Introducing Natasha, SUP Instructor from Adelaide

Australia.  Natasha Harper is an ASI SUP Instructor based in Adelaide, South Australia.  She took up paddling late in life, loved it and become an ASI instructor.

What’s not to love about the best job in the world!  says Natasha.   We find out more about her and what she is doing now.

What is your background?

I grew up in Adelaide, South Australia, under the sun with the beach as my backdrop and always had a love of the ocean. I spent most of my 20s and 30s working and traveling the globe.

After many years working in diverse fields from cheffing, nannying, and a decade in finance in London I came back to Adelaide at the end of 2011, treasuring being back near the coast, working as an office and events manager for a conservation charity.

What got you involved in the sport?

I came to standuUp paddling late.  A few years after my return to Australia I decided that I was going to learn to surf, for my 40th.  I’m Australian, I should know how to surf!  But I kept seeing stand up paddlers out on the ocean when I was out walking along the beach.

It looked so much fun that I decided to give that a try instead.   After my first lesson I was hooked, even despite the amount of times I fell in.  But I did have a great instructor (though I have to say that, he’s now my boss haha).

I have since taken up SUP surfing, need to keep practicing.

Why did you become an ASI Instructor?

I was always hanging around Stand Up Paddle SA at Seacliff.  In the first year I was hiring out boards in all weathers. I’m a dog with a bone until I’ve mastered a new skill.  I would try all their different sized boards and going out in all conditions to work on my skills/balance. Until eventually buying my first (not my last) board.

One year I started helping out under the big tent with hires. I think they just got sick of the sight of me and thought I might as well be useful.

I loved seeing everyone come through and go from hesitation and apprehension to pure joy and love of the sport after just an hour on the water.  So I signed up to do the ASI course and be qualified to teach. I love passing on my love of the sport/ocean to all ages/abilities, plus who gets to have a better ‘office’ than this?

What are you doing now?

After redundancy from the office job at the end of 2019, I decided to take a year off from the daily grind and have more time to SUP/teach.

I started planning to go to my bucket-list destinations of Norway/Sweden/Denmark with the intent to paddle the fjords and try to find some ASI work and 2020 being the last year pre Brexit that I had the opportunity to work there.  But Covid-19 soon put the brakes on that dream. I’ll get there one day, even just for a holiday.

After a 2020 year of staying local, lots of baking, social-distancing paddles, and time in the garden, I’ve kicked off 2021 with a sea-change and I’m currently in the process of qualifying as an Austswim instructor.  If I’m not teaching people skills on the water, I’ll be teaching them skills in the water.

What do you like about being an ASI instructor?

What’s not to love about the best job in the world!

Being outdoors all day, in the changing elements – no day is the same, teaching people how to be safe and enjoy a great sport.

Helping people break through their barriers and fears, of falling in; balance; sharks; the unknown; no coordination, and watching their elation on mastering a new skill and loving the sport.

I’ve taught all types of people on the spectrums from excited to apprehension, athletic to uncoordinated, young to old[er], but I’ve never had someone finish a lesson hating their experience.

There’s never a bad day at work.

If the weather turns, we pack up and the staff hit the local wineries. The world-famous McLaren Vale wine region is only 20 mins away.

How has COVID changed things - where or how you deliver sessions?

We’ve been extremely lucky here in South Australia with very limited cases and the Ozzie season’s running in our favour thru the pandemic. Last summer season ended slightly earlier, in March 2020. It’s not lost on me how lucky I am to have had only experienced 3 days of hard-lockdown in 2020.

When the season started up again at the end of 2020, SA has had strict national/state and international restrictions and we’ve not had the normal holiday clients come through, but with most Adelaidians stay-cationing there’s been more local clientele.

Being based on a beach, with lots of space, we are able to provide safe, social-distanced SUPping. Additionally our state’s health dept. launched a QR-code venue check-in, to assist with contact-tracing if/when needed, which we provide onsite.

I did feel sorry for the kids of a local school when we’d taken out a group of them one day and had a fantastic experience. But the kids scheduled to come the next day got cancelled with the school pulling out due to rule changes implemented overnight. I’m sure we’ll get them out on the water soon.

Tell us about funny or interesting or nice situation that has happened to you with instructing?

It’s always wonderful to watch students get excited when we’re out and wildlife joins in, especially if the dolphins gate-crash class, or the resident eagle-rays/fiddler-rays glide under the boards in the shallows.(I’m dubbed the dolphin-whisperer).

My own excitement never wains either, no matter how many times I see them.

 

Do you want to become an ASI SUP Instructor?  It’s the best job in the world.  
Find out more..

 

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About ASI
ASI is a professional membership and training organisation and international governing body for instructors, coaches and schools in the outdoor recreation industry for surfing, stand up paddle and bodyboarding.

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