Stand-up Paddle Board

Sharing the Good!

A sport to stay healthy and fit in our 60’s and beyond.

SUP in Your 60’s

The stars aligned on a Sunday morning in August and the wind was less than 5 mph in Sausalito during the early hours. No traffic on an early weekend morning made for a short 45 minute commute to Seatrek.  My two girlfriends and I met there and we had a wonderful paddle together. It was Miriam’s birthday and her first time SUPing, and she was terrific.  

What is SUP?

Water. Balance. Movement. Nature. I love to SUP.  SUP?  In lower case letters, it’s slang for “What’s Up?”.  With all upper case letters, SUP is an acronym for a Stand-Up Paddle board, but has also come to be known as the activity itself, stand-up paddle boarding. A stand-up paddle board looks like a surf board, but is smaller and lighter.  The “SUPer” uses one paddle to move, steer, and stop the board. Typically one stands on the board but SUPers can and do also kneel and sit. Some people surf on their SUP, and some also do yoga on the board!

In 2013, already in my 50’s, I’d been investigating this sport and it seemed like a great activity for me to cultivate balance and strength while being on the water (which I LOVE!). Seatrek came up in my search as a local option for learning SUP, so I signed us up for Introduction to Stand Up Paddle Boarding class.  On a cloudy weekend morning, my husband and I drove the almost one hour drive from the East Bay to Sausalito.  At that time, Seatrek was located right at Sausalito Beach, a sweet little patch of sand with an enclosed bay (it’s current location is at The Bay Model).  With nearby parking, first you checked in next to the public beach bathroom to fill out registration forms and waivers. We chose to use the wetsuits there, buckled on the required life jackets, and then walked down the quaint patch of sand. At the water, a Seatrek employees would help you onto a board and fasten the leash wrap around your ankle, then hand you a paddle.

Why SUP?

• Balance
• Core strength
• Physical activity
• Outdoor activity
• Being on the water and in nature
• Mindfulness
• Fun
• Social
• Easy to learn

When to SUP

Sun and warmer temperatures are nice, but (lack of) wind is the most important criteria for me. Seatrek in Sausalito is my go-to SUP location. I closely monitor the weather conditions when I know I have a few free days coming up and I might be able to head out to Sausalito in the morning, considering the day of the week and traffic. I check the Hourly feature of The Weather Channel app for conditions when the wind speed is less than 5 mph. I also go to the Live Cam on The Sausalito Yacht Club website where you can see a current photo of the conditions of Richardson Bay, and can tell if the water is calm vs. choppy.

Learning to SUP

One of the first questions people ask when they learn I love to SUP is “Aren’t you afraid of falling in the water?”.  The answer is: 1. No, I’m not afraid (I can swim plus we wear life jackets) 2.  I almost never fall in, and 3.  If you fall in, you just get back up on the board.  On that first day at our lesson, however, I did fall in, and I was glad I had the wetsuit on.  During that introduction class, you learn the basic mechanics of how to SUP, including how to use the paddle, what proper body positioning is, etc. Steve was our teacher and he was really nice and friendly.  Steve spends part of the year here in the Bay Area and works at Seatrek during that time. The other part of the year he spends in Loreto, Mexico where he runs the Seatrek Baja programs. Mitch Powers is one of the veteran instructors at Seatrek, and he wrote the Stand Up Paddle Instruction Book, a great resource!

After taking that first lesson, you’re ready to go out on your own in Richardson Bay.  It’s pretty safe and it’s very beautiful. It has the feel of an Italian seaside town like Capri or Naples. I always keep my iPhone with me so I can take photos and I can also call for help if I need to.  My favorite water-proof iPhone holder is the Fidlock Hermetic dry bag. You can pick one up at Seatrek. When you keep your iPhone in this transparent case, you wear it around your neck and are able to take photos with it without removing it from the case.

HERE is a quick how-to video about SUP from REI.

SUP equipment: what do you need?

Gear you need for SUP:

• Board with leash
• Paddle – adjust to appropriate height
• PFD – personal flotation device
• Whistle

SUP Safety

• Life jacket
• SUP with a partner/group
• Know how to get back on your board when you fall
• Sunscreen
• Hydrate (and snack)
• Whistle/iPhone in water-safe container

What I pack with me to go SUP:

• Hat
• Sunglasses and leash (I still lost my expensive prescription sunglasses on a leash in Hawaii!!!).
• iPhone waterproof case
• Paddle gloves
• Waterproof bag
• Water
• Snacks
• Flipflops
• Sunscreen 
• ID and credit card and a little cash
• Weather-dependent clothes

Why I don’t own my own board

Once I started driving out to Sausalito to SUP when I could, the next question people started to ask me was: “Why don’t you get your own board?”.  OK, that question is a no-brainer for me with LOTS of reasons: 1.  I don’t want to store the board, 2.  I don’t want to transport and carry the board (I am very short), 3. Good boards are not cheap.  4. SEATREK!!! While Seatrek is a 17 mile drive for me, which takes as little as 40 minutes with no traffic and definitely beyond an hour once traffic hits, there are a lot of great reasons for going there to SUP: 1.  Sausalito is gorgeous!  You have views of the mountains all over the Bay Area, the neighborhoods of Sausalito, Tiburon and Belvedere, Angel Island, the SF skyline, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge and Alcatraz.  In the water you see a variety of birds and marine mammals including pelicans and sea lions, to name a few.  

SUP while traveling and on vacation

If you’re at a destination for an extended number of days, it’s a great idea to look into long-term rental of a stand up paddle board.  Often it not only assures your use of the board, it also gives you direct access to the board.  I did that when we stayed at The Fairmont in Wailea, Maui for my cousin’s wedding, and again at a different cousin’s wedding when we stayed at Esterel Resort, a Canadian hotel of all suites located in the Laurentian and bordered by several lakes, facing Lac Dupuis. The prices were considerably reasonable, as was the roundtrip airfare between Montreal and San Francisco, and the little more than one hour drive from Montreal’s airport.

My SUP destinations include:

• Sausalito
• Marina Del Rey – Los Angeles
• Santa Barbara
• Oakland – Jack London Square
• Russian River
• Hawaii – Maui and The Big Island
• Boston – The Charles River
• Washington DC – The Potomac River
• Lake Travis, Texas
• Sea of Cortez, Baja, Mexico
• Esterel Lake resort in Quebec Laurentians, Canada (about 1.5 hours outside of Montreal)
• Glacier Bay, Alaska

I’m looking forward to SUP when we visit friends in Austin in a few months. Next year I plan to add Lake George, New York to my list. Where have you gone to SUP? Please share in the comments.

Sharing the Good!