British Canoeing Awarding Body

Stand Up Paddleboard Instructor (SUP)

This course is designed for people whose main focus is to deliver taster/starter sessions and short journeys in very sheltered water environments.

This combined training and assessment is a practical 2 day course that will help prepare you for your first SUP instructing role. The course will enable you to run enjoyable and safe games and activity sessions to support learning and inspire adventure and exploration for new paddlers on stand up paddleboards.

You need to be able to paddle your Stand Up Paddleboard independently on flat water. You will also need to be able to keep yourself and others safe on and near the water, for example a paddler falling off their SUP. Paddlers that have completed the Paddle Explore Award or with around 70 hours of personal paddling experience can focus on the training and get the most out of their course. Paddlers also need to have developed their rescue skills ahead of the course.

There are three specific assessment tasks that are completed during the course:

1. Professional Standards
2. Rescue Skills
3. Personal Skills

All our courses are delivered by coaches who are extremely active in the sport. We believe that in order to coach well we must work hard to stay at the forefront of the sport. This means that we can give you the most up to date paddling tips. We understand what we do and coach technical and tactical solutions that work in the environment they are supposed to.

Equipment

On our course you will have the opportunity to use some of our excellent fleet of paddleboards and paddles.

Venues

We run coaching courses at a variety of venues. We pick these venues very carefully to make sure they help to make your progression to Stand Up Paddleboard Instructor as smooth as possible.

If your club or workplace has a suitable venue to hold a Stand Up Paddleboard Instructor course we would be happy to provide a course at your venue. Please contact us to discuss options.