There’s no evidence that the Maori, the indigenous people of the Pacific islands now known as New Zealand, did anything resembling standup paddling in their history, but standing atop the sturdy board, stabbing at the water with our paddles as we glided over the sea made us feel rather warrior-like. In any case, this warrior fantasy helped keep us high and dry in making our shaky start as SUP aficionados.
Videos of famed big wave surfer Laird Hamilton, for example, with his movie-star good looks and warrior-ready ripped body, shooting across the sea on his SUP board as powerful waves break behind him have inspired many to take up the sport, as well as showing that SUP boarding can every bit as challenging and adventurous as surfing.
Given its abundance of bays and beaches, it’s only natural that Phuket has caught the worldwide SUP wave, too, and now there are a number of places around the island offering board rental and sales, and SUP lessons and excursions. In addition to Bangtao, we’ve seen SUP paddlers off several beaches - Kata, Kamala, Layan and Ao Yon beaches, and it seems likely that more Phuket beaches will offer SUP board rental in the coming seasons.
Meditative. Soothing. Sublime. These are some of the words that a group trying out standup paddling for the first time on Phuket used to describe the experience. Standup paddling, or SUP as it’s often called, is a water sport that’s being keenly taken up by more paddlers across the world, Phuket included.
On this particular outing off Bangtao Beach, during the golden late-afternoon hours, our novice SUP group was given some brief instruction before carrying our large boards out to the calm sea, just deep enough to avoid the small waves breaking close to shore. Balancing the boards beside us, we hopped on, or rather flopped on, and tried to crawl up onto our feet. Some of us promptly fell off with a splash.
We were told the key to keeping balance was to look ahead, not look down at the board, once we were relatively steady on our feet. This advice certainly helped, and after a few more attempts we found our balance. It also helped when we started to imagine ourselves as a Maori warrior, setting off for battle on some distant isle.
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