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Man Paddle Boards to Work, Cuts 1 Hour Commute to Just 6 Minutes

Here’s one way to beat rush hour: why drive or take the bus to work if you can paddle board across a river and get there faster?
Man paddle boards to work, cuts daily commute from 1 hour to 6 minutes 11 photos
Photo: YouTube / Video Precede
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A 29-year-old insurance agent from Chongqing, China, came up with the novel way of commuting to work forced by extraordinary circumstances. He would usually take a bus across the Yangtze River and ride for almost an hour until he got to his work place. When local authorities started doing maintenance work on the bridge, that hour stretched to an even longer commute.

And Liu Fucao decided it was not worth it: he was spending too much time on the road to and from work, and he could find better uses for it. So he brought out his paddle board and, using his previous 2-year experience as a competitive athlete in this field, he started paddle boarding to work.

Each morning, he takes off his shoes and places his socks, coat and laptop in a waterproof bag that he takes with him. He straps a vest on and starts the short journey across, to the other side. This way, a ride to work that would have taken him over an hour by bus becomes a short 6-minute paddling exercise. It might take him a bit longer if there’s waves, he says with a smile.

Once on the other shore, he puts on his clothes and takes his board under his arm, and heads for the office.

“It’s little more than 1,000 meters [across the river], but if I drive my car I have to take detours to get to work,” Liu Fucao tells Pear Video in a recent interview, as cited by OddityCentral. “It took me six minutes to across the river. There are some waves today, so I was slower.”

Though the trip is a short and uneventful one for Fucao, he wouldn’t advise other commuters to follow his lead. He has had proper training as a competitive paddle boarder, so he can do it safely. Others might not.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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