SUP Yoga at Waikoloa Beach

I’ve tried lots of types of yoga in the past – Hatha, Iyengar, Bikram, Ashtanga, power…but I had never before thought to try yoga on a stand-up paddleboard. That was, until I saw the advertisements for SUP Yoga at Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort. I discovered how SUP Yoga is a fun way to push your yoga practice to a new level! 

SUP Yoga Waikoloa

At home, yoga is an essential part of my week. So when I travel, I like to keep an eye out for any convenient yoga classes that I could slide into the daily itinerary. At Waikoloa Beach Marriott, I saw that Ocean Sports Beach Hut at Anaeho’omalu Bay (A-Bay) in front of the resort offered morning beach yoga (free to in-house guests with a resort activities passport) and SUP (stand up paddleboard) yoga classes for $20.

Queenie and I were sold on the idea of SUP Yoga. And Queenie’s friend Ruby didn’t take any convincing to join us. Her mum kindly took along the camera and acted as our official photographer for the session.

First, we had to walk along the beach to the Hilton Waikoloa Village Lagoon, as there were no SUP Yoga classes at A-Bay that morning, but there WAS one at the Hilton.  We were told it was ‘ten minutes walk along the beach’. What we weren’t told was that the ‘beach’ consists of lava and coral rocks, and sturdy footwear (rather than thongs and barefeet) would have been a great idea! Nevertheless, we pushed on, and eventually reached the lagoon at the Hilton.

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The walk between Waikoloa Beach Marriott and Hilton Village Waikoloa

On the lagoon sand beach, our gorgeous instructor, Adra organised paddle boards for each of us, and gave us some instructions about how to paddle ourselves to the area of the lagoon where the class would be held.SUP Yoga

Hilton Waikoloa Village features it’s very own salt-water lagoon and white-sand beach. The four-acre lagoon is home to many tropical fish and green sea turtles which we watched while we down-face-dogged.

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Each of the paddleboards had a small anchor weight attached that we pushed overboard once we were in place for the class. This kept us all in the one area while we did our yoga.

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The boards were surprisingly more stable that I had anticipated, and as long as you were concious of centering your weight over the correct point on the board, you could feel relatively secure.

Queenie, who is infinitely more flexible than I am pushed each pose to the extreme and she did take a tumble into the water at one point. However, I was very proud that I didn’t end up in the drink at all.

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The class was relatively strenuous, but Adra offered alternatives at each point for those who wanted to take things easier, or push on to harder variations.

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And, in order to maintain balance throughout the class, core muscles were making constant small adjustments. The next day, I certainly felt the effort that had been expended!

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After the class, Adra allowed us to keep the boards for a few minutes to have a bit more of a play around, and I grabbed my phone to take some photos of Queenie (yoga)posing.

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So much fun! Throughout the holiday, as we each listed our ‘holiday highlights’ the SUP Yoga class featured highly on all three of our lists.

The details

SUP Yoga at Waikoloa Beach
Provider: Ocean Sports Hawaii
Locations: A-Bay in front of the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort and at Hilton Waikoloa VIllage Lagoon
Reservations required 24 hours in advance – check the website for times and locations.
Website: hawaiioceansports.com
Phone:  (808) 886-6666 ext. 101
Cost: $20 per person

Would you do a yoga class on a paddle board?

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SUP Yoga Waikoloa

 

 

 

 

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