“When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life,
he has no right to keep it to himself” ― Jacques Cousteau
Paddleboards vs. Fiesta Food: My Survival Guide to a Guam Beach Picnics
Discover what happens when wind ruins a beach paddleboard day in Guam. Spoiler: It involves a beach picnics, fiesta feast and a strategic "gentlemanly" sacrifice!
GUAMLIFESTYLESFEATURED
Randy Landis
6/6/20262 min read
Beach Picnics are Killing Me!
Last week, the local Guam Pickleball Association held a picnic at the beach for its members and guests. Teri had me load up and bring the inflatable paddleboard so her and her friends could have an excuse to get on the water and get wet, but the wind conditions were just a little too brisk to be fighting against with a little 'ole paddle. As my luck would have it, I never had to unload, inflate, deflate, rinse off, and repack the paddleboard. While there was some pickleball and volleyball games played, the main event was food. A typical Guam spread with red rice, pancit, lumpia, bbq ribs, fried chicken, kelaguen, potato salad, and much, much more. I did manage to squeeze in a couple games of pickleball - but trust me when I say the amount of calories I burned didn't come close to the number of calories I made disappear this day. Did I mention desserts?
This week, Teri's Hula organization (Hula is like a Polynesian form of Latin Zumba) had a picnic at that same beach park. Again, she asked me to bring the paddleboard down to the beach. And, just like the week prior, the winds were not condusive to any form of a relaxing or leisurely paddle. Maybe you could paddle off in one direction, but with the wind, waves, and current, it would be quite hard returning to whence you started. So again, I was excused from having to inflate the board and expend all that energy involved in that entire evolution. But I did hang around and offered up some help around the food table. I mean, I felt sorry for all those ladies who went through the trouble of cooking and baking all that food, and having to haul all that stuff from their car to the pavilion. I'm sure it's heavy and they shouldn't have to carry all that heavy stuff back home again, right? I did what any gentleman would do... I helped lighten the return load.
At home later that day, I told Teri... "From now on, you're gonna have to deal with that whole paddleboard evolution on your own. There's just too much food involved for me!"
I've always said "The Good thing about Guam is the food. The Bad thing about Guam is the food!"
Watch the related YouTube video short here!
