Paddleboard yoga is a fun practice but with some serious benefits. Doing yoga on a surface that is constantly in motion fires up your core muscles and strengthens muscles that aren’t called on in everyday practice. Even Plank Pose is more challenging because your board is moving a little back and forth, and that added tipsiness activates your core and arms. You definitely feel these tiny muscles that don’t activate on the ground.
The challenge is part of the attraction, and it isn’t just physical. SUP yoga requires a different quality of focus—and not just when you’re doing the poses but also when you’re transitioning between them. For example, bringing your right foot between your hands from Downward-Facing Dog to come into Low Lunge can sometimes shift a board a few inches forward—even on the calmest water. The key is to make micro-movements, adjusting alignment and weight distribution as needed and fixing your gaze on a point along the horizon, on the shore, or even on an outlying rock or tree.
Your alignment may be different than on dry land but that’s OK. It’s fine and even fun if you lose balance altogether and fall overboard. Falling is just part of the experience, and there’s freedom in fully embracing that. You let go of your expectations and judgment, which is what yoga is all about in the first place: getting out of the mind and into the heart center. That’s what we are all doing in life. We fall, whether it’s physically, mentally, or emotionally, and we get back up and try again.
At the end of SUP yoga practice, we take a Savasana, where the perpetual motion translates to a sense of ease. You lie there, the ocean gently rocking you, your hands resting in the water while the sunshine warms your skin. You really can’t beat that feeling!
Location: Locations and Times vary. Please call for schedule.
Cost: $30.00 per person – (Locals with ID are $25)