Top Water Activities in Perth to Try Today

Updated January 2025

Once a month, Stand Up Paddle WA (SUPWA)  holds a Paddle Loop on a quiet stretch of the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River) about 20 km from the city centre.   A Paddle Loop is a self-motivated paddle where you nominate the time you think it will take to paddle either 2km or 4 km – the aim, is to get as close to your nominated time as possible.  I like to do it because it pushes me to paddle faster than I would if left to my own devices, tootling along gazing at wildlife, and I get to catch up with paddlers from other parts of Perth.

In the beginning

Standup paddle boarding has been at the core of my life for about five years. See what I did there?

I love the water, be it fresh, salty, or in between.  Being in and around the water is my happy place, and I worked my way through the whole gamut of floating and paddling devices before settling on my current ride, the stand up paddle board. 

Lay Low on a Lilo

It all started with a lilo.  Those people not from Tasmania might wonder what the heck I am on about.  The lilo was what we slept on when we went camping and then floated in the dam or creek when we weren’t sleeping. An air mattress – to the uninitiated.  They were always dark blue and red in colour and the pillow was a separate chamber.  We never had fancy foot pumps when we were kids; the lilo was blown up with your mouth with pauses for the dizziness to pass when you had blown out one too many times without inhaling.

The smell of a lilo was the smell of rubber and canvas – such a nostalgic stench.  I remember standing on the banks of a river with the lilo firmly gripped in my fists, holding the plugs in place.  Then taking a deep breath because I knew it was going to be bloody cold and slamming my stomach into the soft air cushion.  “Phwoomp” and the mattress would partially submerge causing a sharp intake of breath and the inevitable squeal.  The plugs, if you didn’t hold them in would sometimes expel with the force of the water, and down you would go.

Floating on a lilo is still on my list of top 5 things to do in the water.  These days I use one of those flocked air mattresses that display a warning “This is not to be used as a floatation device.” Why not?  It floats, and it’s comfortable.

The lilo was proceeded by several homemade structures we called rafts as kids.  Sticks, floating containers, and a shit load of string.  Most got us out into the middle of a dam or a creek and then slowly started to submerge.

Canoeing and surfing (in the wind and not)

I tried Canadian canoes – hired for a weekend of river exploration in my 20s.  Bulky and hard to manage, but a good ride nonetheless.

I dabbled in windsurfing – only to find that getting it up was one thing, keeping it up and moving forward was another.  Seeing as I learned to windsurf in Darwin Harbour, the thought of being taken and rolled by a saltwater croc kept me firmly glued to the board. Not to mention the box jellyfish that could seriously zap you during the wet season.

The only other water sport I attempted in the top end was a pumped up inner tube cast into the tumbling waters of the creek nicknamed “Tumbling Waters” about 40 km down the track from Darwin. The whole of Darwin converged on the creek at the beginning of the wet season when waters were high. Highly dangerous but so much fun!

My arrival in Perth some years later had me hankering to surf.  My newfound friends all surfed, and “How hard could it be?” Super hard, it turned out.  My attempts at body surfing ended with some hard knocks and a lot of sand in my knickers.  Big waves were not for me.  Riding a board on top of big waves proved too much for this Tassie girl from the bush.

I’d rather be sailing

I made some different friends – Uni students who lived in a share house in Nedlands.  One of the guys had a Hobie cat that we would take out on the river on Sundays, next to the old brewery before it became swanky apartments and expensive dining establishments. The Cat had a trapeze and we would get up to speed before hanging ourselves off the side – I loved those days.  Floundering around in the water avoiding the brown Swan River jellyfish and having absolutely no knowledge that bull sharks even existed! 

Row row row your boat

Rowing found me (or I found it) when my own kids were teenagers.  I answered an ad for “learn to row in 8 sessions” at the local rowing club, where we were taught how to scull and received a lot of shouted instructions from the shore.  Six months in, and I was the fittest I had ever been.  Up at 4:30 am three mornings a week.  A gruelling training timetable that included running, cycling, and rowing in order to compete at a state level.  Strangely, the shouting never stopped.  I loved it while I was doing it, and it took me all around the state but one can only handle being shouted at and living the life of an (elite?) athlete for so long. 

Kayaking (or birdwatching)

I left rowing and took up kayaking – the dark side (according to my rowing buddies). Kayaking was a more leisurely pursuit when I could take my camera and do bird-watching.  I found kayaks hard to load by myself, and the seats were not good for my lower back, so I slowly stopped carting the bulky craft to the river.  They occasionally came camping with us to Lane Pool – a lot of work for 30 minutes of paddling.

Standup Paddleboarding

I was without flotation devices for some time, and at the end of my long-distance running obsession that ended following a back injury that just wouldn’t go away, when a friend talked me into going standup paddling with her.  She had a spare board, and I am always game for anything.  A couple of sessions and I was hooked.  The boards were easy to load on my own, reasonably priced, and standing to paddle did my lower back a world of good.  Not to mention the core that everyone needs to mention when you say you are going SUP-ing.

I enrolled in some classes, and before too long, I was doing some fancy footwork and hardly falling in.  I have now just acquired my third (or is it my fourth board? – a Red Equipment 13’2″ Voyager inflatable touring board.  I love that I can cruise quietly along the river and still watch birds, or I can go fast and compete with other paddlers in the growing number of events available to standup paddlers.  And my core? Well, let’s just say I can crack walnuts.

My top 5 things to do in water (in no order)

1. Float in the ocean sans device

2. Float on a lilo – in any type of water

3. Paddleboard

4. Drink cocktails

5. Snorkel

What’s the skinny?

• Standup Paddleboarding is very popular in Perth. There are many suitable locations and groups to join.
• Standup Paddle WA hold a paddle loop every month at Ascot Kayak Club – see page for details.
• If you don’t have a paddle board there are a number of places you can hire one or grab a lesson: Suptonic Australia, SUP Central WA, Soulkite, Funcats Perth SUP School (some places may close for winter).
• It is advisable to have a lesson or two to ensure you have the right technique.
• Despite the cold, Winter is the best time to be out on the water