Just last weekend Woody and his lady Kim (Woody is also Kim’s man) had come over to visit and cook out on my brand new grill (it’s bad ass).  Over a good evening of chatting and hanging out with our significant others, Woody said that he had the idea to stand up paddle 20 miles on the French Broad river on the Versa Board the next day. Betsy (my lady) said that I had to go because she had a pile of grading several megabytes deep to do and she wanted me out of the house.  So there it was: the scene was set.  We both needed to get on the water and with unseasonably few whitewater options, this looked like the adventure at hand.  The idea was exciting as a challenge always is but I also felt a kind of sinking dread: this was going to hurt.