LYNN – The recent summer heat inspired Terrence Cullinane, 56, of Lynn to put away his running shoes and pick up his paddle board.
With his paddle board in hand, Cullinane set off on a mission to paddle board in all four of Lynn’s bodies of water: Flax Pond, Sluice Pond, Goldfish Pond and Floating Bridge Pond. So far, he has paddle boarded in three of the four ponds. All he has left now is Floating Bridge Pond, and once Cullinane has paddle boarded there, he has his sights set on Browns Pond in Peabody.
“There’s all these bodies of water in Lynn. I’m going to paddle board them. I mean, why bother sweating and running and going crazy when you could just take the board out, hit the city and hit the bodies of water,” Cullinane said.
He said what drew him to paddle boarding was that “you don’t have to be the world’s greatest athlete.” All it takes is “a little balance, and there you go.”
“There’s nothing better than just jumping on the board… This does it for me,” Cullinane said. “I work four days in a row and then have my three (days) off. (I feel like) I’m winning the lotto.”
Cullinane has worked for United Airlines at Boston Logan International Airport as a baggage handler for 30 years.
He said, “Every pond is just unique, and you get to see the city from a different perspective – very different.”
“I absolutely love looking at all the developments in the city,” Cullinane said, thinking on what differences he’s noticed. “Like, you come down here (to Goldfish Pond), and that used to be a funeral home when I was a kid. Now it’s condos.”
He emphasized that being on the water allows him to get a new perspective on the ponds as well.
“See this water fountain here?” he asked, pointing to one of Goldfish Pond’s water fountains shooting water into the air. “I went around the one in Flax Pond. You drive by it. You walk by it. But when you paddle around it, it’s absolutely beautiful. I mean, it’s stunning.”
Cullinane said the highlight of his new paddle boarding adventures has been striking up conversations with strangers.
“(Some) strangers are like, ‘Hey, can you even do that?’ I’m like, ‘Anything’s possible.’ It’s a great conversation piece to talk to people. People you don’t know, people you walk by, like the woman with the dog,” he said, pointing to a woman who he had just spoken to at Goldfish Pond. “She’s like, ‘You know there was a car in here the other day?’ I go, ‘No kidding. I just hope there’s no great white.’”
He added, “It’s Thursday. I’m at Goldfish Pond paddle boarding. How can you beat that with a stick?”
