About Time: You Tried Paddleboard Yoga in PaddingtonBy Gemma Perlin
Yoga fads come and go. Bikram, Voga, Aerial… You name it, London has it. I say: you have to take these trends with a severe pinch of yogic salt.
SUP yoga is different. It is scientifically proven that exercising outside is better for you; it makes you more relaxed, happy and rosy cheeked. Plus balancing on a paddleboard the size of a surfboard really wakes up those ever elusive deep core muscles – for more information about SUP yoga, see here.
So off I went to prove the theory and took to a group lesson of SUP yoga with Jennifer from Purezone on the Paddington basin.
New Yorkers wouldn’t bat an eyelid to wearing a bikini on a paddle board in a downward dog in the middle of Paddington, but Londoners, well Londoners, might jeer and take photos.
But I am pleased to report that, in my karmic state, myself and the man in my class with oh-so-tiny speedos on a cool September afternoon didn’t let it intrude our bubble.
You don’t fall in. Not unless you want to. And About Time wouldn’t recommend it. Paddington Basin is not quite the Mediterranean.
It’s a wholly different experience to a normal yoga class. You don’t get as deep into the stretch, the fear of the basin certainly held us back, but it’s the floating, the drifting, the new perspective of London that made me feel lighter and more free.
Yogis often discuss their savasana – the ending of yoga practice, the unwinding, the lying down. It’s seen as equally important to the physical practice. Well, I had the best savasana of my life lying on a paddle board with my fingers trailing in the water, staring at the greyish (yes it was still Paddington) sky. For this reason alone, I predict that outdoor, water yoga is far more than just a fad for 2014.
We would recommend following it up with some vegan cheesecake round the corner at Nama. Perfect.