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New Head Instructors: Tina and Mariah
Let’s welcome Tina and Mariah as the newest Stand-Up Paddleboard Instructors! They have been trained by Rainbow Watersports Instructor, Jodi, with emphasize on safety and family fun. Both have been stand-up paddling for years on the North Shore and absolutely love it, so they are super eager to share it with all of you this summer!!
Tina specializes in not only SUP instructing, but also speaking Japanese. She was born and raised on the North Shore and her dad is a pro photographer and her mom is a pro body boarder.. and when we say pro we mean #1 IN THE WORLD!!! Wow, no wonder Tina is so good at all the water sports including body board, SUP, short board, and long board, Tina does it all!
Mariah loves surfing and body boarding, and loves life even more! She moved to Hawaii 2 years ago to challenge her sport abilities and to meet as many wonderful people as possible. She started out as a swim instructor after competing in the top 10 girls in a State- wide competition for the event Butterfly. She has been coaching and instructing since and loves to share her knowledge. You won’t stop smiling when you have Mariah as an instructor on the Anahulu River
We are so happy to have these two wonderful girls join our team for Summer FUN at the Haleiwa Bay!!
Need a Quick Map of the North Shore of Oahu?
It’s easy to get to the North Shore of Oahu, and here’s a quick map of the North Shore. Just cruise up Route 99 through the pineapple fields and feel the fresh ocean air flood your car as you descend down to Haleiwa. Rainbow Watersports is easy to find located at the Haleiwa Beach Park. You’ll see the Rainbow van painted with a HUGE rainbow on the site. Enjoy your trip to the North Shore!
Open Group Stand Up Paddle Lessons Now Available!
Rainbow Watersports is known for its personalized customer service: “We paddle when You want to go” “Your lesson is customized for your needs and wants” “Tell us where you want to paddle and we’ll do it” and, for the Coastal Adventure, we even pay particular attention to food preferences for lunch.
In short, Paddler is King.
Ironically, it is for this same reason that we are now including Open Group Stand Up Paddle Lessons. Paddlers have been asking for it, so now it is available, Monday through Saturday at 10:30am. You will still receive 2 full hours of instruction and paddling, now at a rate of $69/pp. Class size is limited; for River Course only.
Even better, our Private Group Stand Up Paddle Lessons are STILL available, and always will be! If you desire to paddle with just you or just your personal group and an instructor, this is where it’s at. Get even more personalized attention and focus on your stand up paddling skills for just a few dollars more.
You can book either lesson online (and receive a free Logo bumper sticker!) or give us a call at 1-800-470-4964
See you in the water!
Stand Up Paddling Fin-less
It’s summertime, time to take the family on the road on the mainland! We have cruised through some beautiful countryside, and most significantly, been around the most important people in the world: Family. However, every day Nate and I are reminiscing of stand up paddling, something much more rare on this western desert land. As it is now race season, our muscles are aching to get back in the water!
Besides “mind-paddling”, we’ve had our tease of paddling, from happening upon a river stand up paddle school in the middle of Southern Colorado on the Colorado river, and a lone paddler stroking the waters of the Natoma river in Sacramento. But after weeks of not doing what we love to do, we just HAD to get on a board.
We were stoked to find out that the Aquatics center at the lake in Sacramento rented stand up paddle boards, so we went out to check them out. “Just pick one up from behind the building,” I was told by the lady behind the counter. Sounded easy enough, and my eager heart began dancing and I hummed to myself, “I’m going paaadling, I’m going paaadling!” The music in my head stopped suddenly when I pulled out the longest aluminum paddle (you know, the ones that make your hands black?) with a straight blades, measuring no more than 5 feet tall. “Okay, I thought. Wierd, but doable.” But then I found that all the “stand up paddle boards” they had available were windsurfing boards with no fins –no fins!! Where were the fins?
Fins make the board steady and stable and also cause the board to turn when needed, so I knew this must have been a mistake. I looked around the bay area, and there were no fins or boards with fins to be found, or even anyone there to help. In my overzealousness to get paddling, I decided to at least set the board in the water anyway, and off I went like a drunkard on a helter-skelter course toward our family on the shore.
