How We're Unique
Learn how we’re unique and offer the highest value and professional SUP instruction in the Pacific Northwest.
How We’re Unique
- Owner Rob Casey will work with all body types, ages and skill levels from beginners to advanced ages 10 and up. Good balance or fitness not required.
- Strong focus on safety. Rob requires that all students wear a vest style lifejacket and leash. Rob is trained in all aspects of paddling, rescue, marine weather and boating navigation so you have the best experience possible.
- Most lessons and tours are private individual and small groups so you receive the most attention and highest level of instruction possible.
- High Instructor to Student Ratio. 2:6 for flat water and 2:4 for surf, river and open water classes and tours. Rob’s co-instructors assist on large classes to provide more safety and personalized instruction.
- Rob’s instructors are all PSUPA certified and each are competent in flat water to surf and rivers / current.
- Rob provides high quality equipment from Imagine, Amundsen, MTI, NorthWater, RipCurl, O’Neill, NRS, Accent, Werner Paddles and Gath helmets
- Salmon Bay Paddle is open all year. Fall, Winter and Spring all offer amazing paddling opportunities from flat water to surf and downwinding.
Fun Classes & Events
- Learn Freighter & Tug Wave surfing in Seattle Spring to early Fall.
- Rob and his partner Christy started the Ballard Elks Monday Night Race Series in 2011 which donates all proceeds to the Elks Scholarship Fund at the end of the season.
- Rob offers PSUPA Instructor Training and certification courses plus staff training and SUP business consulting.
- Rob supports the community by offering SUP races throughout the year that benefit various charities like the MS Society, Heroes on the Water and the Ballard Elks Lodge #827 Scholarship Fund.
- Learn how to paddle in the Pacific Northwest’s most beautiful places like Deception Pass, Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Alumni Benefits
- Rob’s weekly newsletter provides SUP tips, Salish Sea environmental news and updates on classes and tours. Join the newsletter below.
- The SBP alumni Facebook page is an opportunity for alumni to connect and to provide info on last minute clinics and paddles.
- Alumni receive discounts classes and training
- Rob stays follows up with a Class Summary and tips for improvement after each class.
- Alumni receive free access to Rob’s online courses for the level they’re learning and/or class taken.
Environmental Support
- Rob has a strong environmental commitment supporting several organizations such as the Washington Water Trails Association, Puget SoundKeeper, Stand4GreatBear, Washington Coast Savers, Braided River and the North Olympic Land Trust.
- Follow Rob’s SBP Instagram page @salmonbaypaddle which often profiles his Puget Sound and Strait of Juan de Fuca beach clean-ups.
“My boyfriend and I took the SUP Basics class with Rob. He was super informative, patient, and a great teacher overall. With the COVID-19 pandemic going on, I really appreciated the extra steps he took to make sure we were all properly distanced and safe.
Rob provided good, no-nonsense advice from buying a board to making sure you’re not an idiot on the water. Highly recommended.”
“Just like the other reviewers, I can’t say enough positive things about my experience with Rob of Salmon Bay Paddlers. With COVID preventing my other sport, I’ve been paddle boarding a lot lately on Lake Sammamish. I’ve only done rec paddle boarding on holidays before so I wanted to check out formal training so that I could improve my skills and feel safe going out on the Sound or other larger, busier bodies of water that I’m far less familiar with.
Rob is a wealth of information, I’m a rower so I have some water skills but not others and he was perfect at covering what I needed and skipping past what I already knew. He answered a variety of my questions about everything from currents to wetsuits to boards to racing.
I walked away feeling he’s not only the expert but he really loves both paddle boarding itself as well as helping others enjoy paddle boarding. I can’t wait to sign up for more training from him.”