Paddleboard fun in the WRC
Kayla Peterson, senior health promotion and education major with an emphasis in health and fitness and global health, took a break from teaching to try her hand at paddleboard yoga on Friday. REC Day has been held for the past three years along with the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association. Though many events were cancelled due to lack of snow, paddleboard yoga continued to take place where students performed various yoga poses on top of a paddleboard in the pool.
Feb 22, 2016
On Friday, Feb. 19, the Wellness and Recreation Center (WRC) held their fourth REC Day in partnership with the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA). NIRSA started REC Day nationwide in 1999, but UNI has only been doing it for four years.
Fun in the snow and sun had originally been planned, but Friday’s unexpectedly warm weather caused staff to regroup and rearrange activities.
Andy Martin, outdoor recreational coordinator at UNI, explained that many more events were supposed to take place. Broomball on the ice, ice fishing on the pond, cross country skiing and even snowshoeing were all planned events for REC Day.
“Then the snow has melted and [it’s] 54 degrees,” Martin said. “So, we’ve had to adapt and we’ve obviously simply have crate stacking and now we have paddleboard yoga going on in the pool.”
Martin mentioned that crate stacking, which took place in the rock wall area of the WRC, was particularly popular because “it’s the most visible event.”
For crate stacking, you stand on a crate (like a milk crate) and get a point. Then, without touching the ground, you step down, slip your feet into the handles of the crate, and stack another crate. To get another point, you have to pull yourself onto that newly placed crate. Whoever gets the tallest stack of crates and can stand on top of it, gets the most points. The taller the tower got, the more unstable it would become.
Participants had to wear helmets and were harnessed like they would be climbing a rock wall.
Maddie McNeil, freshman mathematics teaching major, participated in crate stacking and stacked an impressive 11 boxes before falling from the stack.
“The 12th one I almost got, but it was too wobbly,” McNeil said.
McNeil and another member of the volleyball team were there because of the volunteers’ invitation.
“We were playing racquetball as a volleyball team and just got invited to try it out,” McNeil said.
As each year passes, more activities are added along with more participants.
“I would say it’s an opportunity, it exposes students at UNI to different activities in a short window,” Martin said.
Sarah McHugh, senior health promotion major, came out to support her friend that was teaching paddleboard yoga.
“I’m always trying to do new things,” McHughn said. “I don’t have much time left here, so anything I can do I will.”
The paddleboard yoga started off slow, with only McHugh and another participating in the first session. But as the sessions carried on, more people floated about on their paddleboards in the pool.
NIRSA REC Day was designed to “promote the recreation opportunities throughout the campus. And mainly here in the Wellness and Recreation Center,” Martin said.
