In recent years, SUP (Stand-Up Paddleboarding, also known as stand-up paddleboarding or paddle surfing) has been an outdoor marine sport activity that many tourists, especially young people, choose to experience when traveling to Da Nang. Thanks to this activity, Man Thai beach has become more vibrant, attracting more tourists with colorful SUPs.
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| Tourists gathered at the beach before SUPing on the occasion of April 30, 2024. Photo: HUY TUAN |
At 5am, when the sun is just rising, Man Thai beach has become a familiar destination for many tourists who love to explore and experience. Most of them are young people and foreign tourists from Korea, the US, Australia, etc. Here, tourists are instructed on the skills of using Sup to move on the sea, how to handle situations when being knocked into the water by waves. Knowing about Sup rowing activities at Da Nang beach through social networking sites, Mr. Tran Van Quang (a tourist from Hanoi) wanted to participate in this activity. Therefore, on this trip to Da Nang, he chose to experience the sea sport of Sup rowing. Mr. Quang expressed: “This is a completely new experience and discovery, bringing very interesting feelings of being immersed in nature, with cool, clear water; seeing and feeling better about the lives of local people in coastal areas from early morning. I hope Sup rowing becomes a more diverse and attractive sea tourism product”.
Mr. Nguyen Nhat Quang, Sup rowing coach of Ri Sup, said that Sup players are usually crowded on weekends, with an average of 30-40 customers each morning. According to Mr. Quang, some people already know how to play, some don't, so before customers take Sup to the sea, they are instructed on how to use it and handle situations. Although there are instructors who follow them to the rowing area, to ensure safety, players of this sport must wear full life jackets.
As one of the pioneers in bringing SUP rowing to Da Nang beach, Mr. Pham Anh Viet, the investor of Man Thai beach, shared that in the past, when SUP rowing at the beach had not yet flourished, and there were few businesses, customers were taken care of quite carefully in terms of services. However, in the past two years, this activity has flourished and developed spontaneously, so the infrastructure has been overloaded, such as on the occasion of April 30 and May 1, there were days on the beach with nearly 600 Sups with more than 1,000 players. When overloaded, the services will no longer be neat, poor customer care services will affect the quality of the service. Therefore, Mr. Viet is moving towards registering to establish the Man Thai SUP cooperative, including business units providing SUP rental services at Man Thai beach, with common regulations for SUP rowing activities to be methodical, ensuring safety for participants.
He hopes that SUP rowing will become a unique and distinctive tourism product of Da Nang beach. SUP rowing service providers do not simply rent SUP but also bring visitors experiences and attentive customer care services, so that visitors will remember and spread the word to their friends and relatives and return to Da Nang beach. “We hope that the city will soon have regulations or specific instructions for SUP rowing activities to ensure service quality, safety for visitors while playing, and create a healthy service business environment…”, said Mr. Viet.
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| SUP is becoming an indispensable experience for tourists when coming to Da Nang beach. Photo: THU HA |
Deputy Head of the Management Board of Son Tra Peninsula and Da Nang Tourist Beaches, Tran Dai Nghia, said that SUP rowing at Man Thai beach is a new sport introduced to Vietnam. Recently, most people participate in SUP rowing spontaneously, and there are no regulations to guide the management of this sport.
Up to now, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has not issued specific guidelines. Therefore, to ensure safety for the above activities, especially for Sup players, the management board has implemented some temporary regulations such as: specific Sup rowing activity time for each season, especially strictly prohibiting Sup rowing in bad weather, rough seas; Sup rowing business units must arrange a management trainer of no more than 3 Sups; require players to wear life jackets and row only in permitted areas; business units must sign a commitment, put up buoys, install anchors to distinguish Sup activity areas, and arrange for lifeguards to be on duty in the Sup rowing area. The management board regularly arranges forces and means to patrol, remind players as well as Sup business units to ensure safety.
THU HA
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