A couple of months ago, I saw a Living Social coupon for a 3-hour stand up paddleboard (SUP) lesson. It was a pretty good price and I had always wanted to try SUP, so I sprung for it. My friend also got one, so we decided to try it together. We booked our lesson for this Saturday and had a great time! After this week of thunderstorms and rain, we got lucky with clear blue skies and mild temperatures. It was a bit chilly at first, but quickly warmed up.
We had our SUP lessons at Valley Mill Kayak on a (very) small lake. The water was completely flat, so it was easy to learn. We had a choice between two different boards: a wider, rigid and more stable board, or a narrower, inflatable board. I decided to start with the wider board to get the hang of the thing first.
We had an instructor teach our small group of four. He taught us different paddle strokes, how to stand and shift our weight, and fun things like jumping around and switching our stance. I even tried a few yoga poses on my board. Haha I did crow pose for about three seconds. At the end of the lesson, we played some games on the boards, including sharks and minnows.
Since it was a bit chilly, I made it my goal to not fall into the water! I dislike being wet and cold, so I was extra motivated to not fall in. I have pretty good balance, and didn't fall in once :)
What's great about the wider Jackson boards was that they have built-in GoPro mounts. I had brought my GoPro, but wasn't sure where to mount it, so it worked perfectly! I got some great footage and made a little video. Mounting my GoPro on a paddleboard is much more stable than on my MTB!
We had an instructor teach our small group of four. He taught us different paddle strokes, how to stand and shift our weight, and fun things like jumping around and switching our stance. I even tried a few yoga poses on my board. Haha I did crow pose for about three seconds. At the end of the lesson, we played some games on the boards, including sharks and minnows.
Since it was a bit chilly, I made it my goal to not fall into the water! I dislike being wet and cold, so I was extra motivated to not fall in. I have pretty good balance, and didn't fall in once :)
Here's a video I made with the footage I got from the SUP lessons
I had a great time, and hope I can do this again some time soon!
Have you ever tried SUP?
