What are tips do you have to allow people to (get in to) Stand Up Paddle for less?
How should we best spend our hard earned?
What stuff makes a good thing great?

Tell them to buy a surfboard instead, its cheaper and requires more skill

Find someone you can borrow from for a few sessions till you get the basics down. Start with a decent paddle and find board used for cheap. Right now in my neck of the woods you can get a good used board for as low as $500 US if you hunt around for a while.

Find a SUP rental place and make them an offer for their used gear at the end of the year when they are upgrading.

You can turn a pretty ropey old adjustable paddle into a useable fixed length paddle that is usefully lighter by chopping off the adjustment part, reducing the length of the adjustable insert shaft and then gluing it altogether. Adjustables are pretty horrid to use because they take on water which adds to weight, wobble at the join etc, so unless you really need it to be adjustable, you are much better off making it a fixie. Yet most beginners seem to persevere with an adjustable long after they really need to. So, get out the hacksaw and upgrade your paddle for free :)

Craigslist! Watch it like a hawk for good deals to pop up.

You can pick up a half decent second hand surfboard for under $200. Plus you won't have the inconvenience of a paddle nor will you have to wear a flappy hat or boardies on the outside of your wetsuit!

Why do people wear boardies outside their wetsuits? Is it because they are worried that people will see how small their equipment is?

You can't kite without bordies over your wetsuit. It's a rule.

Select to expand quote

And then said..
What are tips do you have to allow people to (get in to) Stand Up Paddle for less?
How should we best spend our hard earned?
What stuff makes a good thing great?

Q1 Recycle an old windsurfer.
Q2 A carbon name brand paddle.
Q3 Same as Q2

Select to expand quote

PaulyOS said...
Tell them to buy a surfboard instead, its cheaper and requires more skill

On a sup you won't find a many wankers
You can see why sharks bite some surfers

Select to expand quote

Area10 said..
Why do people wear boardies outside their wetsuits? Is it because they are worried that people will see how small their equipment is?

Yep.and the shape of their arse.