Paddle boarding is a fairly new sport that is fast growing in popularity. It can be thought of as a surfing-kayaking mix because there’s balance involved with standing on the standup padding board (SUP) and you hold a paddle while using your “craft” to move through the ocean, river, or lake. You’re certainly not as comfortable and insulated from the water as you are in a kayak, but then you get to enjoy more of the exhilaration felt when surfing.
Unlike with surfing, you don’t have to be super nimble and in your youth to have a chance of catching some waves. SUPs are used on calmer waters, as standing up and keeping your balance is tough to do when bobbing around in the water too much. As a result, you can use an SUP far more often than you would if you had to sit around checking surf reports.
You Can Go Paddle Boarding When You’re Nowhere Near the Ocean
With surfing, you’re stuck needing to catch the good waves and living near an accessible ocean to do so. When you’re far away, you can spend many hours traveling to get to the beach during the early hours just to ride a few waves. Living ocean-side is expensive as rentals properties and real estate for sale is usually pricier because of the ocean views.
With your SUP, you can go to any river or lake that’s nearby to get on the water. There’s no reliance on surf conditions being perfect to enjoy the water. You just need your solid SUP or inflatable SUP, a working hand pump, a wetsuit, and you’re off.
Do You Get Sea Sickness?
Some people are put off by the idea of any water sport because they get sea sickness when doing any traveling across the water and figure it’ll be the same outcome. Actually, using a SUP is a calming experience because once you get the right stance to balance your weight and are used to adjusting your feet and leg position to stand and paddle smoothly, it will quickly feel like second nature.
SUPs are also not used in choppy water, so not only are you unlikely to go out in bad water conditions, but it’s not a sport that you have a limited number of days to enjoy the activity. You can pick when you wish to go; if there are too many other people on the water, you can try it another time and have a picnic with water views instead.
It’s Not Overly Difficult to Learn
The hardest part of learning to go paddle boarding is to stand up on the board for the first time. Once you have the correct position down and can move around comfortably, then it’s much easier from that point. Certainly, you can learn some tips and tricks from the good folks at Waves Champ, but it won’t take too long to become quite accomplished. There’s not even a need to have an excellent sense of balance either as you’re not being buffeted around by the surf or waves.
Paddle boarding is a fun water sport that’s not expensive to get into and it doesn’t take much time to become reasonably proficient on the SUP. Inflatable SUPs pack down into neat carry cases and even the paddle breaks into two pieces with most products, so the storage space is low too.
