SUP
Rock the Boat
Type: Active/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 2 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Campers pair together and get water crafts side by side. While standing, campers rock their boats side to side to attempt to knock the other person off of their craft while staying standing on theirs.
Variation: Have 2 campers get onto the same board and they use their legs to rock the boat back and forth to try and knock the other person off.
Water Yoga
Type: Active/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 2 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Have the instructors and campers take turns demonstrating different Yoga positions and having everyone try them! Give every camper an opportunity to suggest/demonstrate a move. This could be something you start on land and move to the water as well
Piano Keys
Type: Active/Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 5 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Have campers arrange their SUPs in a line side by side (not nose to tail), holding onto the boats to the right and left of them using their paddles as a brace. Campers take turns (1 at a time) trying to run across all noses of the SUPs. Campers can run down and back and return to their boat, or run down and back and jump in the water! Team tries to ensure boats stay together.
Stinky Fish
Type: Active/ No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 4 or more
Supplies: Sponges
Instruction: To play stinky fish, give a couple of sponges out to the group and declare them to be stinky fish. Try to flick the stinky fish from your boat onto another person’s boat. You do NOT want a stinky fish to land on your boat. If you throw a stinky fish onto another campers boat, you get a point. Play for however long you’d like and the camper with the most points wins! Set boundaries before beginning.
Parts of the Boat Relay
Type: Restful/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 4 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Have participants break into two groups and line up away from the boats (on shore). Name a part of the boat and the first person to touch it wins a point for their team (you don’t necessarily have to keep track of points)
Follow the leader
Type: Active/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 2 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Tell the campers that they must copy every movement that the instructor does and follow them wherever they go. The Instructor should take the campers through a number of different paddling techniques and travel around the waterway practicing their motions. Examples of movements to have the campers copy: spin SUP in a circle using sweep strokes, moving laterally with brace or draw strokes, reverse strokes, pivot turns, etc. You can even include jumping off your boat and getting back on!
Variation: You can turn this into a ‘Simon Says’ game where campers have to copy the stroke that the instructor is performing every time “Simon Says”.
Board Pileup!
Type: Active/Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 6 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: See how many people can you get on a board (standing or sitting).
Lunch on the Water!
Type: Restful/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 2 or more
Supplies: 1 Throw Rope
Instruction: Make sure you find a shady spot along the shore and/or make sure all campers have reapplied sunscreen well and are wearing their hats if they have them. Have all the campers bring their lunches on their boards (protecting them as best they can so they don’t get wet) and instruct them raft up. In order to free their hands, have them run the throw rope through a D ring on the front of their boat and connect all the boats.
Captain’s Coming
Type: Active/ No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 4 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: To play captain’s coming, identify one instructor as the captain of the ship and everyone else as a shipmate. When the captain calls out a command, everyone on the ship must follow their orders. If you can’t or don’t follow orders, you will walk the plank (jump off your boat). Basic commands: Stern (walk to the back of the boat), bow (walk to the front of the boat), port (walk to the left side), starboard (walk to the right side), attention (stand and salute), hit the deck (drop on their bellies). Feel free to add in whatever other commands you’d like.
SUP Water Rescue
Type: Active/Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 2 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Demonstrate how to properly do a water rescue on a SUP. Share with them how these are important safety skills to learn and are incredibly useful when out on the water. Allow them to practice and spend time with each camper one-on-one helping.
Relay Race
Type: Active/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 4 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Set boundaries and split the ground up into 2 teams. Have one person start paddling from each team with a certain technique to a turnaround point and then return back to their line. When the camper on their team returns and tags the next camper in line, that camper begins paddling using a different technique than the first (determined by the instructor before the relay begins). Example: First paddlers paddle around the buoy using a traditional forward stroke, the next paddlers paddle backwards around the buoy using a reverse stroke, the 3 paddlers in line paddle around the buoy with their boat facing backwards, etc.
Variation: Add in figure eights around two floating objects to the relay. If you have 2 kids that don’t want to paddle, have them be the out-posts for the figure eight turnarounds
Board Challenges
Type: Active/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 2 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction:
Landing: Anytime you approach shore with your boats, challenge campers to slowly land without bumping, abruptly catching their fin on the ground, and without use of paddle to stabilize themselves.
Pivot Turns: With body near back of board, sweep stroke for a quick pivot turn. See if campers can do a full 360!
