Paddle Boarding in Cancun With 360 Surf School

Stand-up paddle boarding (SUP) in Cancun is a relatively new phenomenon, but it's growing fast -- and for good reason. It's one of the few sports where you can go from a total beginner to a highly competent practitioner within a single outing. With any athletic ability, coupled with a reasonable sense of balance, most people progress quickly from feeling like they are walking on marbles, to gliding along with ease, and keeping a steady pace.

In fact, paddle boarding is so simple that the view and surrounding scenery quickly become much more the focus than the actual mechanics of controlling your board--and that's a good thing. This is why paddle boarding in Cancun is so rewarding. If done in the right place, at the right time of day, and with the right group, there is simply no better way to enjoy a combination of amazing landscapes, colorful fish, soaring birds and nature at its finest, all while enjoying the company of your friends and family.

Cancun's 360 Surf School offers its standard SUP tours just minutes from the heart of the main hotel zone, in a tucked-away mangrove region of the Nichupte Lagoon, which is sheltered from the open Caribbean Sea by the island of Cancun. It offers calm waters, mangrove tunnels and hidden pathways that only the experienced guides know how to navigate.

To maintain a feeling of calm and control, the company keeps its groups very small, so everyone has the attention and assistance they need to have a great day on the water. For beginners, a few minutes of one-on-one help is given to teach the basics, and soon, everyone is on their board and ready for fun. The pace is slow and relaxed -- it's always more about the journey than it is getting somewhere fast. In fact, it seems that the slower you go, the more you see.

And there is plenty to see! On a good day, the waters of Nichupte Lagoon are gin-clear, affording amazing views of stingrays, jack fish, barracuda, puffer fish, tarpon and even several sunken boats, most of which have been lost in a series of hurricanes that has struck the area in the last 20 years. The firm's employees, and other groups in the area, help to keep the area clean and litter-free and it really takes on the vibe of a natural aquarium, where you become part of the environment, rather feeling like an outsider gazing inside.

The 360 Surf School also offers SUP excursions in Puerto Morelos, Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Isla Mujeres, by special appointment. Or for something even more athletic, they even offer surfing lessons and surf outings, with their "if you don't stand up, you don't pay" policy for beginners.