Stand up and paddle up - it's not too late to become a paddle board fanatic!

Paddle-boarding keeps you young - and strong.

At a Parkrun a few months ago I bumped into a former RAF pilot fighter, Bill Dawes, who runs a thriving stand-up paddle-boarding scene in the town of Kerikeri in the North Isand of New Zealand. While we were warming up, Bill explained that he can’t run anymore after his plane suffered a major mid-air malfunction and so he can only walk. But if that’s walking, I want some of it.

He walks faster than many runners, a skill he attributes to a significant extent to his paddle-boarding. I was amazed. I thought paddle-boarding was a leisurely scenic activity for lazy people drifting around at half a knot an hour.

Far from it, as Bill explains, even at club level it’s “seriously high-adrenalin racing that provides a brutal work-out because pretty much every single muscle group is involved with a work-rate that is way higher than running or cycling.”

And paddle-board racing has become popular with the over-sixties and seventies all around the world because of its physical benefits with little or no damage to knees, hips and other joints. Also, as Bill explains, paddle-boarding greatly improves balance. As the research constantly shows, many older people don't recover after falling heavily because their supporting muscles are weak and the sport is highly effective at building up those vital core muscles

If you want to lose weight -- and who doesn’t? -- paddle-boarding is right up there. “You can burn more calories than in pretty much any other activity including cross-country skiing because of the high work-rate,” he says.

Called SUP by its practitioners, stand-up paddle-boarding is a simple activity that requires the board, a pump, paddle and practice. The results, according to America’s Thurso Surf, are spectacular: improved cardiovascular health, much-reduced wear and tear on the body compared to, say, running, a full body workout, stress relief and exposure to the outdoors.

And if you fall off, you only get wet.

“When you engage in stand up paddle-boarding, you’re not just passively floating,” enthuses Thurso (a self-confessed paddle board fanatic). “You’re actively propelling yourself through the water. This action primarily targets the upper body—your arms, shoulders, and chest work continuously as you paddle.”

So far, so good. But like riding a bicycle, you’ve got to start easy. After all, most over-sixties probably haven’t done any core exercises for years.

Here are a few of Bill’s tips for your first few paddles:

Start off on a big, wide, beginner-friendly board. In your first few sessions, you need stability, and that comes from the board's width. If you're over 80kg look for something 33-34 inches wide, minimum.

As with any water-based activity, there are safety implications in stand up paddleboarding.

Once you've mastered the basics on a beginner-friendly board, you might move up to a touring or entry-level racing board, with a decent lightweight paddle.

Once you’ve got through the apprenticeship phase, you should find yourself, as Thurso puts it poetically, “gliding  across the shimmering waters on your paddle board, your body bathed in sunlight”.