Introducing ASI SUP Instructor, Stephen O'Hara

SWITZERLAND. An advanced, enjoyable, and innovative way of delivering holistic education through SUP; Stephen O’Hara, Director of Co-Curricular Activities at Collège Beau Soleil in the Swiss alps, discusses the many strengths of bringing SUP sessions to physical education.

Beau Soleil is proudly ASI accredited with a particular focus on outdoor education using the mountain, lakes, and expansive surroundings as a classroom. SUP not only keeps the students engaged, but also is beneficial in teaching confidence, teamwork, resilience, and a number of other highly valuable life lessons.

Stephen shares some insight with us below…

Tell us a bit about College Alpin Beau Soleil

It is a mixed full boarding international school caring for just under 300 students from ages 11 to 18. Our focus is to deliver the world’s best holistic education. We have students from around 54 nationalities which brings us an incredible variety of cultures. One of our main strengths is in outdoor education and using the mountain, lakes and local surrounding as our class room. We want our students to be as successful as possible both in and out of the classroom hence why we also deliver paddleboarding as part of the curriculum.

Why did you introduce SUP to your curriculum?

We use paddle boarding as a skill to develop confidence, risk taking, team work, resilience and many more attributes. Students learn about the health and safety involved to ensure they can then go on to paddle with their friends and family in a safe but fun manner. We are now exploring the idea of delivering the SUP Level 1 to students via the online system so they have a physical qualification for when they leave school and could use it for employment if they chose, we also do this with our winter sports programme and ski instructing.
 

Why did you become an ASI accredited school?

The structure is excellent, it gives clear and strong operating procedures, help and assistance if ever needed, training and further development and generally helps us to work and deliver lessons as a world class facility.

What do your students enjoy most about SUP?

Usually they love water games, we bring a lot of what we do in normal PE lessons into SUP sessions i.e competition, analysis, team work etc, which results in a lot of fun on the water. Recently we have been doing several SUP expeditions where the students have to plan, pack and then complete a two day and one night expedition on the lakes here in Switzerland. They must carry their tents, cooking equipment and food too in their deck bags! They love the challenge and novelty of doing a journey on a SUP. We even rafted a few together in May on Lake Gruyere and set up a sailing rig with paddles tied together!
 

Tell us about an interesting situation that has happened during a SUP session?

Probably the trip which I mentioned above, 2 days and one night on Lake Gruyere. Visiting castles, jumping off bridges, cooking, camping, cleaning, swimming all in an incredible location.

Anything else you would like to add?

We really want to explore the idea of qualifying our students as L1 instructors so they have a tangible skill which they could use straight away. This gives the students responsibility and teaches them real life skills to interact with a client while ensuring a fun but safe session is delivered. Hopefully we can make it work!
 

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Thanks to Stephen for sharing some of the benefits of SUP as an educational tool and his experience with ASI! 

If you'd like to find out more about where your ASI certifications can take you, then click here to find out how you can get started.