Glancing out on the bay and over the ocean, you might think people are walking on water. It’s almost true.
A new sport has quietly glided into Coronado’s waters. It’s called Stand Up Paddle Boarding, or SUP. While easier than surfing, it can still pack a wallop of a full body workout.
Several Coronadans are riding the wave of paddleboard enthusiasm, working in the fledging industry as instructors, tour operators and board manufacturers.
Isle Surf & SUP, a company based in National City and founded by two Coronado natives, Doug Pate and Marc Miller, began manufacturing surfboards and selling them online in 2004.
In 2007 when paddle boarding became popular, it was time to consider bringing paddleboards into the warehouse. Pate remembers the first time he heard about paddle boarding. “Stand on 12-foot boards and paddle? But then we tried it out and it was really fun,” he said. Today 75 percent of their revenue is from paddleboards.
“Paddle boarding started showing up on the radar in 2008 and in 2010 SUP ‘blew up,’” Pate said.
“It’s a great sport for any age and what’s easy about it is that you can use a SUP board for any water surface, whether you’re on a wave or you’re out early in the morning on Glorietta Bay,” said Pate, whose company currently offers a wide variety of surf and standup paddleboards ranging in price from $550 to $1,500.
“A guy in Iowa can now relate to a guy in Coronado,” said Pate, noting that wherever there’s water, one can paddle board.
A stand-up paddleboard is a larger and wider board than a surfboard, allowing an individual to stand on it fully upright. With a paddle in hand, a person can mosey along or shoot across the water, depending on how calm or torrid those waters may be and how hard they are willing to work.
Stand-up paddle boarding originated in Hawaii when surfers wanted to train on days of lackluster waves. The sport was popularized in the early 2000s by famed Hawaiian surfers Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama.
Coronado’s south-facing ocean beaches create small waves, not ideal for surfers, but just what paddle boarders seek, said Vicki Carson, the first person to give paddle-boarding lessons in Coronado. In 2008 Carson founded SUP Coronado, a nonprofit organization, allowing her to continue sharing her passion for boarding. Carson works full time as a buyer for Emerald City, the island’s “boarding source,” but still loves to introduce people to stand-up paddle boarding. She often refers them to city of Coronado’s instructors or takes them out on the water through her nonprofit, where she works part-time with her younger sister, Crystal. Crystal Carson holds a degree in environmental science from Florida State University and serves on the executive committee of the San Diego chapter of Surfrider Foundation, which SUP Coronado supports.
Vicki Carson vividly remembers her first time on a stand-up paddleboard, delighting as she watched stingrays swimming below the waterline.
“It was magic,” she said. “People need to get out on the ocean so they can appreciate that environment.”
Paddleboarding is a social sport, said Carson. It offers a chance to spend time with people but away from cell phones, computers and the hustle and bustle of the land. “It’s very peaceful, like a Zen state, but also offers a total body workout,” she said, likening the intensity of the workout to walking or biking. “It loosens all your muscles. You’re balancing with your legs, you’re pushing with your upper arms and you’re stabilizing with your core. So you’re using all your muscles and you’re surrounded by water which is nourishing to your well-being.”
The newest arrival on the paddleboarding scene in Coronado is Brody Welte, whose PaddleFit company is setting the standard for the industry. PaddleFit is a contractor with the city of Coronado, operating from the city’s new Boathouse and Clubroom on Glorietta Bay where Welte and three other instructors give lessons and rent boards. Additionally Welte’s team of five more instructors teach paddleboarding all over the United States.
Brody Welte (in front) and Paddlefit trainer
Welte spent most of his adult life in San Diego, then moved to Hawaii in 2007 where he was introduced to stand-up paddleboarding by surfers Hamilton and
Kalama. Today Welte partners with Kalama in hosting stand-up paddleboarding lessons through “Kalama Kamps” at various locations worldwide. “Being an educator is really my No. 1 priority,” Welte said.
He moved to Tampa, Fla., in 2009 to launch his business, then moved back to San Diego in 2011. “It’s where I wanted to be. San Diego is the best location n the U.S. – midway between Hawaii and the East Coast,” said Welty, who secured the Coronado Boathouse contract in 2012.
Welte, who has worked as a personal trainer and specialized in training mountain bikers for years, regards paddleboarding as “the greatest form of exercise I’ve ever come across.
“You’re balancing on the board, using upper and lower body core strength and you can easily burn 1,000 to 2,000 calories per hour.”
At PaddleFit, Welte offers certification classes as well as various land and water-based classes that teach proper techniques of standup paddling; even how to race if interested. After five years with the business, Welte has put hundreds of individuals through his unique PaddleFit training who are now certified SUP coaches all over the United States.
“Standing on water is a relatively new concept,” said Welte, “but it really has allowed for a lot of opportunities because it is so easy to learn at any age.” An SUP yoga class is also offered through Welte, where individuals paddle into Glorietta Bay kneeling or sitting on their board and transitioning into various poses, amplifying their core strength and ability.
At $35 per class, it is an affordable way to learn the sport.
“We are just so thankful that the Boathouse has taken us in,” said Welty. “We really love it here.”
And Coronadans are loving stand-up paddleboarding, too.
SUP Coronado (619) 888-7686
Isle Surf & Sup (619) 434-1059 www.islesurfboard.com
PaddleFit (619) 333-OSUP (0787)