Should I have Paddleboarding Lessons

Paddleboarding as a Paddle Sport

When an activity is promoted as easy, you risk failing to get the most from the activity you’ve invested in. The SUP industry's original promotional efforts promoted paddleboarding as a ‘surf sport’ rather than a ‘paddle sport’. "This has played out to the point where it’s clear paddleboarding (the clue is in the nomenclature) is a paddle sport first and whatever you want it to be after you’ve learnt the basics."

Paddle Sport Skills

Paddle sports have an ancient lineage and have become both an art and a science at elite and Olympic levels.
SUP, particularly because of its Hawaiian / Pacific origins, is strongly associated with canoeing, especially Outrigger Canoeing.

• Paddling is a holistic blending of biomechanics and physiology.
• The body is the machine that powers the inanimate object.
• Like all other paddle sports, paddleboarding has many skill levels and layers.

A paddleboard cannot power itself, and while it’s true that the kinetic energy stored within a wave can provide movement, the fact remains the SUP paddle and SUP paddler are the necessary ingredients to bring all the elements into play from the point of view of control through the steering and propulsion of your paddleboard.

If you are a paddleboarding beginner who has never swung a paddle of any type, professional paddleboard instruction can undoubtedly help.
Introduction lessons tend to be focused on risk management, personal safety, and the safety of others, and that’s a good thing.
While learning how to paddle will take place over many weeks following the lesson, initial paddleboarding technique pointers are an excellent investment.

Learning with friends or meeting new ones - SUP can be a highly social activity, and group learning can add to the fun.

Teaching Yourself - Discovery Learning

If you’re on the way to teaching yourself paddleboarding, you will tend to reach a point where you are neither going forward nor back in terms of skill sets.
Importantly, practising bad technique and working incorrect muscle groups creates the potential for injury and many inefficiencies.
A professional paddleboard instructor may have to make you unlearn if you have paddled for a while.
This can be difficult because the longer you have paddled with poor technique, the more hard-wired your brain will be to your body through kinesthetics.

For Experienced Watersports First Timers 

If you are an experienced water user, there’s nothing wrong with learning SUP through self-discovery, but it does not guarantee you have good paddleboarding technique.
Having a professional SUP instructor or stand-up paddler observe and provide feedback, even just once, can be a worthwhile investment.
Video analysis is a valuable tool to bring into the process and is often used by SUP trainers.

In conclusion, always consider time with a specialist stand-up paddleboard instructor when learning to paddleboard.
If you become bored with stand-up paddleboarding and need some inspiration, investing time with a professional paddleboard instructor or respected paddleboard mentor or SUP trainer can renew your love of SUP sport to seek higher ground and new experiences.

In the Netherlands, for professional instruction, contact Free Movement.