The District Magazine Volume 1 Issue 1, 2016 | Page 43

As the owner of WhatSUP South Tampa,
a local lessons and paddle shop in the
Tampa Bay area, I see people fall in love
with the sport all the time. Our tag line
is “Learn it. Love it. Live it.” for a reason,
but mostly because that is the process
I went through after trying SUP eight
years ago. Shortly after I realized I was
not the only one feeling this way. It was
a process most people go through after
experiencing SUP. Majority of people learn
how to paddleboard and tend to fall in
love with it immediately. (Learn it.) Just
something about being out on the water,
seeing all the wild life and having time to
relax and enjoy themselves are only a few
of the reasons. (Love it.) After paddling a
couple times people get hooked. It starts
to become a way of life, like a sense of
the Hawaiian heritage becomes a part of
them. They start to live the Aloha way,
which is like an atmosphere of friendliness
and love all around them. (Live it.) SUP has
become a lifestyle for a lot of people and it
is a great community filled with fun-loving,
adventurous and easy-going people.
By now a majority of people have either
tried paddleboarding or have seen people
paddling somewhere, whether at the
beach, bay or river. Most people have tried
SUP for the first time from a rental stand,
where they give you a board and paddle
(and hopefully a PFD!) and just let you go.
They usually don’t show you how to stand,
how to hold the paddle or give you any
pointers. Just leave you for the waves! If
this was you, I hope you had fun and it
was a calm day. This is why I started my
business. I was at the beach with a bunch
of friends and saw that EVERY person
paddleboarding had the paddle the wrong
way! I couldn’t believe it. It takes two
seconds to tell someone to flip the blade
around and that alone can change their
experience on the water. So after seeing
this multiple times and ready to start a new
career, I decided to start WhatSUP.