Test before you buy · Water at the door
The commonest reason people give up on paddleboarding is a board with too little volume for them, bought online because the photograph looked right. A board that sinks under its rider is exhausting, unstable and no fun at all, and no amount of technique fixes it. We are on the water, so anything in the shop can be tried before it is bought, we size by weight and by where you will actually paddle, and we cut paddles to your height rather than handing over a telescopic compromise.
About us
The business started as a rack of six boards and a wooden shed rented from the beach concession, run by two instructors who taught in the mornings and repaired other people's boards in the afternoons. Customers kept asking where to buy something decent, and the honest answer was that the local options were a sports chain selling boards by price and the internet selling them by photograph. Neither knew what anybody weighed. So the shed acquired a shop.
Everything we sell is on the water fifty metres from the door, which changes the entire nature of the transaction. A customer paddles two or three boards for half an hour each, in real conditions with real chop, and then buys the one that suited them — occasionally the cheapest one, frequently not the one they arrived intending to buy. Hire fees are deducted from the purchase, so the trial costs nothing, and the return rate on boards sold this way is close to zero.
We still teach and we still repair, and both feed the shop's judgement. Instructors see which boards beginners actually stand up on and which promise stability in a catalogue and deliver none; the repair bench sees which brands delaminate in their third season and which seams fail. Products that keep coming back broken quietly disappear from the racks, which is a filter no online retailer applies and no amount of marketing survives.
Advantages
Six things that decide whether a board gets used every weekend or once.
A board's litres have to carry you plus whatever you take, with enough margin left for stability. Too little and the board sits low, drags, wobbles and exhausts you; too much and it catches wind and feels like a barge. We calculate from your weight and intended load, then confirm it on the water, because two people of the same weight can want different boards depending on how they stand. This single number solves most beginners' problems before they start.
Every board in stock can be taken out for half an hour, in the actual sea rather than in a shop, and most customers try three before deciding. Nothing else reveals how a board behaves when a small chop arrives or how it turns when you are tired. The hire fee comes off the purchase price, so trying costs nothing, and we would far rather someone discovered a board was wrong before paying for it than afterwards.
A paddle at the wrong length wrecks your shoulder and your stroke, and adjustable paddles are heavier, floppier and always a compromise. We size to your height and discipline, cut fixed shafts on the premises, and choose blade area by your strength rather than by what looks impressive. Anyone unsure of their length uses an adjustable one for a few sessions first and then has it cut, which is how it should be done.
Inflatables win on storage, transport, durability against rocks and carrying down cliff paths; hard boards win on glide, speed and how they feel in anything other than flat water. Which is right depends on where you live, how you travel and what you want to do, not on which has the better margin. We ask about your car, your storage and your usual launch spot, and we regularly send people towards the cheaper category.
We repair boards of every brand, which means we see exactly which ones delaminate, which seams let go, which fin boxes tear out and which manufacturers actually supply spare parts three years later. Anything that keeps returning to the bench stops appearing on our racks regardless of how well it sells. No catalogue, review site or brand ambassador gives you that information, and it is the most useful thing we know.
Where to launch, which wind makes which stretch dangerous, when the afternoon breeze reliably arrives, where the current runs along the headland, which coves are calm when everywhere else is not, and where you must not go when the swell is up. We give this away freely with every board and every hire, because the fastest way to make somebody abandon the sport is to let them have one frightening afternoon offshore.
Services
Boards and paddles, accessories and safety gear, lessons, guided tours, repairs and off-season storage.
Inflatable and hard boards across all the categories that matter — all-round, touring, race, surf, yoga and family-sized — from manufacturers whose repair record we have watched for years. Every board is sized by your weight and paddled before purchase, and we are equally happy selling a second-hand board from the hire fleet at the end of a season, which is how a great many people sensibly enter the sport.
Carbon, fibreglass and aluminium paddles cut to length on the premises, plus leashes, buoyancy aids, pumps, dry bags, deck bags, fins, board bags and roof systems. Safety equipment is discussed rather than upsold: which leash suits which water, why a river leash and a sea leash are not interchangeable, and what to carry when paddling beyond swimming distance from shore.
Beginner sessions that get people standing and paddling confidently within two hours, followed by technique coaching for anyone whose shoulder hurts or whose board keeps veering, plus courses in surf, downwind paddling and self-rescue. Groups are small, boards and safety equipment are provided, and lessons run early or late in summer when the water is calm and the beach is empty.
Half-day and full-day guided paddles along the coast to caves, coves and beaches unreachable on foot, sunrise and sunset trips, and multi-day tours with transport and accommodation arranged. Hire is by the hour, day or week, with delivery to nearby beaches and apartments, and everything is checked and pumped before it leaves so nobody spends the first half hour of a holiday wrestling with a pump.
Punctures, seam failures and valve replacement on inflatables; dings, delamination, fin box repairs and full refinishing on hard boards, in epoxy or polyester as the construction requires. Most inflatable repairs are done the same day so a holiday is not lost, and we quote honestly when a board is not worth repairing — which occasionally costs us the job and has never cost us a customer.
Racked indoor storage through the off season for people whose flats have no room, including a service and inspection before the boards come out again in spring. We also run a weekly paddling group open to anyone who has a board, whatever they bought and wherever they bought it, which has become the most reliable way for newcomers to find people to paddle with safely.
Contacts
Tell us your weight, height, where you expect to paddle and how you would transport a board, and we will have two or three sensible options pumped up and waiting. Test paddles are best booked for the morning, when the water is usually flattest.
Repairs can be dropped in any day; urgent holiday repairs are prioritised.