Biosecurity Emergency and our countries death toll due to the virus rose to six persons. Other signs leading up to this could most likely have been there, but I am not here to speculate about that as the sorrow I feel for so many Aussies and other countries overseas loosing loved ones out weights this. My sincere condolences to anyone in this situation.
For me, like many others I lost a new role at a company I was so looking forward to working for but have been thankful that my own business could sustain me via JobKeeper and again like so many others, we were all at home from the end of March until 14 May and on 15 May Stage 1 restrictions came into play and we could once again venture out of our 5km zones, see family and friends. What joy, what bliss to enjoy freedoms we took for granted for such a long time. We became very versed in what was to now be our “new normal”. It was so delightful to see many tourism products able to reopen their business’ once more. This period was such a worrying, anxious and stressful time for many with sadly numerous businesses’ never opening again.
And so, we booked a Stand Up Paddle Board lesson, determined we would use our new found freedom to support as many local business’ as we could by either visiting a tourism product, undertaking a tour, staying at accommodation, dining out wherever possible that our budget allowed.
I have done a SUP lesson only once before and loved the experience although terrified of deep water but was eager to learn again. We booked a one hour private lesson with Linda who owns Go Vertical SUP Hire. Our classroom, the shallow and calm water area of Doug Jennings Park at The Spit. We learnt paddle technique, how to turn and balance. It was a big feeling of accomplishment to graduate from knee paddling to stand up paddle boarding (although this did take me awhile due to my confidence). Linda made me feel safe and she was on the water at all times with us, just so extremely patient and made the lesson fun.
We saw various schools of fish, looked for rays, loads of bird life to spot and really enjoyed being outdoors, on the water and of course in it as well. We brought our own snacks to enjoy a beach picnic after. Go Vertical offer tours and lessons from their main base at the picturesque Budds Beach in Surfers Paradise. Check them out for tours and private lessons. They have a great team of qualified staff who will take great care of you and the location is wonderful.
For great local tourism information;
https://www.destinationgoldcoast.com/
