Mission Bay Watersports

My husband and I arranged for a 90 minute SUP lesson during our Auckland holiday. We had Rebecca as our instructor and there were only 3 of us for the lesson so it was basically a private session! Rebecca was so nice and very knowledgeable. She competes and is very proficient at SUP! We had never done it before so were a bit nervous and had no idea what we were doing but by the end of the session we felt very confident and were having a blast! What we really liked about the lesson was that Rebecca didn’t tell us everything all at once — she focused on one thing at a time. For instance, we learned our stance and how to stand up. And then once everyone had accomplished that, she told us to keep our arms straight while we paddled. After a bit of trying that, she told us to put our body into the strokes, etc. Had she told us all of that at once it would have been very overwhelming but instead she set us all up for success on the paddle board. Because they weren’t busy that day we were able to have an extended time on the paddle board and were able to go out on our own! If you are even thinking of trying SUP, I would highly recommend doing it and booking with Mission Bay!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I had such a great time! This place is so much fun! Whether you’re an Auckland native or a tourist. This place is a must! I can’t believe I haven’t done this earlier. Do I sound too enthusiastic? But seriously. Do it.
Instructors here are AWESOME! Great demonstration, very interactive people. We took the 90min lesson so they were constantly around and giving us tips on how to become better paddle boarders. You get to paddle around Mission Bay, and I suppose if you aren’t doing the lesson and have more time, you could paddle to St Heliers bay if confident: two beaches down and back.
The equipment they use are a mixture: My life jacket looked pretty old, but the board I was on was quite new. Nonetheless, all good quality. I fell in the water 5 times, and was still afloat so I have nothing to complain about!
I am definitely gonna hit this up again before summer ends!
Things I would note:
–Don’t forget to slip, slop, slap and wrap! I ended up buying $ 10 sunnies from the convenience store because I didn’t wanna get seawater on my Raybans! So that’s an option.
–Kids must be over 8. Under 16’s must have adult supervision.
–You can chuck your belongings in their trailer which is well-​looked after while you are out on the water.

I really love do anything water sports related, and I was keen for my partner and I to get active so I booked us both in for an hour session of paddle boarding down at beautiful Mission Bay.
Showed up on a weekend day about 1 pm, and met with the Water sports team Ollie and Charlie, on quite a windy day, they were not too sure if as beginner paddle boarders we would have a lot of fun, with a swell running and the water choppy.
I was given the choice to either re book another day or take the risk and try it out; I decided to give it a go.
The staffs were super supportive and welcomed the motion, and about ½ an hour later we were set up with life jackets, paddles and boards.
With some precautions to take and some advice about how to paddle, we were sent on our way with a kind wave.
Surely was a workout, and had heaps of fun paddling out, falling of a few times and gliding back in smoothly.
Great views, awesome fun and a must try for all those water babies.