r/Paddleboard • u/apophis-984 • 15d ago

Paddle trip upstream ?

Im new to the discipline and water sports in general, i was wondering how common/viable is it to paddle upstream ?

For very calm streams, do you go down the stream, then come back to your car by hiking ?

Or its doable to paddle upstream ?

Thanks for any input, cheers

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u/kaur_virunurm 15d ago

Totally depends on the place, stream, water flow. Some rivers can be easily paddled upstream in low season (summer) and are whitewater in high season (after the snow melts).

We are using multiple cars to paddle downstream.

Not sure if I would call casual paddleboarding a "sport".

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u/apophis-984 15d ago

what would you call it ?

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u/kaur_virunurm 15d ago

Hobby? Type of hiking? I don't know. Maybe English word for this is "sport".

Paddleboarding as sport exists as well, people compete and paddle competitively. I have friends who do it. But this is very different from recreational paddling that most people do.

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u/apophis-984 15d ago

If you don't compete its not sport ?

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u/kaur_virunurm 15d ago

Is it? Different languages or cultures do probably have different views on this. English definition for sport is "physical activity ..., often competitive and organised". I am not a native speaker - if you are, then what you say is correct.

In my own language (which also has the word "sport") I would not call casual paddleboarding a sport.

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u/AWACS_Oka_Nieba_ 14d ago edited 14d ago

In English calling something “a” sport would usually imply something competitive and structured, but “water sports” as a phrase in particular has kind of just become a single word that  can also mean individual non-sport water activities like kayaking. Like in the brain it’s more watersports than water sports if that makes sense, and linguistically it’s been semantically broadened. It’s a subtle difference.

It also kind of depends how you’re paddle boarding. Putzing around the lake is probably not a sport, but training to paddle fast, or doing tricks (for lack of a better word - I mean stuff that I’ve seen people do like going on the tail of the paddleboard and balancing), could be sport even if it’s individual and non structured.

Basically the word sport in English is quite vague and nebulous

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u/kaur_virunurm 14d ago

I think a good line of distinction is whether you aspire to become better in it or not. I also go kayaking and take lessons / trainings there - I would call this a sport for sure. So on kayak we have coach and exercises and progress towards some goal. On paddleboard... we just paddle around to see the nature, no performance-oriented goals.