SUP: Stand up for water fun

Stand-up paddleboarding or SUP has become Romania’s new favorite watersport. Social media helped out too, with all those amazing photos of people trying out this sport, so young entrepreneurs spotted the opportunity and are now offering this type of entertainment all across Romania, from the seaside to mountain lakes.

By Oana Vasiliu

Challenge: try out how nature and watersports can be fun

The only thing that someone needs in order to enjoy SUP experience is an appreciation for nature. “People need to be nature lovers to really enjoy a trip. It is very easy to learn to balance and the basic paddling technique, but the real joy comes from being in awe of the mountains, forests, sunsets, birds, and animals while you are floating upright in the middle of a lake,” explains Tiberiu Balica, the founder of SupAcademy Romania, the first organization to offer this type of watersport in Romania. And what’s more, it is not even mandatory to know how to swim.

Tiberiu discovered this sport in 2010 in Tenerife, Canary Islands. “At the time I had only tried surfing a few times, so to me this looked like some sort of futuristic version of this sport,” Tiberiu says. Later, he saw the first SUP board in Romania at Kazeebo beach, a kiting spot, in 2012. “That place became my weekend home as I surfed, paddled, and taught others all I knew about that board, because Dorin and Dodo allowed me to use it all summer long, I was the only crazy person who seemed to enjoy the paddleboard so much. I got into helping some Bulgarians organise a SUP contest there, and the following year I bought four boards with a friend of mine and started to promote this sport all over Bucharest and the seaside,” he adds.

As for how clients can find them, social media is the key, but what has also helped is the fact that they were the only SUP operators in Romania for several years. “Lots of people come back to check out other trips that we do, and some even return to the same trip because they enjoyed the vibe so much the first time. We have nine types of SUP excursions in Romania right now,” Tiberiu notes.

But the industry is still in its early stages. “For 6-7 years we were the only organisation that promoted SUP and now it seems that almost all kayak operators have started to add SUP to their fleets. A lot of affordable SUP equipment has come onto the market and I’m seeing more and more people buying it,” he explains.

And there’s more. “People here have a tendency to buy cheap equipment and use it the wrong way, then pay for a SUP trip where they can fully immerse themselves in a paddleboarding experience. I've seen lots of people riding their board backwards; I tell them, ‘hey, your board is backwards’ and their answer is, ‘Yeah, it's ok’ so it will take a bit longer before people really understand what SUP is all about. Right now, most people who buy an inflatable paddleboard associate it with a cool new way of taking a swim in the middle of a lake or a little bit offshore, which is good for us, but we still have to teach people a lot of things about this sport,” Tiberiu concludes.

For Razvan Lucian, the CEO of SUP Constanta, SUP popped up when he was searching for a new watersport for himself and his girlfriend. “I started with two boards, one for me and one for my girlfriend, and then we kept buying them for our friends, and afterwards we had the idea of renting them out and promoting SUP as a sport,” he says.

Social media is important for them too, as they are active on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, but what works even better is word of mouth: clients who tell others about their SUP experiences. “We see an increase with every year that passes, with more people becoming passionate about this sport and getting involved by creating courses and rental services throughout the country. At the same time, sports stores have started to promote paddleboarding, which helps a lot. It is not very easy to sell SUP experiences, but the goal is not for it to be easy, but to grow this sport together with more and more aficionados.”

Auras Mihaiu from paddleX first came across this watersport online. He saw a photo on Instagram during winter and then bought a board the following summer. “I’m from Nehoiu and I realised that the Buzau area offered no such experiences for tourists, so I started to invest in this business.” Auras says. He finds clients through social media, too, but also through recommendations from guesthouses in the region. Auras will be hosting a PaddleFest from September 24-26, where people can camp, enjoy a series of live concerts, and practice stand-up paddling.