Nose/Tail Walk: Balance walk to the nose and tail of the board.. See how far on either end of the board the campers can go before falling off!
Board Tilt: Practice edging and board tilt (paddle in a circle in surf stance and see who can get further on a rail without falling in). You could try this with and without bracing
Tandem SUP: Two campers on a board, maybe both with paddles maybe sharing
Swap Boards: See if two campers can swap boards either sitting or standing
Tow Relays
Type: Active/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 2 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Teach towing technique and have campers tow one another in small teams, trying to be the fastest team in the group
Obstacle Course
Type: Active/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 6 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Come up with a course that integrates many skills that they have learned. A fun addition would be to have part of the obstacle course be two campers (or a camper and an instructor) holding a paddle and the rest of the group need to go between them and squat low so they don’t hit the paddle. To be successful, they cannot hit either board or the paddle. This also can be done as a separate SUP limbo game.
Sharks and Minnows
Type: Active/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 6 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: This game will allow your campers to practice their paddle strokes without really thinking about it. Create a square boundary and have the group raft up facing you. The Shark says ‘fishy fishy come out to play!’ then the minnows will attempt to paddle past you to the opposite boundary without their board being tagged. If they are tagged they become a shark. The game continues until there is only one minnow left. Instructor should start as the shark, if the group has a camper who is able to safely be the shark that can absolutely be done!
Board Bump
Type: Active/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 4 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Have campers begin paddling in a line (nose to tail) at speed. Challenge campers to stop on a dime without bumping into the board ahead of them. Use ‘stop’/‘go’ commands to have the group travel from one area to another trying this out. Good for transitions.
Sensory Deprivation
Type: Active/Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 4 or more
Supplies: bandanas
Instruction: Have the campers pair up on one board and have one partner blindfold themselves. Challenge each pair to get themselves to a certain destination. You can make it more challenging on the campers by removing more abilities from the campers. Example: The blindfolded camper cannot speak. The camper who is not blindfolded can only instruct with one word instructions. Feel free to be creative and use the blindfolds/sensory deprivation techniques in other games as well.
Variation: Three on a board, one is blindfolded and paddling, one is able to see but not talk, one is able to talk but not see.
SUP Shapes
Type: Active/No Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 4 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Challenge the campers to work together to make different shapes with their boats. Can break the group in half and have 2 teams compete. You can choose to use a throw rope to help keep the shape or not. Some successful shapes are just a simple raft (maybe all facing the same way, maybe not), a daisy or star (all noses in the center...some groups have used a throw rope to keep this shape together), a circle (everyone in a circle tip to tail). Get creative!
SUP Island!
Type: Active/Contact
Age: Any
Group size: 4 or more
Supplies: None
Instruction: Have kids stack their boats (safely and not damaging/bending the fins) and try to make a large raft to get across the water. Can form this initiative like poison boat (there is a poisonous algae that got onto some of the boats and the campers must get those boats out of the water but still get them back to shore). You can do this as one big group or make 2 teams to compete!
LNT SUP Game
The Leave No Trace Race
Objective: Campers engage in a fun team building group game that highlights LNT principle #4 (Leave what you find/take only pictures, leave only footprints)
Materials: Campers, 2 Large SUPs, paddles, a “beautiful” stick/rock/object for each team
Time: 20 min. Including introduction
Activity:
Split the group up into 2 teams and give them 2 large SUPs per team (depending on how many campers there are per team).
Provide each team with a “beautiful” stick/rock/object/etc. (Really HAMMMM it up). Have the team take a group photo with the object.
Teams have to pile onto their 2 boards with all their paddles, make a raft, and paddle to a drop off spot (chosen by the instructors) where they need to return the object to its rightful place so someone else can enjoy this “beautiful” thing! Once they’ve placed the object at the drop off spot, they need to pile back onto their boards and head back to the starting point. First team to successfully drop off their object and return to the starting line wins!
Modifications:
If 1 large SUP per team is too small a craft, you could switch to 2 small SUPs that they have to keep together like a raft. Explorer adaptation could be making one big raft together with the campers and staff and returning one object and then heading back together. Everyone wins!
Wrap up questions:
Why did we work so hard to return the “beautiful” objects instead of just taking them home?
What would be a real life example of something that we should take a picture of instead of taking with us?