Holly Bassett comes from a family of watersports fanatics. She got her first taste of windsurfing aged just three, when she hitched a ride on the front of her dad’s board. With a childhood spent on the water, it’s safe to say she knows a thing or two about most board sports…
Now aged 25, Holly Bassett is a professional SUP Surfer and Paddleboard Coach, often found as part of the beach team at 2XS on West Wittering Beach, West Sussex – a watersports centre owned and run by her parents for over 30 years.
Her family’s involvement in paddleboarding has been extensive. Dad Simon was one of the first paddlesurfers in the UK. A co-founder of BSUPA, he went on to the design the BSUPA teaching scheme and remains closely involved as Joint Head Coach and Chairman, as well as writing a book Stand Up Paddleboarding: A Beginners Guide, published by Fernhurst. Meanwhile Mum Jane has used her love of board sports to travel the world, and now heads up the online retail arm of 2XS.
And it doesn’t stop there. Incredibly, Holly’s grandparents are both still regularly out on the water, windsurfing and paddleboarding – her grandad is 85; yep, you read that right – 85! Her younger sister Daisy is currently a Windsurf Instructor working in Greece.
Holly says: “I think it’s really nice for us as a family as we all have that shared love; there is a lot of love for being in the water and being around the people who do that, we all really love that.”
With three generations of her family mad about watersports, it’s little wonder then that Holly was hooked from an early age; she recalls her first love – windsurfing – and her delight at getting her first board complete with 0.8m sail at the age of four.
Making the switch from windsurfing to paddleboarding
With her Dad an early adopter of paddleboarding when the sport first hit the UK in the early 2000s, Holly was naturally curious and quickly took to the sport, too. Aged 10, she recalls hanging out with her dad and his friends as they got to grips with the new equipment at their watersports club.
Holly says: “I’d always loved windsurfing, and paddleboarding was just a natural progression. I gave it a go and I realised straight away how much I loved it.
“With that came lots of opportunities to have a go at competing and I used to do the annual series of events in the junior division, which I loved. It was something my Dad and I did together.”
Holly was soon juggling GCSEs with international competition, becoming BSUPA Women’s and Junior National SUP WAVE Champion in 2013 and 2014, and earning an invitation to the ISA Stand Up Paddle and Paddleboard World Championships. It was an exciting era in the sport.
Stepping into coaching
The paddleboarding craze has since gone on to sweep the waterways back home, in recent years becoming the fastest growing watersport; Holly is grateful for her involvement with the sport and the opportunities that it has brought, which she says really helped her develop her confidence growing up.
That confidence has carried over into her career as a BSUPA coach; she has been teaching since she was 16 years old. “When you love what you’re doing it is much easier tell people how great it is rather than if you’re not into something, so being able to share what I love doing is great fun.”
Holly also loves teaching paddleboarding for the sheer diversity of people she gets to meet; with many options available – from surfing to touring to racing – the sport is attracting a wide range of people. “What’s brilliant is that everyone can do it – from very young children to adults at a much older age,” she says.
Holly encourages anyone to give paddleboarding a go. “It’s a common misconception that it’s super hard,” she says. “I understand it’s not always easy, but we really can get most ages on a paddleboard successfully – it just takes patience and some good coaching.”
SUP pro secrets – how to use your paddle to help you balance
With her SUP-surf background – where paddling hard and fast to catch waves is key – Holly says that one of her best tips for newcomers is to use the paddle to your advantage, something beginners often don’t realise they can do.
Holly says: “If you get a lesson they will teach you this, but a really nice way to get up and improve your balance is use your paddle to your advantage.
“Once you’re on the board – you should be at the most volumous part of the board which tends to be around where the handle is, and with your feet either side roughly hip width apart – then push your fists onto the deck grip whilst holding the paddle, and lean the paddle blade on the water to use it like a lever. This gives you a tripod position that’s strong and stable so you can get your balance as you stand. If you feel you may fall then slap the paddle on the water to regain that strong position.”
Tips to avoid wobbling on a paddleboard – posture and practice!
“Any time you feel yourself wobbling, slap the paddle on the water,” advises Holly. “You’re in a really nice position there as that puts your centre of mass a bit lower and means you are really sturdy. Remember, if you feel like you’re going to go, just get low. And use those legs to take the compression of the water.”
On that, Holly likens the optimum paddleboarding stance to mountain biking, where “your legs take all the compression, and your body stays relatively still”.
She also suggests that being mindful of your posture when paddleboarding can really help prevent wobbles. “If you’re looking down at the water, you’re more likely to spend a fair bit of time in there!
“So, try to project where you would like to go by having an upright chest, nice and proud. This helps you keep balanced because your weight is naturally then set over your board; you’re not looking over here or there, so you’re less likely to fall over.”
She advises beginners to practise in shallow water where they can build confidence within their depth, ideally with safety cover on hand, and to strongly consider taking lessons. Introducing people to paddlesurfing is her favourite thing to teach, but she says it’s important for people to be confident with the basics first.
Embracing a watersports lifestyle
When she’s not teaching, Holly can often be found wingfoiling, the latest watersports craze which she’s embraced as an exciting new challenge.
Asked whether she could imagine life without watersports, Holly is quick to reply with a “no!” before she goes on: “When I was about 12, I said to my Dad, ‘I’m not sure I want to windsurf any more’. I went and had a few horse-riding lessons, and I quite quickly came back to windsurfing!”
“The water is my place, I’ve always really enjoyed being on it and even now as an adult if you’ve had a busy day at work or something going on in your life, I find that even just seeing the water is a good thing. It’s part of my life and I never want to see it out of it.”
Now that’s something we can completely relate to!
