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La Manga, two seas for SUP (13/08/2013)

Starboard Blend SUP board, Cala del Pino, La Manga

SUP (Stand Up Paddle) is a gliding sport on water, consisting in paddling while standing up on a surf board. 

Known to the Polynesians for more than 500 years, SUP made a comeback in the early 1960s in Hawaii, when Waikiki surf instructors, standing on their boards and propelled by a one-bladed paddle, assisted tourists in learning to surf. As a modern sport, SUP, also known as paddle surf, has become popular from 2000 on, spreading around the world. Thus, the 2nd Spain's SUP Championship was held in 2009 in the place I am, La Manga, on the south east coast of Spain, within the Murcia Region. 

Map of La Manga and its two seas
Image: Cartomur. Modified by Antonio Martínez "Xaloc"

La Manga is a seaside spit, a 24 km long sandbar spreading in south-north direction, from Cabo de Palos to El Mojón. With a variable width between 100 and 1000 metres, it's bathed along its entire length by two water bodies: to the east, the Mediterranean Sea; to the west, the hypersaline lagoon known as Mar Menor, with 135 km2 and a maximum depth of 7 metres, that is connected with the open sea by several inlets. 

Nowadays, and despite having suffered irreversible landscape alterations after 50 years of systematic urbanisation, La Manga, with 3000 hours of sunshine per year, mild temperatures and its double waterfront, is an exceptional year-round SUP destination: we can begin our SUP trip on the Mar Menor, that offers us undeep and usually flat waters, ideal for beginners; and when we like, we disembark on the closest beach and, carrying our board under our arm, we walk about 200 metres, crossing Central Avenue to reach the Mediterranean, that offers us choppier waters, being exposed to the east wind. Where else could we do it?

La Manga's two seas are waiting for you!

If La Manga is a magnificent scenario for SUP, this sport, environmentally friendly and reflecting the aloha kai (love of the sea, an essential value among the ancient Hawaiians), seems to be made for La Manga: its two seas have suffered enough from the Sixties and they need ways of entertainment compatible with their natural wealth care. 

Sunset in La Manga: the Mar Menor and Barón island

With this blog I intend to show you my SUP trips on La Manga's two seas, sharing with you beaches where you don't need to get up early to put your towel down, the touching spectacle of sunrise on the Mediterranean and sunset on the Mar Menor, islands of legends, the sound of the paddle diving into the water, the screams of seagulls and little terns, a thousand and one interesting things about this exceptional place. La Manga is waiting for you. Don’t forget your SUP board!