South Island SUP: Exploring Victoria and Beyond

We sat down with Victoria’s first mobile SUP business to learn what they are all about.

Q: Tell us a little bit about South Island SUP.

A: We are a mobile business doing tours, rentals and lessons in Southern Vancouver Island. I do a lot of custom events,  corporate team building, local tours year round. Probably the only year round SUP business in Canada. I have a lot of local customers very strong large local customer base that do a lot of the year round paddling. Up to 100 times a year some of my clients. So that's part of my business but I also cater to tourists, really anybody on Victoria island. Everything from first time paddlers to Expert level for short but pretty adventurous day trips including instructions. And SUP Sufing as well in Tofino but mostly on our beaches west of Victoria. 

Q: How did you personally get into paddle boarding?

A: So I I first saw it in Hawaii in 2011 and first person I saw SUPing was on an amazing wave in I guess on Kauai, in Hanalei bay. It was summer, small wave but you know beautiful wave that looks like it went on forever and the person was just like it looked like a kilometer but it was probably wasn't that long but they were on the wave forever. So I came back here, bought a board, and started learning, and then tried to figure out how I could make a living doing that. So I sort of gradually got myself transitioned from working full time to running a business full time. One of the unique things is I started with my business with no car. I had a bike that I would pull three boards behind and I lived near a beach so I could meet people at that beach and I also used to paddle multiple boards to an adjacent beach if I need to. I would just pull the boards behind me to that beach.