My SUP story has some twists and turns much like other things in my life. I have been SUPing for just short of 1 year - not long but enough time to establish a successful coaching busness in Cronulla which is a coastal area in Sydney, Australia. If you had told me a year ago that I would be in this position now I would have laughed it off without another thought.

    I came into SUP after a long history of surfing and other extreme sports like vert skating, skiing, snowboarding and boxing. I have surfed forever but about a year ago I found myself in a bad place - sitting on my lounge feeling sorry for myself. I'm only 38 but doctors told me I had the body of a 60 year old and that there was not much I could do about it. Over the years I had accumulated a lot of hospital time from more than 10 broken bones - many of those serious with mobilty restrictions. The most serious was a fracture disclocation of 3 vertabrae in my neck - an out of bounds skiing accident that I was lucky to survive that took me 1.5 years to recover from.

This older injury was combining with a newer injury to make surfing too painful to contemplate. About 2 years ago I was vert skating and came unstuck in a concrete bowl and came down awkwardly on my right leg to see it fold beneath me - my tibia and fibula snapped like a tree branch.

The looks on the kids faces at the skatepark said it all - the leg was bent at right anges with ivory bone and blood coming out of the wound. The leg is ok now after more operations and 3 months in an external frame, though I cannot run or jump and when I surf I often cannot stand because the foot drags and is not in time with the rest of my body.

    So I thought I'd give SUP a go - at the time the choice was based on the small amount of options that were available given my injuries. So I did some research and bought a Paddle Surf Hawaii 10ft all rounder - the retailer was reluctant to sell it to me as it was too small for my 90kg frame. However I was looking for a challenge and after a couple of sessions in the bay I launched it in the surf - small 2 ft waves.

    In that first session a lot of things happened - I fell off a lot but at the same time I caught a few waves and to my suprise I even pulled off a really neat cutback - I was totally hooked. From that day until now I have that ridden that same board almost everyday, throughout winter, paddled to the outside reefs in Cronulla, Hyatt Reef in Sanur Bali and also my favourate surf spot of all time - Nihiwatu in Sumba, Indonesia where I was able to get the 10fter into some nice barrels.

    I am getting more waves than ever, surfing distant reefs alone and my injuries have never felt better. My bad leg has got incredibly stronger, especially around the ankle near the break and surrounding scar tissue. Also, because I am standing all the time the arthritis in my neck is bearable even after marathon 4 hour surf sessions. However the SUP fairy was also able to give me more still - it gave me job. A few months ago I was retrenched from by job of 11 years - I was a Brand Manager at Johnson & Johnson. So I saw the opportunity to set up a local SUP coaching business called PaddleTrainer.com.

    Check out my website at www.paddletrainer.com (just copy and paste this to your web browser). The business is going great and is now earning enough to pay the mortgage and a little bit more. So I'm stoked - it's the best job in the world - I get to watch people have fun and pass on the special thrill of SUP.

    Most of my clients are young women but I also have a lot of couples and even families. Everyone loves the gentle nature of the exercise and the ease to which they can balance and get around on the flat water. I have also taken my first non-surfer girl out in the surf last week and watched her SUP surf her first wave - she was so excited.

    I'm now looking for a winter posting for PaddleTrainer.com as watersport activity really dies off in Australia in the winter months (May to October). I'd be happy to hear from anybody in the world who would like to look after me this winter - from May to October. I can freight my 5 boards and paddles or happy to just offer my accredited coaching services to an already established business. Just send me an email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Thanks

Michael

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