Morning Workout: Paddle Boarding in Larnaca Bay

When you’ve got the Mediterranean on your doorstep and a SUP hanging above your front door, what’s not to love at 7:30am? 

I’ve had my paddle board for around a month now and I’ve clocked up about 15 hours on it. It’s now integrated into my morning workout options which, depending on the time of year and weather, include cycling, mountain biking, open water swimming and jogging. Now I’ve got another activity to choose from!

I like to do 45 minutes to an hour exercise first thing in the morning and from my launch point, Lenios Beach, I can easily get an hours paddling in while remaining close to the shore and at the limits of the marked safe-swim area.

My SUP Learning Curve

The learning curve and muscle memory thing is going really well. I can go from kneeling to standing quickly and without a wobble. Even when the sea gets choppy the automatic stabilisation I’ve now got in my legs kicks in and I can get upright and on with the paddling.

I have now started moving my feet around on the board with the aim of being able to quickly transition into the surf stance where you have one foot at the front and the other at the back which lets you catch waves and steer by leaning in and out of the surf like a snowboarder on powder (although I think I’m a long way off those kind of skills!) I have tried that surf stance position and I definitely need more practice as it’s quite a different balancing technique to the regular feet side-by-side. But as I’ve seen, with practice, you can develop this automatic balancing ability which impresses me when I think to myself “wow, I didn’t fall off when that wave hit”!

My SUP

My paddle board is an inflatable Two Bare Feet Boarding Co. Model 2 XL 10’10”. I don’t have any much experience on anything else to compare it with except my first ever go on at paddle boarding which was on a hard board I rented for 30 minutes and that was when I was an absolute beginner so I can’t really comment. Suffice to say that I’ve been able to learn to paddle board on this one from Two Bare Feet and I’m really loving it. I don’t feel I’ve made any compromises buying a sub £500 board and since it goes up to 22 psi it must be a bit stiffer than the more common max 15 psi on other low cost boards.

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