I woke up one recent Saturday with an urge to paddle a board around on the water. Why? Probably because my wife bought me a board rental and lesson with Washington Surf Academy for Father's Day in cahoots with my brother's wife, who did the same for him. Ever paddled a board around on the water? According to Surf Ballard, where we rented our boards, it's the fastest growing watersport in the world. I'd had an interest in trying it out for some time. My wife knew this, I guess, and set me up for a fun day.

So we ventured forth towards an enjoyable day out. Or maybe a day in. Puget Sound, that is. As it turns out, it's quite fun, and even more relaxing.

From Surf Ballard, we cut straight down to the water and climbed up on our boards in a shallow little bay. Then, because the wind was strong and not going to allow us to head southwest towards the lighthouse at Discovery Park, we curled southeast along the shore and followed the inlet towards the Ballard Locks.

I've started to experiment with a GoPro Hero2 . One of my first experiments was to shoot this timelapse of my ride in to work. I set the GoPro to take 11-megapixel photos at two-second intervals (pretty much the default settings) and used the head strap mount to mount it on my helmet while I was riding. Although the camera added a little weight to the front of my helmet, it was only slightly noticeable while riding.  I then cut this together using GoPro's free CineForm Studio editing tool. I'll post some of the stills from this sequence later.

All in all, a pretty fun and easy-to-use little package.