Southwest Florida never seems to run out of surprises for any traveler. The region is blessed with rich mangrove forests, ancient forests and the most divine white-sandy beaches to ever grace your eyes and your toes. But the surprises don’t end there, with beautiful beaches come an endless wave of activities to do. Some of these activities, you can do with your kids such as the Stand-up Paddleboarding or SUP.
SUP is something new to try for the summer vacation, if you haven’t already. It enhances your balance and lower-body strength while at the same time makes you look like you are walking on water. And guess what, it’s great for kids too.
If you are new to this hobby, it’s important to bear in mind that hopping on to your board may be difficult at first but you’re surely get it in time, with practice. Take note that the board has a certain “sweet spot” to it. This spot depends on every board for any type of body weight or build so you will have to be the one to find it through trial and error. Go too far forward and you’ll dive straight right into the water, move too far behind and you’ll flip right over. Take some time to find your balance and with a little more practice, you should be able to get where you’re supposed to be.
This may take some time to learn depending on how quickly you pick things up but as soon as you’re comfortable with it, you should be able to traverse the shallow waters with relative ease and be able to enjoy the views like no-one can. And it’s a fun thing if not a challenging thing to learn too, even the paddling is an art of itself. And once you’re paddling your way across the beach, your kids would, one way or another, be able to see you and before you know it, they would want to paddle board with you. Which is great because paddleboarding can be taught and enjoyed by kids too.
And as with everything, baby steps at first. If you want to have them with you, you’d want to kneel on the board and have them close to the center of the board and in front of you. But if you want to have them forward, closer to the edge of the board, you’d want to go further backward until the board balances itself out. Then you’re ready to paddle. When using the paddle, one hand should be gripping over and another under it. The length should be shoulder width apart with both arms straight as you paddle. Be careful not to bump their heads as you switch sides when paddling.
Now, if your kid is comfortable enough on the water and on the board, they may want to try it on their own. This can be taught to kids but make sure you have the right board for kids. There are board sizes fit or adults and there are those shorter ones for kids. This is also true with the paddle. You can begin training them on very calm water of even on pools. You may begin with the onboarding techniques and then to balancing, just like you did. Happy paddling guys!