Once I got to shore, Nate took one of the kids’ beach shovel and shoved it right through the hole for the wind sail, which at least made it better than no fin at all. Perhaps a good moral to the story is, “When life don’t give you a fin, make one.” We made the best of what we had and had a good time anyway. When I returned the poor excuse for a stand up paddle board later, I was told “that’s just the way (their) boards are: a few have fins but most don’t. Besides, they’re unsteady anyway”. Seriously. It was good to be out on the water again, but boy, I am all the more grateful for Rainbow Watersports’ commitment to high quality instruction, and proper equipment. And I’ll bet you are too.
Stand Up Paddle Hats Now Available!
For years our paddlers have been asking for some sort of cool way to show off their paddling experience with Rainbow Watersports, and now it’s finally here!
After your lesson you can pick one of these up and wear it around town. These plucky duds will soon be available for purchase on our website, but if you just can’t wait, shoot me an email and I’ll send one your way! All hats are embroidered right here in Oahu by ourfriends at North Shore Embroidery, and are some of the best quality hats around. Hey, only the best for our paddlers!!
Let us know which is your favorite by voting on our facebook page!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rainbow-Watersports-Adventures-Stand-Up-Paddle-Lessons/263081183887
True Blue Visor: Nate’s Favorite
License Plate Hat – Just like a Hawaiian license plate, but oh so much more comfortable! – Rohan’s Favorite
(*SUP = Stand Up Paddle) We also have SUP GRL and SUP
Our Logo Hats — Hey, we’ve GOTTA have a Rainbow assortment!!!! – Heidi’s Favorite
Rainbow Watersports has a new look!
We are SO EXCITED about Rainbow Watersports’ new look — most especially, our new logo!
To us, it encompasses what Rainbow is all about — having an all-out good time while surrounded by beauty.
Now that our logo is complete, our van has had a makeover as well.
Thanks to Grace, one of our instructors, for giving the van a touch-up with a kickin’ bright blue! What do you think?!? Remember to be a fan “Rainbow Watersports VAN” Facebook page!
Keepin’ it Clean
The Anahulu Stream is a good, all American stream. Kids jumping off the bridge or swinging off rope swings or just swimming around remind you what fun streams can be. It is a clean, beautiful, lush river, and sets the stage for our North Shore lessons. For one and a half years, we have sponsored monthly clean ups of the bank of the Anahulu stream. In recent years, before we began teaching paddling, the river was used very infrequently by outrigger canoe clubs and crabbers. We restored it to its past beauty and cleared the banks so well that we got to a point where there was nothing left to clean. When we’re just hanging around at the beach between lessons, we’re picking up litter to keep the shore clean.
It’s a good feeling. The river and the shoreline’s cleanliness and beauty is being enjoyed by plenty of people. And with the recent heavy rainfall and floods, we were back again to do a little clean-up. Some fish netting, hose, a couple of plastic bags later, and the stream is once again back to beautiful. It’s our way of giving thanks to the river and the land we love.
Stand Up Paddle World Tour is back again!
Always a sight to see, the Stand Up Paddle World Tour graced our shores for its 4th year. It is awesome to see where this sport is going, and what can be done on a stand up! I remember when we first began paddling there were only a handful of us “Sup-pers” on the North Shore. Back then, people outside Hawaii didn’t think a stand up paddle board could stand up against big waves. Look at us now!
This brings me back to when our very own Nate Burgoyne entered and CHARGED in the World Tour trials in 2009 — Way to represent!!
Stand Up Paddlers Graced by Rainbows
The other day I was skating back from the bay when I was struck by a Nature Euphoria — something that happens more often on Hawaii than perhaps any other place. A Nature Euphoria is when you experience something in nature that is so fascinating you must immediately stop what you are doing and just soak in the moment.
A full, double rainbow lit up an otherwise grey sky from one end of the bay, across the river mouth, to the other end of the boat harbor, brightening up the boats and greenery below. Just beautiful. Jodi was out stand up paddling with a group and (lucky ducks) said they got to paddle right into the rainbow.
Living in the Rainbow State, we see rainbows all the time. There’s something about stand up paddling on the water with a rainbow up above that seems to put life’s troubles at bay.
Welcoming the Newest Member of the Rainbow Watersports Ohana
Kalani Soul joined our ohana earlier this month!
Soul is ready to “get his feet wet” as the newest member of the Rainbow Watersports team! Soul comes to us with an already impressive resume — even though he is less than a month old!
His accomplishments include placing in the top four in several stand up paddle races, charging waves SUP style, and serving as a good luck Buddha belly for well-wishing fellow paddlers — all en utero.
Pretty soon he’ll be out in the water on his own — watch out stand up paddle world!