The newest activity at the Shoreline Lake Aquatic Center is an unusual sight -- a Saturday morning yoga class bobbing in the middle of the lake.
Making use of stand-up paddleboards, the group of floating yoga practitioners have the added challenge of not falling into the water. The wind usually blows the group across the lake several times before the hour-and-fifteen-minute class is up.
After a class on July 13, participants were were enthusiastic about the experience.
"It works your core a little more because you have to balance," said Krista Hermawan, who traveled from San Francisco for the class. "It's just beautiful to be out on the water, out in nature."
Shoreline lake employee Paige Topole said she had been watching people take the class and wanted to try it herself. She brought her mom along.
Like yoga, "stand-up paddleboarding has definitely become popular," Topole said. "A lot of people I work with haven't tried (paddleboard yoga) yet so I thought I'd be the first. It's a great experience. I had a great time and would recommend it to anybody."
Her mother, Cynthia Topole, said she felt invigorated. She had taken regular yoga before, but doing it on a paddleboard required more "strength and concentration."
"It's tricky, you are really concentrating," she said. In the"upward-facing dog" pose, which involves laying on your stomach and pushing up on straight arms, "you look up and there's the lake and it's really pretty. It's just really neat out in the open as opposed to class in the gym."
The class costs $25 and starts at 9:45 a.m. every Saturday through Aug. 24. There are six more classes scheduled this year. For more information, go to shorelinelake.com.
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