Lagoon Watersports Opening – Stand Up Paddle Boarding Lagoon Watersports has opened its doors for the season of 2013! For all the Paddle Boarders out there 2013 looks to be a very exciting season. New this year is Brighton and Hove SUP Club, which aims to get people out on the water paddling in new and exciting places. There will be 2 Club sessions per week, Thursdays and Sundays. Sessions will include paddle trips to Brighton’s West and Palace pier, Shoreham harbour, Adur River and some local SUP Surf spots. Further afield locations are also being planned! Brighton and Hove SUP Club aims to create a social SUP scene to get as many people SUP’ing as possible. We are pleased to announce they have some very exciting SUP events coming up including the successful Super SUP Sunday event which is now in it’s second year, and a SUP Demo day on the 19th May to support the local university’s decent of the Amazon, in order to raise funds for 3 Amazonian charities. As well as a varied SUP Programme they also offer SUP Race training sessions through their fitness branch Lagoon Fitness, so if you have a race to prepare for get down the Lagoon and be put through your paces, and get Race fit! To get involved with the SUP scene on the south coast visit www.lagoon.co.uk. For more information email [email protected] or call 01273 424842.Lagoon Watersports Opening – Stand Up Paddle Boarding Lagoon Watersports has opened its doors for the season of 2013! For all the Paddle Boarders out there 2013 looks to be a very exciting season. New this year is Brighton and Hove SUP Club, which aims to get people out on the water paddling in new and exciting places. There will be 2 Club sessions per week, Thursdays and Sundays. Sessions will include paddle trips to Brighton’s West and Palace pier, Shoreham harbour, Adur River and some local SUP Surf spots. Further afield locations are also being planned! Brighton and Hove SUP Club aims to create a social SUP scene to get as many people SUP’ing as possible. We are pleased to announce they have some very exciting SUP events coming up including the successful Super SUP Sunday event which is now in it’s second year, and a SUP Demo day on the 19th May to support the local university’s decent of the Amazon, in order to raise funds for 3 Amazonian charities. As well as a varied SUP Programme they also offer SUP Race training sessions through their fitness branch Lagoon Fitness, so if you have a race to prepare for get down the Lagoon and be put through your paces, and get Race fit! To get involved with the SUP scene on the south coast visit www.lagoon.co.uk. For more information email [email protected] or call 01273 424842.

I have come to realise a couple of things.

I’m not an adrenaline junky and I’m not massively competitive. Hope that’s OK.

I know we’re all supposed to be-thrill seekers and extreme all the time,
I should be boasting about the size of the waves, my speed, how many bottom turns, etc etc. I should be showing off and claiming it too!

But it’s not me, not my style.

This was all brought home to me by this afternoon’s paddleboard trip (session sounds too aggressive). Gloomy, cold (6⁰C), breezy (10 knots) and no waves (1ft), not an exciting prospect. But always better than the telly or shopping. And it was.

So off to Sandbanks with my new12’6” Bic Wing Cruise/Race board. Nobody else out, Oh well ‘Go For It’ I thought, any hesitation would mean doom. So quickly on the water, and paddling hard (for me) into the wind, practising a few pivot turns and starting to feel warmer.

Now catching a few little waves and learning to get my weight back quickly on these boards with hardly any rocker. Beach walkers huddled in warm coats hardly notice me, there’s no wooping as I pull into the micro waves! It’s a great sensation sliding on the little swells on such a big board, so smooth and stable.

Things are definitely looking up.

Paddle on up to Canford Cliffs for a bit of shelter from the wind and simultaneously the sun comes out and the water is glassy.

Catch another ten 1foot waves and two 2 foot waves, fall in but getting hot now! Fleecy hat off.

Awesome!

Time to head for home, so back out into the wind for a bit of free assistance.

Can’t believe my eyes when I see a couple of dorsal fins, or is it just cormorants?

No right the first time. A pair of Harbour Porpoises join me for my cruise back down to Sandbanks, I’m so close to them that I can hear their squeaks as they surface. I gently follow them and then as they head off towards Old Harry I turn right for the beach.

What a fantastic way to spend a couple of hours. No adrenaline, no moves to boast about, just a relaxing cruise, but I loved it.

RT

Footnote

Paddleboarding has very quickly developed into an extreme sport. We’ve got the wave guys paddling into Jaws and Teahupoo, epic down-winders, ultra-long distance events, white-water on rivers etc. I think that we paddleboarders have to be careful to present our sport to new comers as one that has extreme aspects, but at its core is a family friendly, healthy, accessible   and EASY sport for all.

How many potential SUPers are intimidated by the imagery so often associated with our sport? Perhaps we need to learn lessons from windsurfing which is perceived as such a difficult and expensive sport. In fact it is ironic that many SUP boards offer an excellent way back to the ‘fun-for-all’ roots of windsurfing.

My next bit if kit could be a ‘SUPbrella’(Patent Pending) –   a light golf umbrella that I can tie it down as I go upwind and then unfurl for a downwind sail. Is that cool?

It is to me! Perhaps I could even lie down for a quick kip as I slide along downwind. That would be cool!

Waterways accessBSUPA have made efforts to negotiate Block Licence agreements for our members for inland waterways access with both the Environment Agency and British Waterways (now Canals and Rivers Trust). However they was felt that Paddleboarding was not a big enough sport at present to be granted a Licence Agreement having assumed that we are working with the British Canoe Union. Many inland paddleboarders do use their BCU membership for this purpose. BSUPA believe that SUP is a distinct sport from Kayaking/canoeing, with different risks and considerations. BSUPA have made it clear that we wish to revisit this issue in Spring 2013 and it was agreed that negotiations might start again. We need to persuade EA/CRT of the distinct nature of our sport to build our case, and any assistance, especially from inland clubs would be appreciated.