Safety and Rescue Courses

Free education courses from NZ SUP to help you be a safer paddleboarder.

Stand up paddleboarding may seem like a very safe sport , yet every year hundreds of paddleboarders end up getting into trouble, getting rescued – and tragically, sometimes the story does not end well. It almost always comes down to education – those paddlers getting into trouble were missing some critical knowledge. Hence these courses. The information here may may well end up saving your life!

The courses are completely free, and you can spend as long as you like working through the lessons.

SUP SAFE – Understanding your safety equipment

This course covers leashes, PFDs, communications equipment and what you’re wearing. What you should be using and why, broken down into bite-sized chunks, drilling deep into the complexities and issues to give you the full story and assist you in making the best decisions on what gear will be best for you. The course will take about 2.5 hours to complete. Click here to take the course, or see more details.


SUP SAFE – Understanding the environment

In this course we focus on weather and water conditions. Understanding them is a vital aspect of SUP safety, as is knowing how to find out what is forecast. Click here to take the course, or see more details.


Coming soon:

SUP SAFE – What to do when things go wrong

SUP RESCUE – how to assist another person in trouble in the water