Meet Stephen, on his journey to becoming a SUP Inland Open Water Leader

I started paddleboarding over in Australia and just found it naturally came to me. I got my board last summer and used it mostly on the sea and few lakes.

As I’m a Paddlesport Instructor and Paddlesport Leader, I wanted to improve my knowledge and experience so that’s why I took the SUP Inland Open Water Leader with Sean from Wild River. I’ve done few other courses through him, they are run really well and I will be taking many more.

The training took us on the river which I’m not used to on a board, so that was fun and I learnt a lot.

The next steps are to get more practice on rivers in windy conditions. I work up in Kielder for the Calvert Trust, where we deliver challenging outdoor adventure holidays for disabled adults and children, so I will hopefully be able to introduce paddleboarding to the centre.

Interested in becoming a SUP Inland Open Water Leader?

The SUP Inland Open Water Leader is open to anyone with experience of paddling in inland waters. The award will enable you to lead fun, safe and enjoyable trips for groups of paddleboarders, with a range of experience.

Informal learning, experience based learning, and an availability of individualised choices are important to developing skilled leaders. There is two day SUP Inland Open Water Leader training to support your development of the required skills. Alternatively, you can opt for bespoke training opportunities run by clubs, delivery partners or coaches, to improve and develop your skills ahead of assessment.

Find out more about becoming a SUP Inland Open Water Leader here and start your development journey today!