paddleboarding D-Day beaches

For those keen on a way to combine history with stand up paddleboarding (I almost wrote stand up comedy there- and some spectators of my efforts might have denied any difference) I can suggest a fine place in the five beaches- Gold, Sword, Juno, Omaha and Utah- though the last two became conflated in my nephew's mind to become 'yuhooter' and 'ohomer'- the names stuck- the five beaches that saw the incredible effort of landing thousands of men on the 6th June 1944. The highest surf is on Omaha and Utah, the calmest- and best for stand-up practice- to be found inside the artificial 'mulberry' harbour constructed from concrete platforms just after the landing- this is Gold beach, right by the town of Arromanches. At Sword, Gold and especially Juno there are lifeguards who may ask you to go further out or along. No such interference is to be found at the more remote Omaha and Utah. There are great regular waves or lowish height at Juno, though Omaha, which saw the fiercest fighting was also the best for surfing.

I couldn't help thinking that the Germans would have been even more freaked out if the 1-29 Division of General Bradley had been riding into battle on big Hawaiian surf boards...