Eight-year-old Keola Auwae shows his command of standup paddling
Getting kids in touch with the great outdoors takes national center stage in April during Children and Nature Awareness Month. In the campaign against nature deficit disorder, a new sport is reconnecting kids with nature, and with their families, while also serving up a healthy dose of exercise: standup paddling, otherwise known as SUP.
Every parent will vouch that fun for kids is often a matter of "just add water.” Standup paddling is something the entire family can dive into together. Children as young as three or four can do it on their own and even younger kids can ride along on the front of their parent’s board, truly sharing the experience.
Whether it be a cruise on the local river or lake while enjoying the sunshine and mountainside, or a paddle across a calm coral reef on the coastline, SUP offers a great vantage point from which to immerse in natural surroundings.
“In many ways, the natural world seems to invite and facilitate parent-child connections,”
Increasingly, SUP boards are being found at lake houses and rivers, far from the shores of Waikiki, Hawaii, where they originated.
Liam Wilmott, who works with Hawaii’s C4 Waterman, leaders in the SUP field, offered these insights for families interested in getting into the sport:
“Nowadays it’s possible to purchase just one board and extendable paddle that the whole family can use, buying you time to learn the basics and work out if you really want to dive headlong into the sport,” says Wilmott, himself a father of three.
“For my family, the inflatable boards - iSUPs - are the ideal board. They’re durable, lighter than the molded boards, less prone to damage, and less likely to injure anybody with the rubber fins and soft exterior. At then end of the day, there’s no storage or travel issues either, just pop the plug, roll them up and throw them in the trunk.
“We’ve found it to be a great way to get our kids interacting with other kids, too. The minute they’re playing around on the boards, guaranteed other kids want to have a try. It beats cyber friends and it’s a great social and experiential opportunity for the growing number of kids who are home-schooling these days.”
C4 is leading the inland migration of SUP, and to that end Wilmott thinks it won’t be long before summer camps and youth programs incorporate standup paddling.
“Hawaii's gift to the world is surfing and now, for the first time in history, you can take someone surfing and not even need a wave,” Wilmott explained. “We’re getting orders for the iSUPs from as far away as Australia and Europe. They just make sense; minimal equipment, minimal maintenance, minimal storage, and minimal cost compared to many other sports, but maximum fun and fulfillment.”
Visit the C4 Waterman website for instructional DVDs for beginner through advanced levels and find out about free SUP demo days for kids and adults.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
