SUP East Coast Style

A quick and easy way to get out on the water. Just drop in to the Riverhead location and within a few minutes you can be paddling around a beautiful harbor. Make sure to call or text ahead for availability.

Let’s face it, Massachusetts may be known for marriage equality, Dr. Seuss, Necco Wafers, and Moby Dick, but we’re not known for our surfing. Get on a board without having to travel to Hawaii by visiting SUP East Coast Style at their customary hangout at Riverhead Beach in Marblehead, right across from Deveraux Beach. Free parking if you’re a foreigner from Salem, as long as you mention that you’re going out «SUP-​ing» that day. You can also pick up a board at Waikiki Beach, again, no traveling to Hawaii involved, in Salem. Interlopers from Marblehead can park free at Waikiki (Winter Island) by mentioning that they’re SUP-​ing. See, SUP brings the world together. Now to what SUP actually is. It’s stand up paddleboarding, and you really don’t need experience or lessons to give it a try, although East Coast Style does offer lessons. For most people with a fair amount of coordination, you can get some pointers on the beach from one of the employees, hop on a board and you’re off. Watch a couple of YouTube videos and you’ll see how cool it looks. You can rent a board for an hour, half day, or even a full day. Prices are on the website, but I’d also highly recommend liking them on Facebook. They run frequent insider deals and they’ll also post last minute changes in classes if the weather is not cooperating. You’d do very well to check in with them on Facebook – so much easier than the website. They offer fitness as well as yoga classes on the board, and it was yoga that really got me hooked. I have practiced and taught in a studio for years, and not really been a fan of beach yoga, but paddleboard yoga is a-​MAH-​zing. You really have to become one with the board, you see your postures in a whole new way, and get to experience that elusive «beginner’s mind» that you sometimes hear in a yoga class while you’re thinking of running errands at Target. On the board, your mind has to focus on the yoga, or whoops! you’ll fall in the water. Which, mind you, is not always a bad thing! Everyone who likes yoga owes it to herself to try it on the board. It can be a very exhilarating, and also humbling experience to have your old favorite postures become quite challenging when you try them on the water. But trust me, you will love it. It’s great to feel the motion of the water, smell the salty air, work with the rocking waves, and see beauty wherever you look. I thank SUP East Coast for braving our New England weather and opening this business for us hardy northern souls. I can see a New Year’s Day paddle for the crazy people. And that’s a hint!