Welcome to the first RockSUPs blog post!  I hope this will be the start of a series of useful and/or interesting posts so please comment to let me know what you thought and anything else you would like to hear about.

Last week Tristan at Adventure SUP kindly invited me to bring along a demo touring board for his club members to have a go on.  Adventure SUP run classes and club sessions from the Avon Valley Adventure and Wildlife Park on the beautiful river Avon between Bristol and Bath.  It is a stunning location and a lovely easy paddle with kingfishers, herons, and dragonflies on a tree-lined stretch of lazy river.

I joined in on a Wednesday night club session which had a great turn-out and the promise of a BBQ when we finished paddling.  The river up to the weir at Swineford is slow and dappled with leafy shade. It’s about a 30min paddle each way at a leisurely pace.  At the weir, the club members introduced me to ‘snake’ – a game where each paddler lies on the front of their board holding the back of the board in front.  The person at the head can then tow the entire snake along which follows where they go in big ‘S’ shapes. We got up to a 21 person snake before breaking apart for the paddle home!  The snake game also has a serious use; it allows a person to tow one or more people to safety if they get into trouble (for example: if they break a paddle, get injured, or are too tired to make it back).

I was very pleased with the response to the wooden touring board at its first demo session.  Everyone agreed it was beautiful and the people who tried it were very complimentary about the glide and, after getting used to it, stability.

All in all a great evening (the BBQ was delicious) and I can thoroughly recommend getting in touch with Adventure SUP if you are in the area and are looking for lessons or a club to paddle with – they are a very friendly bunch and cover all abilities.  www.adventure-sup.co.uk