How we play at the beach
After what seemed like weeks and weeks of work (but was really only 3 days), we were eager to have our first trip to the beach here in St. Martin to chill out a bit. Of course, our idea of chilling out may not be quite the same as most other people’s. About mid-morning, we set off for shore with our beach towels, sunscreen, iPod and volleyball in our pack. Unfortunately, when we got there, it was a bit too windy to hit the ball around. It’s almost guaranteed that we would have been fetching it out of the surf about every other hit. We were able to entertain ourselves with our new exercise device though, the blackPack Aqua, which we also brought to the beach with us.
Using a sandbag for exercise is nothing new to us; we have been using a duffel bag filled with line to exercise with for some time. The blackPack is purpose built for training though and we were pretty stoked when the bag’s developer, Elmar from Aerobis, the same people who make the aeroSling Elite that we use on a regular basis, volunteered to send us one. Although Elmar sells a version which is designed to be filled with sand, the Aqua version that he sent us has a bladder inside which is made to be filled with water to add weight to it. As he thought, this is perfect for us as we’re always very aware of how much weight we bring on board our boat.
Filling the water bladder is a tad easier when done from a tap! 🙂
While certainly more expensive than the cheap duffel bag that we had been using, the blackPack is heavy-duty and appears perfectly capable of being abused through hard exercise. It also has no zippers, a fact that we love. Zippers and salt water do not play well together! We’re looking forward to using it as a regular part of future workout routines.
Rebecca did not choose this bikini because it matches the color on the blackPack
although I do think that it looks nice!
The following video shows the exercises that made up the circuit we did on the Simpson Bay beach. We alternated the exercises between the two of us and when the circuit was completed, we repeated it four more times. Note that in the video you can see the Princess Juliana Airport in the background, behind the fence. In less than a week we’ll be flying out of that very airport on our way to California to see our daughter Cass and her family. We can’t wait!
If you enjoy the video, feel free to comment on the video page and share it with your friends.
What will you be doing with Zero to Cruising while you are away? Will you be pulling her out of the water and what will that cost (if I may ask)?
We’ll be leaving her on a mooring although if we hadn’t already made a deal to do that, I’d be happy leaving it here on anchor. We haven’t budged since we’ve been here and it has been blowing near a gale every day.
Great video…one of your best exercise videos. I can see how backpack training can be done anywhere. We shall see how you like it after a few months…
Thanks, Terry! We like variety in our workouts so I think it will be a nice addition.
Glad you mentioned what was behind that fence. Rebecca looked like either an escaped “Bond Babe” or some Special Ops “Hawaiian Tropic Army” about to invade some base!
LOL
Nice workout video, and I love the music. Also like all the mega yacht in the background.
If we had a mega yacht we wouldn’t have to go to shore to workout. We saw one in Grenada that had a full-on weight lifting gym in it!
What will happen to Samantha while you are away?
Mike
We’re going to cast her out into the wild to fend for herself. 😉
M and R,
Apologies if this is old news for you two but…
http://content.westmarine.com/documents/pdfs/RECALLS/PRODUCT%20SPECIFICATION%20NOTICE%20FOR%20WEBSITE%20-%208%2001.pdf
Rocna anchor recall.
Hth,
Jim
Hi Jim. No worries for posting but yeah, that is old news. It did not apply to our anchor and thankfully all issues at Rocna have been resolved.
* Corr-Block is the best spray type corrosion inhibitor I have found, both in PS testing on wire and in my personal experinence. Pretty good on zippers, though you are right; they could all do better withSS sliders; I don’t get that.
* I always carry a boogie board. The kids love them… when they can get them away from me! They weight nothing and fit under the bunks easily. We carry 2 and they get used a lot. But I’ll be too old soon; I separated a rib in a bike accident this week and I’m feeling rather old and lame. Core injuries will do that.
We just avoid buying things with zippers if we can.
Rib injuries suck! Get well soon.
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