Rudee Inlet’s marina district bubbles with activity on summer mornings in Virginia Beach.
Seasoned fishermen return from the sea, their boats gurgling as they meander back to their slips. While anxious tourists slather on sunscreen as they line up for parasail excursions, a tall man in a floppy straw hat hoses off an array of stand-up paddleboards.
Randy Harris, the owner of Rudee Inlet Stand Up Paddle (it also goes by the acronym RISUP, as in “rise up”), is there cleaning the boards and paddles his customers will rent. It’s all part of his adjustment to the coronavirus, which also requires customers to wear masks on the dock.
When Jennifer Bonney and her two stepdaughters arrived for an inlet tour Tuesday morning, Harris had the equipment ready to go.
Bonney, a high school guidance counselor who lives in Chesapeake, first signed up for one of Harris’ inlet tours a couple of weeks ago. She had surfed before and wanted to try stand-up paddleboarding.
“I thought it was going to be harder than it was,” Bonney said.
She liked it so much she booked another round. This time, to nail down the strokes before venturing into rougher water.
Harris offers only private tours instead of combining groups so that people feel more comfortable and safer. While it means less money in his pocket, his online reviews continue to soar.
“I’d rather take a hit on a bad year and do the right thing and come out of it stronger,” said Harris, who has operated his business for 10 years.
The inlet tour heads west into Owl Creek, past the marshy islands and waterfront homes toward the Virginia Aquarium. Bird sightings are almost a given: bald eagles, egrets and cormorants live here. It’s a peaceful, relaxed tour with time for meditation and yoga on the board.
“Perfectly chill,” as Harris describes it.
The ocean tour involves paddling east from the dock through Lake Rudee and out to sea, but not too far. Just enough to feel it beneath you and to learn a little bit about riding waves.
“You go to the ocean, and the excitement is in the experience itself,” said Harris, who will compete in next week’s SUP ride-waving heat at the East Coast Surfing Championships in Virginia Beach.
Sea turtles, fish and dolphin sightings often happen in the ocean. Harris says he has never seen a shark, but he has been close to a humpback whale in the winter.
Either route is a workout, mostly felt the next day.
“You’re exercising, and you don’t even realize it,” Bonney said.
Staying hydrated is a must. Paddleboarders should bring a water bottle that can be secured to the front of the board.
Harris, 55, books tours for beginners to more advanced paddleboarders. He’s an instructor at heart and likes to teach the art of SUP.
Lanky but fit, the former First Colonial High School basketball player turned his favorite water pastime into a lucrative business. Harris grew up on Lake Rudee, spending most summer days at his grandparents’ waterfront home.
In 2015, he paddled every day for a year in honor of his mother, Jerry Ann McClanan Harris, a Virginia Beach High School “surf queen” who died of breast cancer. On every tour, he stops to pick up plastic trash in the water.
When the weather turns cold and bookings drop off, Harris supplements his income by substitute teaching in Virginia Beach public schools. But on August mornings, at the height of the summer season, he’s all about the SUP.
“Keep your toes loose; you don’t want to get crampy feet,” Harris tells Bonney and her stepdaughters as they stand on the dock tucked behind Rockafeller’s restaurant to practice their stance.
He tells them to use their “hula hips” to balance when a boat’s wake rolls by.
He knows they’re worried about falling off the board and offers these tips: “Keep your eyes up as if you’re riding a bike; keep your knees loose; keep your feet shoulder-width apart.”
Pretend, Harris said, that your head is on a string. Don’t look down.
“Look down; look up; fall,” he warns.
They practice holding a paddle.
“Right hand straight up, left hand way out in front of you,” he said. “As soon as the paddle hits the water, you straighten your body. Bend and snap.”
Bonney’s family launches on their knees first until everyone is comfortable, then they stand up. An egret is poised in the seagrass ahead. Harris is scanning the horizon for eagles.
“Before you know it, we’re cruising down the inlet on an adventure,” he said.
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com
