In this episode, Chris Thomas sits down with Alex Somoano, massage therapist and stand up paddle boarder originally hailing from Cuba who emigrated to the U.S. in Miami, Florida as a young child where he quickly discovered he was athletically inclined. I’ve been looking forward to this chat for a long time and it really turned out to be a fantastic conversation with a great human being. We cover so much in this episode from his origin story into paddling, a traumatic accident that started him on his journey to quote “find quality in everything”, the Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis, how paddling calms the mind and brings an inner peace, the importance of massage therapy for recovery, focus on process rather than outcome, the ’22, ’23, and ’24 Last Paddler Standing Races from training, to strategy, to emotions, and everything in between, nutrition, water quality in South Florida, and falling asleep standing up. There’s so much more to this episode, but I’ll let you hear it from Alex himself on this 27th episode of the Dabbling in Paddleism Podcast…

Alex’s Book Recommendations:
-Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M Pirsig: https://a.co/d/0EX10Ig
-The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff: https://a.co/d/dVaRrOV
-Inner Excellence, by Jim Murphy: https://a.co/d/gX4cJaw

Races mentioned:
-Key West Paddle Classic: https://www.floridakeyswatermancompany.com/keywestpaddleclassic
-Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis: https://crossingforcysticfibrosis.com/
-L2O: https://www.paddlesignup.com/Race/FL/Stuart/Lake2OceanPaddleRace
-Last Paddler Standing: https://lastpaddlerstanding.com/

-Introducing Fastest Known Paddle with Lindsey Tilton on the Training Chats Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/17-chris-thomas-fastest-known-paddle-paddlings-answer/id1752312685?i=1000732530635

*Episode thumbnail photo credit: Mike Carson (@mikecarson.wmv)