Half of Germany paddles

Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen - Trends that people chase after like lemmings are a thorn in the side of Markus Stoll, alias Harry G. Racing cyclists, campers, mountain hikers, Kitzbühel tourists, Wiesn visitors - the cabaret artist has already astutely dissected them all and their quirks in his videos. Stoll also drew a species through the cocoa that this Corona summer was spreading almost as slowly on the local lakes as the virus did in the world: the stand-up paddler who was meanwhile on his “inflatable wallpapering table” over “everyone "Froschweiher" is sailing.

But even if Harry G doesn't like it: Stand-up paddling, or SUP for short, is booming. Doctors recommend it as a perfect full-body workout, and even those who are not fundamentally wary of water suddenly find pleasure in gliding contemplatively on the slim board over lakes and rivers. The result: customers are literally tearing the boards out of the hands of sports retailers in the region.

“We're currently sold out,” says Jörg Pietschmann, one of the two managing directors of Intersport Reiser in Wolfratshausen. The specialist shop sells and rents SUP boards. In July he received another delivery of around 30 boards, says specialist dealer Pietschmann, "they were sold out within a week".

Boards are sold out in many places

Pietschmann's colleague Rudi Utzinger, owner of the Intersport shop of the same name in Geretsried, had the right nose and ordered enough boards during the temporary peak of the Corona crisis, including the Intersport house brand Firefly, which offers "a good price-performance ratio" . Utzinger can even currently satisfy the customers' hunger for the hotly traded boards - in the store itself as in his online shop. "We opened up a couple of supply channels."

While many holidaymakers spontaneously bought a board from Pietschmann “to ride it on Lake Starnberg”, Utzinger mainly has customers “between the ages of 20 and 60” who have been SUPing for years. For the Geretsrieder dealer, paddling on the board has long since grown up, "and not just a passing fad".

Dariusz Wallusch runs the water sports center in St. Heinrich on Lake Starnberg. He and his team teach windsurfing, sailing and stand-up paddling, and they also lend the appropriate equipment. 30 rental boards are waiting for customers for 15 euros an hour. “It's going well,” says Wallusch, but admits that he rents a little less than before. The reason is simple: “Many, especially the locals, now have their own board.” The course groups are also smaller than three or four years ago. At that time, the hype about stand-up paddling was just starting. But, the water sports professional concludes, "with the beautiful weather at the moment and now during the holiday season, there is already a lot going on".

It is precisely this hustle and bustle on the lakes that worries Friedl Krönauer. Unfortunately, SUP athletes in search of nature and solitude often paddle into the reeds and thus into the breeding and resting areas of animals. There are studies on "that birds perceive a person standing on a board as a threat from a distance of 200 meters," says the district chairman of the Bund Naturschutz. In general, the Kochler has nothing against water sports and especially SUPing, as long as everyone approached the matter with “common sense”. “Unfortunately, that's not always the case.” In order to sensitize people to the topic, Krönauer is thinking about getting together with dealers and distributors - he sees them as important multipliers. "We must and will do something in that direction."

Without a 15-minute basic instruction, nobody can get on the water with me.

Markus Schambeck is someone who stands for sustainable stand-up paddling in the district. The Benediktbeurer lends ten boards at the Kochelsee from Friday to Sunday during the season. But: "I won't get on the water without a 15-minute briefing." Schambeck explains the equipment, how SUP works technically and what you should pay attention to on the lake with regard to shipping, fishing and nature conservation. They have to sign that their customers have understood everything and are adhering to it. Often, as practice has taught him, his SUPers now serve as amplifiers on the water by pointing out other athletes to prohibited zones.

The Benediktbeurer is also skeptical of the current SUP boom. The market is flooded with "plastic boards at low prices from discounters or hardware stores" that "usually have little to do" with a high-quality board. “A lot of people buy something like this”, not knowing whether it fits their height and weight. “It's basically a very nice sport,” says Schambeck - and thus contradicts Harry G. For the comedian, all paddlers are and remain “Zwetschgenmanderl” who “look slightly reserved as if they had been peeing for an hour eat away ".

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