Paddleboarding

Today, I went paddleboarding for the first time. It was amazing. There were almost no clouds, even though it had been overcast and rainy just that morning. The water was about 20°C (70°F), or, in other words, just cool enough to be pleasant. Also, because it's a Thursday, there were no speedboats in the water to create waves.In other words, it was basically the best possible conditions.
After we got our introduction, we went down to a lake and got on our boards. At the very beginning, we stayed on our knees, just to get used to the paddle. When paddleboarding, you don't paddle by moving your arms around like in canoeing or kayaking, You move your entire body and keep your arms straight. That way, it takes longer to get tired, and you turn less when going straight. This is an odd way to paddle, so it takes some getting used to.
Anyways, after we got used to paddling, we stood up slowly and went out to a nearby buoy. When we got there, we decided to refine our strokes while going to a small floating dock in the middle of the lake. While I was trying to keep my arms straight, I noticed something on the back of my board. It was a small cricket that had probably hopped on when the board was in the grass. As we neared the dock, I asked the instructor if it was normal. He said it was pretty common to have small insects hitch a ride on boards.
When the instructor looked back up, he noticed that my dad was speeding towards the dock. He told us to slow down when we got close, but it was too late for my dad. He careened straight into the dock and fell off of his board. We all got a good laugh at that.
After we had all rested on the floating dock for a few minutes, we got back on our boards. Lucia, who had gotten on her board first, rolled on her back to look at the clouds. I paddled over to her and we joined our boards into a sort of raft. Mom and dad came too, and we spent the next few minutes staring at the clouds. It was pretty neat.
We then set off back to shore. Other than the occasional boat, nothing of interest happened. When we got back, we decided to stay in the shallow area and play a bit more. A couple of minutes later, I decided that it was a good idea to show off my rad paddleboard dancing skills. Needless to say, I danced right into the water*. As we laughed, I got back on the board to use my hands to get the paddle, like the instructor told us too. I turned to the paddle, gained speed and got the paddle 100% on the mark.
Of course, by "on the mark," I mean that I lined up parallel to the paddle and it sailed right under me. That was interesting.
Suddenly, I heard Lucia cry out. She had lost her paddle! We all looked for her paddle everywhere, even in the water plants, but to no avail (What does "avail" even mean? I've only heard it in the context of "to no avail (With the power of Google, I have an answer. "avail" means use, help, or benefit. Neat.)).
When the instructor returned, we told him that the paddle was lost, and he told us that the paddles sometimes sink. Immediately, we got of our boards and started feeling around with our feet. We had just about given up finding the paddle, and were heading out of the pool, mom yelled "Wait!" She reached down and pulled out... the paddle!
So yeah. That was our little adventure. After that, we just got on our shoes and went to the car. All in all, it was really fun.
...
Man, I envy the days when I could just write "THE END" at the end of a story, instead of actually writing a conclusion. Conclusions are hard.
Oh, well. This end is as good as any, I suppose. PUBLISH!

*Technically, this is not true. I actually danced enough so that my shoe fell off, and then "dived" after it. This version is funnier, though.