Following the winter development of Paddle Canada's Stand Up Paddle Instructor programs, the first certification courses were held in April in Deep Cove, BC, and on the Ottawa River in Ottawa, ON. Over two dozen instructor trainers and a similar number of instructors emerged...but not without paying the price in bumps and bruises. Watch the carnage here (how about that wipeout to front flip—style points?). 

SUP PADDLE CANADA Learning curve from Marilyn Scriver on Vimeo.

"The Ottawa course included 20 sturdy souls who braved wind, sleet, snow, rain and cold water to share their instructional SUP skills with other instructors and instructor trainers. We spent a couple of days working on flatwater and whitewater skills and learning how to best teach them. The final morning included some river surfing at Champlain bridge. There were some great moves on the wave and some great crash and learn(burn) as well," said SUP Program Development Committee member and course instructor Mark Scriver.

Course participant and Naturally Superior Adventures outfitter owner David Wells drove 13 hours down to the capital from Wawa, Ontario, on Lake Superior to attend the training. "It's the first step to introducing SUP to the Naturally Superior Adventures program and creating a solid base to expand safety and sound SUP across Northern Ontario," Wells said.

"It was a hoot learning new skills on the Ottawa River," he continued. "Mark and Tony [Palmer, Program Development Committee Chair] were excellent instructors, the group was friendly and I learned lots from them as well. The weather was a wonderful mix of freezing temperatures with good winds, and the Ottawa River was a balmy 4 degrees Celsius with occasional ice chunks," Wells joked.

The SUP instructor course focused on the technical skills involved in an efficient forward stroke, edging, turning and SUP wheelies (pivot turns).

For more information on the Paddle Canada SUP program, visit: http://www.paddlingcanada.com/programs/stand-up-paddleboard-sup.html.