Sunday, June 29, 2014

Stand Up Paddleboard Yoga

Update: The company I did this with has moved to Daytona, FL.
Today I tried Stand Up Paddleboard Yoga. I am officially insane.

It was offered through Yogini SUP Adventures.
Their facebook page is here.
Their webpage is here.

Today's 2-hour adventure took place at Lake Brandt. I had never been on a stand up paddleboard, but I had been wanting to. It looks like a surfboard. I was very nervous and thought it would be more stable because the board is so large. But you have to be very aware of your movements at all times. It can be very easy to get disoriented and fall in.

We paddled for a long time out to a quiet corner of the lake. My feet actually started to hurt pretty bad, so I was glad when we finally got in place, dropped anchor and sat down.

You need to be familiar with yoga before you do this. She names off poses and goes very quickly so if you don't know them, you'll have a difficult time trying to watch people, copy the pose AND stay balanced on your board.

I started doing yoga about 12 years ago. I took some group classes at the YMCA 

We did standing flow poses and just going from a seated to a standing position is difficult. We did back and core strengtheners, warrior poses and lots of vinyasa flows (upward facing dog feels so good!). Sometimes while on all fours we had to lift a leg off the board...sometimes both an arm and a leg. 


The two most difficult parts were the warrior poses (because of the difficulty in getting into the proper position while maintaining balance) and tree pose. 
SUP Warrior Pose


When she said we were going to do tree pose I about freaked. I said there's no way I can balance on one foot on this board. But our tree poses consisted of getting our feet to the middle of the board, slightly lifting one foot off the board and resting the lifted foot's heel on the stable foot's ankle. Seems silly on land, but on the SUP it was extremely difficult.
Looks like this but we didn't have our paddles to stabilize us
I managed to not fall in, even at the end when I was coasting onto shore and hit a rock. I don't know how I maintained my balance, but I did. Luckily it's a sturdy board. (YOLO brand)

As I sit here, sore all over (but mostly in the shoulder/back area) I am glad that I tried out such a difficult activity. It was actually much harder than I thought it would be, but I enjoyed it. I definitely recommend Yogini SUP Adventures to someone that enjoys yoga and wants to expand their practice, or someone who just wants to try something new (but still has some yoga experience)! It was only $20, which is only a little more than a land-lubber's yoga class.

Can't do yoga? They also offer guided SUP tours as well as SUP meditation. Your child can even ride on your SUP with you!

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