Coaching
Progression guaranteed with this personalised SUP performance boost… One-to-one and 2:1 bespoke coaching – we will tailor a 2-hour session around your ability level and aspirations, primarily at Paper Mill Lock (where we can be sure of ideal coaching conditions – out of season, other South Essex flat-water venues can be arranged to suit the tides and weather forecast and ensure we score optimal conditions for your session). On top of our ‘standard’ scheduled group beginner lessons and improver courses, we have been running advanced individual coaching with several regular clients since 2017; initially focussed on race technique, our riders have achieved great results including wins at national level races with the skills they’ve learnt and drills they’ve practiced. While intermediate and beginner technique has previously been brought on by our group Learn to SUP lessons and Improver Tours – plus of course at our free Wednesday evening SUP Club – in 2020 and 2021 with social distancing regulations brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, one-to-one and 2:1 coaching became popular for entry-level and improving paddlers too. These personalised, private BSUPA lessons for individuals or pairs / couples mean we can focus on techniques just for you, and progress the session at your pace… Book now!
Our 1:1 coaching costs £95 for a 2-hour course, with your own kit (board, paddle, leash etc). Or if you can team up with a friend or family member of a similar ability level, two-to-one coaching works out at £60pp excluding kit hire. (Red Paddle Rides, Sports, Races and Elites are available to hire for an additional £25.) To arrange a session, just click ‘book now‘ to see our schedule and select any 1:1 or 2:1 session. Over winter we do offer bespoke 1:1 and 2:1 sessions to experienced paddlers with their own kit – email duncan@supsect.com to arrange a session. [Note: courses named ‘coaching’ and ‘private lessons’ are exactly the same thing, but with differing schedules as a workaround to reflect our coaches’ availability. If you can’t find what you’re after, please email duncan@supsect.com and we’ll do all we can to accommodate you…]
Our scheduled 2023 coaching season is now closed for winter – if you’d like to arrange a bespoke off-season session or be notified when we plan our 2024 teaching season, please email duncan@supsect.com
Your coach, Duncan is a BSUPA Level 2 (Race & Tour) advanced instructor – a former windsurfing instructor with a lifetime’s experience in watersports, he’s been paddleboarding since the very early days of the sport in 2009. Dunc was bitten by the race bug at the first British SUP Club Championships back in 2013 and gradually improved his technique and fitness to become truly competitive on the national race scene to claim UK podium places in 2016. Then in 2017 he focussed his attention on the newly formed UK ultra-endurance series where he first took his inflatable 14’ Red Paddle Elite to 5th overall (1st iSUP) in the 50km Thames Ultra, then outright won the 2-day 70km Norfolk Ultra. In 2017 he also won the iSUP class at the 15km Battle of the Thames and 20km Big Ben Race, as well as the BSUPA SUP Club Champs. Having won the first big race of 2018 as overall 12’6″ champion of the prestigious Battle of the Thames, and then finished 3rd overall (1st iSUP) in both the Norfolk and Thames Ultras, 2018 was focussed towards the world-class 220km SUP 11 Cities in Friesland, The Netherlands. Dunc finished in the top 10 masters worldwide with an impressive overall time of just over 25 hours across the 5-day event. In 2019 Dunc set his sights on winning GB SUP distance and UK SUP endurance national tours. On the GB SUP circuit Dunc won the 12’6″ category at the Head of the Dart, Battle of the Thames and Paddle in the Park to secure the national distance title – plus while it really wasn’t his goal, he also paddled to 2nd place in the 12’6″ technical series! On the UK SUP endurance tour, he was 3rd overall and 1st inflatable in the 2-day 70k Norfolk Ultra, outright won the 45km Thames Ultra, and finished 5th overall for 1st inflatable at the gruelling 2-day, 92km Great Glen Challenge. Hence Dunc was a 2019 double national champion: GB SUP 12’6″ Distance Champion and UK SUP iSUP Endurance Champion.
Chief instructor Elisa, also a BSUPA Level 2 (Race & Tour) advanced instructor, coached Dunc to his racing successes and head coached the 20-strong SUPsect race team to second in the country at the 2019 British SUP Club Champs. El certainly knows how to teach, having qualified as a post-graduate (PGCE) teacher in 1997. Formerly an accomplished horsewoman and competitor, El started stand-up paddleboarding as an alternative to equestrianism in the early days of British SUP and hasn’t looked back since… It’s hard to believe these days, but initially El was quite wary of the water – which gives her great empathy with many of our more nervous students – and having tried windsurfing, surfing and sailing with some success she certainly wouldn’t have described herself as a waterbaby back then! But SUP proved a perfect fit as it offered a far less intimidating and much more controllable route into watersports, and within her first summer of paddling El had completely banished any fears and was loving life on the water. These days she will happily take on the very toughest conditions we find here and has got into SUPsurfing on trips away too. Although racing isn’t currently her drive, she has secured podium finishes at national level race events and coached Dunc towards his successful 2017, 2018 and 2019 race seasons and beyond. In 2019 El ran the junior and novice racing at the country’s biggest ever SUP race, the British SUP Club Championships – she is also Race Director of our regular leg of the EASI (East Anglian SUP Initiative) winter race series, and runs our regular free Race Clubs throughout summer in the run-up to the British SUP Club Champs where SUPsect finished 2nd overall in 2019. Aside from spreading the joy of SUP to students on our Learn to SUP and improver courses, these days El most enjoys recreational paddling with our many friends from SUP Club and exploring UK waters for fitness and fun.
Our scheduled 2023 coaching season is now closed for winter – if you’d like to arrange a bespoke off-season session or be notified when we plan our 2024 teaching season, please email duncan@supsect.com
