Stand Up Paddle Yoga Teacher Training

Last year I saw an advertisement for SUP Yoga Teacher Training. I really wanted to do it last year, but I wasn’t 200-hour certified at the time, and that was one of the requirements. After getting my 200-hour certification in February I started keeping my eyes open and researching if or when this training would be offered this year.

As soon as I found a class being offered, I checked my calendar, saw the all-clear and signed up. The training was the weekend after the RWB tri camp, so two weekends in a row would be really busy, but I knew it was something I wanted to do.

The weather has been pretty rainy this Spring, so our Friday night session got moved to the yoga studio that was hosting the training. We got to meet each other and find out how the class would be conducted. I was excited.

Saturday morning I headed downtown, ready to get out on the water. We went over some basics on land and then headed out for some practice teaching on how to paddle, stand up on the board and look for spaces to practice. We had a short class and it was everything I imagined. Those that know me, know that I LOVE being on or near the water. Doing savasana on a SUP board, floating in the water with the sun shining down – well, it doesn’t get much better than that!

We headed back to the dock and ate some lunch and talked about some more safety basics before heading out for our afternoon session. We got to practice teaching each other and then we learned how to properly fall off our boards and even rescue someone that has fallen off and is injured or unconscious. The balance poses are obviously more challenging on the board, so that’s what most of us did to practice “falling” off the board. I was amazed, however, to find out that I could actually do headstand on the board. Wahoo!

Sunday, we met back downtown. We had a little bit of storming in the morning which kept us off the water for a bit, but we got to cover some of the business side of things. Then we headed out to teach some more and be lead through a little bit more challenging class.

I’m so happy that I took the class and am excited to take some friends out and maybe even teach classes. If only I had enough money to buy my own boards!