Carlo Raffa

Carlo Raffa is a blogger, stand-up paddleboard enthusiast, water lover and local to Brighton city in the South of England.

Paddle boarding is my escape and this is only the starting point. Being a larger guy at 260lbs I am finding it very good exercise as well, especially for building core muscles. This is something that believe it or not cycling 16 miles a day at 6 miles per hour doesn't seem to be doing.

Paddle Boarding allows me to just grab my board and walk right through the busy bar filled beachfront between the two piers in Brighton and head straight out of shore. It's not long before the shouting and cheering of our buzzing beach fade into just the lapping waves and the people to just small dots of the Brighton shoreline.

If you ever paddleboard in the ocean, you may need to keep sharks in the back of your mind the whole time you’re out on the water. Just like a surfer or scuba diver, shark awareness is key. Are you likely to be attacked by a shark on a paddleboard? Do sharks even go after …

If you are paddleboarding on a river, there will be a current of some form and if you go one way, you will at some point need to come back, often against the current. Also, on windy days the sea and even lakes can have a strong pull to them. Here are some simple tips …

One of the things that made you want to try stand-up paddle boarding was watching how quickly the riders could go. They glide along the cresting waves so effortlessly. That has you wondering, just how fast does a paddle board go? While it can vary, the speed of an average paddle board is between 3 …

The paddles you choose for your stand-up paddle boarding or SUP adventures matter. Even if you have an expensive paddle board, without equally proficient paddles, you’ll find you have great difficulty navigating on the water. One factor that may influence a shopping decision is whether your paddles float. Are they supposed to? Yes, paddle board …

It’s your dream to own a stand-up paddleboard or a SUP, but admittedly, your budget doesn’t quite allow for it yet. What you do have is a nice windsurfing board. You want to use this as a makeshift paddleboard, but you’ve heard mixed reviews. Can You Paddle Board on a Windsurf Board? You can paddleboard …

It’s not an easy question to answer, and at first, I just went for it and hired a stand-up paddleboard and went out in the sea on my own. The second time I went out, it was to have a paddleboard lesson. In the below article, I share with you my experience of my first …

It can be confusing to understand why paddleboards need fins, when some have only one fin and others could have up to have 4. I remember, my first paddleboard came with 3 fins, and it took me a while to understood where I may want to use all 3 instead of just one. This article …

It is possible to paddleboard without being able to swim. However, it is better if you can swim given how likely it is that you will fall off your board at some point, especially if you are a beginner. In this article, we will explore all the paddle boarding issues for non-swimmers and weak swimmers, …