As a relatively simple and easy-to-start water sport, paddle boarding has become popular and developed rapidly in Shanghai in recent years. Bringing a paddle and a board and enjoying the feeling of flying freely on the water is really refreshing. At the beginning of February, Li Ling had just returned to Shanghai from Hainan with a dozen young students from his paddleboard club. "The climate in Hainan is still much warmer, so we chose to conduct a training camp there. However, the coldest days in Shanghai should have passed, and I am planning to take my friends to play at my doorstep during the Spring Festival. ”
Paddle a paddleboard to see the scenery
Paddle boards are a combination of surfing and traditional hand paddle boards, which first originated in Hawaii, USA. Compared to surfboards, paddle boards have a wider and thicker surface and are more buoyant.
Around 2010, paddleboarding was introduced to China. In 2016, the Water Sports Management Center of the General Administration of Sports of China held the first professional paddleboard competition with top domestic competition companies. In 2019, the 2nd National Youth Games included paddle boarding as an independent competition in the national competition for the first time.
Li Ling was born in track and field, and his contact with paddle boards was also due to accident. "For a while, I noticed that a group of people often appeared on the river in front of my house, standing on an inflatable board and playing in the water, and I felt very handsome. Later, I went to the Internet to check and found out that this sport is called paddle boarding, and I can see the scenery while exercising, so I immediately bought a piece to try. ”
In the first half of last year, Li Ling obtained the paddleboard professional coach certificate from the Water Sports Center of the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China, and then established the paddleboard youth club. Watching the students around him grow rapidly from "Xiaobai" to good players in the national competition, Li Ling also felt very gratified, "I believe that after a period of systematic training, their performance and results will be better." We now have 40 or 50 young students, and we will expand the enrollment scale by next year and the year after next year, and strive for more than 100 students. ”
Go on a trip with a paddleboard
In the past six months, Li Ling has taken the children of the club to many places, such as Haikou, Hainan, Kaizhou, Chongqing, and Qingtian, Zhejiang...... It's not just a training game, it's also a trip.
Paddle boards are easy to carry and are indeed attractive to sports enthusiasts who are looking for water to play all year round. "There are two kinds of paddle boards: inflatable and hardboard, and the inflatable paddle board can be folded after deflation and can be carried on the body like a large backpack, which is very convenient and greatly simplifies the travel process. Even if it is a normal hard board, it is not so bulky, and a private car can carry it. Li Ling said.
Compared to other water sports, paddle boarding is also more free, and it can choose to paddle in any position, standing, sitting, kneeling or even lying on its stomach.
Paddle boarding has also spawned many trendy ways to play, such as paddle board yoga, paddle board meditation, paddle board fishing, and so on. Many young people even brought their pet dogs to play paddle boards together and formed a paddle board pet board.
In recent years, paddle boarding has gradually become one of the "top stream" sports in Shanghai, where the water system is abundant. "When spring blooms, I'm sure there will be more people who want to come and play paddleboarding. Li Ling said, "I looked, the weather during the Spring Festival this year is very good, and the students' interest is also very high, everyone is ready to celebrate the New Year and exercise the New Year together in the form of paddleboards!"
Text: Guan Yin