I have a friend in the military. He uses a lot of these ‘Three Letter Acronyms’ - TLAs, he calls them. “Why are they called TLAs and why do they have to have three letters?” I asked him in exasperation, when he had confused me with yet another piece of jargon… “Ahhhh,” he explained smugly, “Because if they didn’t have three letters then they wouldn’t be TLAs...” (Insert eye roll here!)

So what the heck is SUP?!

I had seen this term crop up a lot. Turns out it is probably easier to fit on the marketing blurb than the full mouthful of ‘Stand Up Paddleboard’.

People from cultures as far apart as Peru, Hawaii, and Indigenous Australia, have been using boards or rafts to walk on water for hundreds of years, but it is Hawaii where surfing evolved into what we now know as Stand Up Paddleboarding.

From a sea kayaker’s point of view this seems like a contradiction in itself – although I have seen incredible photos of crazy people standing upright in their kayaks and paddling the turbulent waters at the aptly-named ‘Bitches’ tide race off the coast of Wales…

SUP however, manages to look like a very serene, dignified activity. The marketing blurb usually shows images of slim girls in well-fitting bikinis or moderately muscled blokes in boardshorts, all languidly poling their boards along in a steady, rhythmic action, much like the gondola guys in Venice. It looks easy; it looks relaxing; and it’s supposed to be ‘really good for your core’. I’m into Yoga so I know what my ‘core’ is, and I know I need to use it a lot in my Eskimo Rolling while sea kayaking. I decided I would have to give this SUP a try…

Easier said than done. I live on a small offshore island in Australia’s remote Gulf of Carpentaria. No SUP hire or school up here. But we go to the mainland once or twice a year and usually spend a month living on our motor catamaran Trim cruising the Whitsundays, so I checked out the possibilities for lessons; lots of opportunities at Hamilton Island and Airlie Beach where we call in for fuel and supplies. However, the weather sucked that trip, and each time we were in port, the strong winds had cancelled the SUP hire/classes.

Funnily enough, it was months later, at a Yoga Retreat in Bali, Indonesia, that I got my chance!

Due to the higher cost of flights from Cairns on weekends, I flew to Bali a day early and opted to stay on the coast at Sanur, before joining the girls at the Ubud retreat centre.

I researched online and found a SUP school quite near to my accommodation. Lessons were held in the early morning, before the sea breeze picked up. I emailed the owner, Jankie, and explained my situation. “You’re going to a Yoga Retreat? Then you might like to join my wife for SUP Yoga at sunset when you arrive!”

“But my SUP lesson is not til the next morning?” I pointed out, “I might spend a lot of time on the board in ‘Child’s Pose’ or worse, falling off – wouldn’t that be disrespectful?”

“SUP Yoga is fun! Not serious… Falling off is part of the fun!” he assured me.

Hmmmmm...Talk about ‘In at the deep end…’

I walked through the maze of Balinese backstreets and eventually found the courtyard with a stack of giant boards and paddles of varying length, a locker for my gear, and a tiny, smiling Balinese girl called Nita, small but sturdy I just knew she had a rock solid ‘core’ and would not be falling off HER paddleboard…

After introductions, I followed her to the beach and stood in awe of my schoolyard – the tide was low and the smooth sea stretched to the horizon, which was a frothy white, and I realised the background roar was not traffic or jets bringing more Aussie tourists, but the waves crashing on the offshore reef, where surfers were practicing their skills. Kite surfers were zipping back and forth across the flat water and I had to drag my eyes from the spectacle of it all to focus on the row of bobbing boards that Nita was pointing out to me. Several large chunky paddleboards were tethered to the beach, and she chose two of them that were facing each other. There was nobody else booked in for SUP YOGA this evening, so I had a free lesson on top of the paid experience, as Nita was a patient and encouraging Yogi, keen to share her craft (pun intended!).

We started off learning how to get onto the board. Easier than getting into an inflatable dinghy! I was surprised just how stable the big board was, and Nita started us off with some seated poses, keeping our centres of gravity low to begin with. As I settled ‘into the moment’ and closed my eyes, the swaying board bobbed around on its tether like a sailboat tugging at its anchor, eager to set sail. It was interesting ‘grounding’ on water and yet it made sense, as our bodies are about 60% water and though our initial reaction is to feel nervous and afraid of falling in, gradually, I became aware that the foam sandwich beneath me was part of the whole system, and I was part of the ‘sandwich’ and there was, after all, barely a metre of water beneath the board.

Then we knelt on the paddleboard for some ‘Cat/Cow’ stretches; with four points of contact, it still felt pretty stable, even though the beautiful evening had now brought out the speedboats and water-skiers who whizzed by rather close for comfort, rocking the board alarmingly. We closed our eyes and zoned them out, Ommm!

“OK, very good, let’s try some standing postures!” Nita grinned at me as she posed like a tiny ballerina.

She pointed out the lines on the board and where to place my feet for best balance position. I stood up warily, wobbled, balanced, raised one shaky leg and PLOP! over I went, with a splash, into the warm water, quite refreshing really, and no harm done. An opportunity to practice climbing back onto the board, a couple of steadying breaths, and I was briefly a warrior poised for action!

Gaining confidence (and clarity?) we went for Headstand – “You can do it!” Nita encouraged me, “if you go over, you won’t hurt yourself, you will just land in the water and learn your limits!” Oh I was so keen to go upside down, but I’d only done it against a wall on land and the fear of failure was stronger than my confidence; what if I hurt my neck before the Yoga Retreat even started? So, my little kicks got me some air but didn’t get me fully upright and I chickened out, promising to come back to Bali another time to try again.

We finished up with the most awesome ‘Savasana’ I’ve ever experienced, lying back on our boards, hands trailing in the water, rising and falling with the evening tide, oblivious now to the other water users, the sunset warm on my face, totally at one with the ocean, Namaste.

After that awesome start, I felt like a Pro when I sauntered back down to the beach next morning for my actual SUP lesson. The other students were a mother and her three teenage daughters from the Netherlands, first time for them too. Jankie expertly gauged what size paddles we required, then our instructor Tommy showed us the basic stance and paddle strokes while we were still on shore; how to balance, how to turn, how to surf (we all eyed each other with a raised eyebrow at that one).

We carried our craft into the water and climbed aboard. Tommy soon had us kneeling on our boards, poling along the shallows against the light breeze, gazing at the corals and sea stars below, in spite of his advice: “Don’t look down!” Then he got us to stand up – oooh! He made it look effortless, but there was definitely a technique to bending those knees at just the right time as you lean forward into that paddle stroke.

Like everything, practice is key. We had a few ‘girl overboard’ situations but it was easy to clamber back on and our loyal little group stayed together close to shore while our instructor gazed wistfully at the reef break… alas, this group of students was not ready for that yet! We had a lovely hour or so paddling back and forth, with mum going to the top of the class, declaring it: “Wunderbar for the core!”. She had three gorgeous teenage daughters but she herself could easily have passed for their older sister and had obviously looked after her own ‘core’ - she was certainly the poster girl in the well-fitting bikini. My husband chuckled at the photos later as I was the only one in shorts and long sleeved rashie!

Picture above: Lyn and friends at SUP lesson Sanur, Bali. Can you guess who’s who?