Introduction to Stand Up Paddle Boarding Brighton

It can be daunting to try out a brand new activity, especially a skilful one. But as the saying goes, ‘You’ll never know until you try’!

At first, I was extremely nervous about stand-up paddleboarding (more commonly known as SUPing). The majority of my family and friends know me as one of the clumsiest individuals alive, so the prospect of balancing on a piece of polystyrene while drifting across the water didn’t exactly strike me as easy, but I was more than up for the challenge.

On the mild afternoon of July 11th, we set off to Hove Lagoon where the experience was to be held. Lagoon Watersports is a Brighton based outdoor water sports centre offering activities including jetskiing, sailing, and windsurfing. They have two locations in Brighton: Brighton Marina and Hove Lagoon.

The Lagoon was easy to get to, located alongside Brighton seafront when entering the Hove area. The lake was larger than I anticipated, with a children’s pool, and a clear glistening lagoon occupied by people taking lessons and enjoying the activities. I instantly spotted a stand-up paddle boarder and felt my excitement grow.

We made our way into the reception area situated inside the Lagoon Watersports main building (which you can see photographed above). The staff were incredibly welcoming, and were quick to get us signed up before sending us off to the changing rooms. Katie was our lovely instructor for the day, and assigned us all with wetsuits. By the way, be ready for a battle with your wetsuit – although thick and warm, it does not make for a simple slide in job! Myself, Gemma and Hannah, who was on work experience with us, glamorously – or as glamorously as we could - strolled down towards the lagoon edge. Here, we were given instructions by Katie on how paddle boards operate, and how to position ourselves onto the board.

Once we all understood what we were doing, we chose our paddle boards. There is a choice between a harder, more stable board, or a soft, inflatable board. To get into the water, we all laid out (tummy first) on top of our boards, and used our arms to glide gracefully into the centre of the lagoon.

Now, for the tricky part! Katie helpfully assisted us on how to stand up steadily on the board, and lo and behold, no one (including me) fell off!

Gemma took to paddling like a duck to water, while Hannah and I took a little longer to get to grips with the new balancing sensation. While I was becoming more confident, Hannah toppled straight into the water, and so did Gemma! However, my pompous satisfaction was short-lived thanks to a game of ‘Katie Says’ (a take on ‘Simon Says’) when I plunged headfirst into the water.

After Katie gave us a few more tips and techniques, we finished with a game of Gladiators. The aim was to wobble the other person off their extra-large paddle board. Gemma and I tried our best, but Hannah came out on top as our well-deserved winner!

After my day at Lagoon Watersports, I can confirm that Stand up Paddleboarding is brilliant fun, and people of all skill levels can give it a go and enjoy the experience. A huge thank you to the team at Hove Lagoon for having us!

At Experience Days we are excited to provide you an exclusive interview about the roots and future of Lagoon Watersports in Brighton with one of the founders- Harvery Dawkins. Lagoon Watersports offers a wide range of exciting Watersports such as: Wakeboarding, Kayaking, Sailing and SUPing which can be found via our webpage here.

1) Please explain a bit of background on Lagoon Watersports and the different activities you offer.

My initial passion was for windsurfing, in particular wave sailing. This passion led to the development of my love for being on and in the water as much as possible. So with my business partner and friend Seb Rouse we started the business in 1994 with just 6 windsurf boards and it grew from there. The increasing popularity of the business meant we began to expand – introducing sailing and kayaking. Seb is a very keen sailor and so specializes in the sailing side- the yachts and powerboats, opening our big boat-sailing and power boating centre in Brighton Marina whereas I manage the centre in Hove Lagoon.
Lagoon Watersports offers a variety of exhilarating water activities including: Wakeboarding, Windsurfing, Kayaking and Dinghy Sailing which is brilliantly run by our team of up to 40 employees (during peak season). Since the centres’ opening in 2001, the thrilling Zap Cat powerboats immediately became a very popular extreme power boating experience, but personally I prefer a more rustic approach and enjoy the sail and human power rather than the engines.
Wakeboarding has been a sport the staff and I have always been keen on; however it tends to be impractical and expensive due to internal and external factors such as an appropriate boat, driver and a calm sea. But as soon as the new generation of straight line wakeboard cable systems arrived we knew that this was the way to go and invested to become the South Coast’s first cable Wakeboard Park.
In the last couple of years, the standup paddle boarding scheme has exploded and this is something I love. It is so accessible yet has the diversity to make the sport as challenging and extreme as you like.

2) How did your passion in watersports turn into a career?

I wanted to go windsurfing when it was windy not when my boss said I could, which was often enough. I just wanted to be completely independent in what I loved to do. Obviously the reality is very different and there’s a lot of hours involved but throughout the years I’ve managed to do a lot of windsurfing, SUPing and wake boarding so it has pretty much worked out as planned.

3) Do you have any exclusive information you can share with us?

We are finding more and more people want to get onto the water. When people visit or even residents of Brighton, everyone wants that connection with the water, it makes you feel good. A recent trend that we are delighted to see seems to be that more and more people are looking for health activities that are more interactive to do outside of the gym, and that is what Lagoon Watersports offers. To coincide with this, we have been adding new classes like SUP yoga, SUP race training, coastal sailing cruises and more advanced training courses to help customers stimulate their passion and reach that next level. Also look out for SUPing (Standup paddleboarding) it’s the next big thing!

4) What makes your experiences unique and special for customers?

Our focus is to offer people the chance not just to try a sport but to go on and practice it on a regular basis; whether that experience is sailing a yacht all the way to France, wake boarding every night after work or going to SUP race events. We try to remove as many of the barriers as we can so that the clients interest can be driven e.g. we provide everything including: equipment, storage space and a team of staff to help train and give advice. Our close team of staff is the spirit to the business and this passion easily translates to the customers. Our staff members enjoy meeting customers and are keen to share their knowledge with the customer and as keen to get out on the water with them. The venues also make a difference. We are very lucky to have such great venues and Hove Lagoon is one of the best centres in the UK to learn such a range of watersports. Whilst Brighton Marina gives us the opportunity to sail sight out of sea.

5) What’s your most frequently asked question from customers?

It would probably be either ‘Do you provide wetsuits?’ Which we do! Or ‘what happens if it rains?’ As we are already getting wet, we do still run the activities. Watersports have that advantage of being great fun despite the weather; because you are active your body is able to stay warm. We also have a great café you can wind down in après Surf!