Ready to SUP?

We currently offer three types of SUP sessions:

• Small group session: If you are booking with a small group including children and wish to receive some tuition/guidance on our river locations. The price is £15 per person, not per board (in cases where toddlers are sharing a board with a parent), and the duration is 45-50 minutes, guided by an instructor. Children must always be accompanied by an adult who also paddles.
• Rental: On some locations, we offer rental of boards. The boards cannot be taken away from that lake. The price is £15 per person, not per board. Use of our life jackets is obligatory, and staff safety instructions must be followed. The session is 50 minutes, with an initial introduction to SUP and tips & tricks as required. Children must always be accompanied by an adult who also paddles, and be confident around water.
• Rivertrip: If you want to book for one or more people over the age of 15 only, then you could join a group session for a rivertrip. These trips are longer, and there is one instructor per 5 clients. Because most rivertrips are in the evenings and some people do like a beer in the break before paddling back, we do not allow children on rivertrips. The minimum age is 15 years old.
• Children's parties: Can be booked as a small group session or by hiring the boards. Because a children's party should be even more fun and excitement, we do ask you to contact us via the website or Facebook before making your booking. SUP is very weather dependent, so we always recommend to have a backup plan if planning a birthday party.

• If you are seeing this in the winter, then that will be correct, because we only open when it's actually nice to paddle and have the occasional unintentional swim...
• If you are seeing this in summer, then it might be that we are not at the location of your choosing for a while. Please see above where we will be for the next few months.
• If we will be at the location of your choosing but the scheduled date shows no availability, then either we are just updating the booking slots (in which case they will be open 30 minutes later) or we are really fully booked. You can only really hope someone cancels, or book at another location on another day.

SUP, like many outdoor sports is very weather dependent. A little splash of rain has never dampened the fun of a SUP session, but on days with heavy rain all day we do not open. Even more important is the wind...

To make sure everyone is safe and has 100% fun on the water, we keep an eye on the weather forecast. If you have booked but the weather is bad and we need to close, we will contact you to cancel your appointment. You will not be charged of course.

If you book a SUP session for a special occasion (eg birthday parties) we would always recommend you have a backup plan for the day.

Our insurance requires us to provide you with our life jackets, and we are not allowed to let you wear your own.

If you have your own board and paddle you are free to use it during your session! If we think there is a safety risk with your equipment we will ask you to use our equipment instead.

Bookings are per person, not per board, so you would still have to book in.

Everyone is a beginner at something! Most people who come to us for the first time have never tried SUP before. We guarantee you will finish the session smiling and with a sense of achievement!

We believe SUP is great for people of all abilities and ages, it is one of the most accessible sports. When you first come to paddle with us, there will always be an instructor with you. Our instructors are great at building your confidence and will quickly have you up and paddling comfortably.

The age at which a child really starts to enjoy the adventure of paddling varies a little, but we do ask that they must be able to follow instructions, and be comfortable in the water should they fall in.

The youngest children will usually go on the board with their parents for their first SUP experience. With more grown children, we advise they go on their own board. If they are too young to understand paddling, or very nervous, we usually set them up in tow to a parent or the instructor.

You would not need to take this into account for your booking - the bookings are per person, not per board.

We provide everyone with a life jacket, paddle, and board.

We do not provide wetsuits. Most people paddle just in clothes that they are comfortable in. The majority of people do not fall in, but there's always that possibility... So we recommend you bring some towels and a change of dry clothes just in case!

There will be someone around staying on the land so you can leave your shoes, sunglasses, phone, car keys etc with us while you paddle and we will keep them safe.

We are a mobile bunch of people, and you can find us throughout Somerset and beyond at different dates! A schedule is posted on top of this page, so you can see when we will be at which location.

The rivers and lakes in North Somerset are gorgeous, and we paddle on different rivers from time to time. The location where we will be will be stated in our Facebook posts when we open bookings for the day, and it will also be on your booking confirmation.

If you have your own board and are looking for inspiration where to paddle (without us, sad as that would be), we would refer you to the website www.gopaddle.info.

We can accommodate everyone, but for people 19 stone or more we would like a little heads up. We can then bring our white-water board (we only have one), which is the same size as others but a slightly different shape. That makes it more stable in rapids, but also makes the difference for heavier people to be able to balance easier.

When you book with us, we have a very strict cancellation policy:

• If you do not show up on the day, you will be charged the full amount of your booking.
• If you cancel, you will be charged 50%.
  • If there is enough time, we will always try and fill your slot with other people. If anyone else can step in, they will pay for their session as normal, and you will be refunded your cancellation charge.
• In the very rare event that WE have to cancel your session (eg unpredicted severe weather/thunderstorms etc) you will of course not be charged.
• The money you are charged for no-show or cancellation is needed to keep WhatSUP alive and our charity work going, so it can NOT get turned into a voucher for use at a later date.

So why are we so strict?

WhatSUP is not a business with an intention of making profit. All our instructors have 'normal' day jobs to pay their bills, and we see WhatSUP as a hobby. Our fees are much lower than most places in the UK that have the same level of service. But we do have to charge something to keep WhatSUP alive - we need to be able to pay for equipment, instructor training, insurances, petrol and land rental. Also, from every booking made, we put a percentage aside so we can run charity days for disadvantaged children. More information on what we do in the community here.

Unfortunately, in the past we have had people cancel at the last minute or just not show up. As you'll understand, when that happens WhatSUP runs at a loss and that directly affects what we can provide for charities. To avoid losing the ability to help disadvantaged people we had to bring in our strict cancellation policy.