SUP SAFE Courses
Our safety education courses cover how to choose and use your safety equipment, understanding the conditions, and what to do when things go wrong. They’re the perfect way to really improve your general water knowledge.
There are two ways you can access these courses:
Online
The online version of the course is broken down into separate (and completely free!) courses; Safety Equipment, Understanding the Conditions, and (coming soon!) what to do when things go wrong. Each course is split into numerous bite-sized lessons, offering a huge resource of information, videos, pix, analysis and commentary on all aspects of SUP Safety. You can work through each course lesson by lesson at your own pace and convenience, or just simply dip in to the bits that you want to find out about. The online courses are COMPLETELY FREE, and you can access them right here.
In the classroom
The classroom course is presented by our trained SUP SAFE presenters around New Zealand, and delivered in an interactive way, giving you examples and scenarios to work with in order to make it as interesting as possible and maximise your learning.
You’ll get some good information to take away, as well.
Whichever version of the course you do, you will learn about:
- Choosing the right leash for the conditions, and what could go wrong
- Choosing the right PFD for the conditions, how to use and service them, what could go wrong
- Communication on the water
- Other safety options and equipment
- Understanding wind direction and strength
- Understanding tides and currents
- How to interpret weather forecasts
- Planning a SUP trip
- The SUP SAFE code
- What could go wrong and how to deal with possible emergency scenarios
There may be a small charge for the classroom course, which will depend on the local presenter (as some have support from local councils etc in order to run them FOC, while others have to recoup costs for renting rooms etc), but should not be more than $40 per person. A small outlay in return for knowledge that may save your life!
Check out also the SUP RESCUE course. With the skills you will learn in this 2.5 hour practical and classroom course, you will be equipped to save someone from drowning. It’s a vital skill that every stand up paddleboarder should have. Unfortunately, preventable drowning incidents are all too common around the New Zealand waters, and you never know when you might come across someone in trouble.
Course Schedule
There will be courses run all over New Zealand throughout the summer. Check out the latest courses via our NZSUP Facebook page.
Courses will be scheduled, and/or on demand. If there isn’t a course near you, check out the online course, which is completely free and you can do at your own pace .
We are hugely grateful to the Safer Boating Forum for their funding contribution towards the SUP SAFE program and education in New Zealand.
