Yoga on a Jobe stand-up paddling board

Fit & Training door thijs

Last week I finally got to check something off my bucketlist: doing yoga on a stand-up paddling board! I got to try out one of the amazing Yoga SUPs of Jobe Sports and went out for a very relaxed morning at the Kralingse Plas in Rotterdam. This is how it went...

As an island girl, sometimes I'm having some difficulties here in the Netherlands. After having lived on Curaçao for 17 years, where the water is a pretty blue, the beaches white, and the sun always shines, it's quite different in the Netherlands. By now, I have been living here for 4 years and I always try to go into the nature as often as possible. I frequently run outside, do yoga in the park, love to watch the sunset and try to be outside as much as possible.

When I was in Thailand in april, I wanted to go paddle boarding and try some funky yoga moves so badly, but unfortunately the busy schedule of a teacher training didn't allow it and I had to leave the beautiful island without having tried stand-up paddling (SUP) yoga. But last week it finally happened! After months of longing, I finally got the chance to get onto a SUP of Jobe SUP. This board was made especially for yoga and this is exactly what I wanted to do. I had no idea what to expect, but did hear from several people that it was supposed to be really challenging. Well, I'm always up for a challenge! Once the board was inflated and the fins were on, I could go into the water. The yoga SUP is a travelsized board that comes folded in a bag and can be put together really easily.

Even though the beach isn't white, the water isn't pretty blue and clear like I'm used to, I had one of the greatest mornings ever on the Kralingse Plas. It was a very relaxed morning and once I was on the board, I didn't even realize anymore that I was in the Netherlands. I was so focused and really enjoyed every moment on the water. The paddling was very easy and once I found my balance, I took it a step further and tried out some yoga moves. The board felt very stable and is big enough to move around on. SUP yoga might look like it's just the same as yoga on a mat, but trust me - it's different. Suddenly you feel like you don't have a solid surface underneath you so you have to concentrate even more on your balance. As an islandgirl and yogi, SUP yoga is the perfect combination for me. I would love to spend every free day I have on the water, especially if I can combine this with practicing yoga. The feeling you get on the board is truly special to me. Searching for balance, only doing that what feels right and most of all, listening to your own body. I call this 'meditation in movement'.

Now that you know how my SUP yoga experience was, I'd love to hear yours! To make this happen for you we got you a nice discount :) Jobe Sports recently launched their rental points for SUPing in the city, so go to http://www.citysup.com/ to check out if you can rent a SUP board in your city and use 'fitgirlcode' to get 20% off! This code is valid until 30 September 2015. Enjoy!